Why potatoes are sweet and what you can do. What to do if potatoes are frozen on the balcony

Pipes 06.12.2021

Pipes

Even if the first autumn frosts strike suddenly, much earlier than usual, this does not mean that the un-dug potatoes are frozen. The soil cools down much more slowly than air. With a sharp cold snap, the difference between air and soil temperatures can be up to 10 ° C.

At what temperature does potato freeze

Tubers begin to freeze when they are in the ground for at least 4-5 hours at a temperature of -1.7 ° C or below. The method of growing affects the rate of spoilage of root crops: the looser the soil in the garden bed, the slower it freezes and the better it protects the tubers from frost. The most effective protection is mulch. They even plant potatoes in mulched beds before winter.

Mulch perfectly protects potatoes from freezing

So early frosts will not harm the potatoes, but when they come with the harvest, it is better to hurry up. Already at 0 ° C, the starch in the tubers begins to transform into sugars, the taste and keeping quality of root crops deteriorate.

If the potatoes are frozen in the ground, it is better to dig them up in the fall: firstly, perhaps not all tubers are hopelessly spoiled and some can be saved, and secondly, a large number of root crops in the soil in spring will attract all pests from the surrounding areas.

Freezing potatoes during storage

When storing potatoes on an unheated balcony or garage, there is often a danger of freezing vegetables. The condition of the tubers depends on the air temperature in the storage:

at temperatures from +2 to +5 ° C, potatoes retain their taste, at a higher temperature, they germinate prematurely and begin to wither;
from 0 to +1 ° C, short-term drops to -1 ° C, starch begins to split, over time a sweet taste appears;
potatoes freeze at temperatures of -1.7 ° C and below, acquiring a pronounced sweet taste. When the temperature rises, frozen tubers begin to rot, intended for planting - they lose their germination.

To prevent the potatoes from freezing, the cellars are insulated. In unheated garages and on closed balconies, special boxes with a foam layer are installed, the tubers are covered with warm clothes on top. This usually helps if the outside temperature does not drop below -5 ° C. In regions with harsh winters, make or purchase an electrically heated potato storage box in advance.

Frozen potatoes after defrosting quickly begin to rot

Use options for frozen potatoes

Although potatoes freeze at -1.7 ° C, tubers that have been kept indoors at 0 ° C for a long time also become slightly sweet. To restore the taste of such potatoes, it is enough to hold them for 10-14 days in a darkened drawer in the kitchen.

If the tubers have been in the cold for a long time, then after defrosting they quickly become lethargic and begin to rot. Therefore, defrost them only as needed.

Frozen potatoes, despite their unusual taste, are quite edible and nutritious. If the farm has pets (pigs, cows, rabbits), the potatoes can be fed to them.

In addition, there are two more options for using frozen tubers:

chop and add to the mash. Frozen potatoes contain a lot of sugar, so they are suitable for making moonshine. True, the quality and smell of the drink leaves much to be desired, it contains a lot of fusel oils, and in unrefined form it is suitable only for external use;
eat.

Features of cooking dishes with frozen potatoes

In the old days, when they talked about difficult times, they said that they had to eat frozen potatoes. However, now peeled, neatly chopped potatoes are sold in supermarkets. Manufacturers recommend defrosting it very quickly. Regular frozen potatoes should be cooked in the same way.

Frozen tubers are easy to peel: if you hold them for a few seconds in warm water, the peel comes off like a film. Immediately after that, the potatoes, preventing them from defrosting naturally, must be dipped in boiling water or, cut into pieces, into hot vegetable oil.

Products that can neutralize an unpleasant aftertaste:

tomatoes and tomato paste;
sour cream;
sauerkraut or cabbage.

First meal

Frozen potatoes boil quickly, so it is recommended to cook them separately and add them to soups 5-10 minutes before being cooked. If the sweet taste is too pronounced, add 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar to the water when cooking potatoes. The unusual taste is practically not felt in cabbage soup with sauerkraut, pickle, borscht with tomatoes or tomato paste.

Second courses and snacks

The taste of frozen potatoes is leveled in vinaigrette, salads with pickles, sauerkraut, mushrooms. For dressing, mayonnaise, mustard, unrefined vegetable oil with vinegar and spices are used.

Frozen potatoes will not puree, but small potatoes (or large ones cut into 2-3 pieces) can be baked in the oven. Peeled tubers are thrown into boiling water with vinegar, after 7-10 minutes the water is drained. The potatoes are laid out in one row on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil, they are also greased on top, sprinkled with salt and spices, and placed in a heated oven. To make the crust on the potatoes thicker, scrub the surface with a fork before greasing. The dish goes well with smoked sausages, sour cream-onion or tomato-onion gravy.

Also, undercooked potatoes are cut into slices, fried and added to stews, baked in pots with meat, onions, beans and tomato sauce.

Salty baked goods

Mashed boiled potatoes with onions, buckwheat and, optionally, cracklings - a popular filling for pies and dumplings, a base for casseroles.

Approximate proportions:

0.5 kg of boiled mashed potatoes;
1 glass of buckwheat;
3 large onions.

Buckwheat is poured with boiling water and left for 3-4 hours to swell. Then buckwheat is mixed with potatoes, fried onions, the mass is salted and pepper. To improve the taste, add 2-3 tablespoons of cracklings. Now the mass can be used as a filling for an open pie, pouring on top with a mixture of 50 g of mayonnaise, 50 g of tomato sauce or homemade adjika, 2 eggs and 100 g of grated cheese.

If a casserole is prepared, then the top and bottom are made from potato-buckwheat mass, and fried mushrooms with onions or stewed cabbage are placed inside. The top is watered with tomato-mayonnaise filling with egg and grated cheese.

Draniki

To bake potato pancakes from frozen potatoes, you need to grind them very quickly in a blender, otherwise the potato mass will become sticky, "rubbery".

Proportions for potato pancakes:

2 large potatoes;
2 large onions;
1 tablespoon sour cream;
3-4 eggs;
3-5 tablespoons of flour;
salt, pepper - to taste.

desserts

Potatoes go well with cottage cheese. Curd and potato casseroles are lush and juicy.

Proportions:

500 g of cottage cheese;
200 g boiled potatoes;
4 eggs;
lemon;
sugar to taste, optional raisins, vanilla sugar.

Many of us, in order to save money, or for health reasons, buy whole bags of potatoes in the fall.

Someone in the country has a small area prepared for planting potatoes. In any case, if there is a storage room for vegetables, the option to eat natural products all winter, without overpaying in the winter in a supermarket, attracts many.

It is not known what is now being sold in stores and where vegetables and fruits are brought from. And by buying a bag of potatoes in a neighboring village, or collecting them from your garden, you can be sure that there are no harmful additives in it. Room for vegetables. If there is a good basement, an insulated balcony, where the potatoes will lie at the optimum temperature all winter, then this is an additional incentive to think over this issue in the fall. Saving. If you harvest from your land in the country, then you pay only for fertilization (most often it is natural manure), and, if there are no potatoes left since the last time, for seeds with sprouts. And when you buy a bag of potatoes, in any case it will cost several times cheaper than small bags several times a week from supermarkets.

Fired up with the idea to save money and buy potatoes and other vegetables for the whole winter, many simply take them out to the balcony. And they forget that our Russian winter is unpredictable. And not all have well-insulated cellars, balconies and basements. Result: The potatoes are frozen. Some will immediately say that you need to throw it out, that it will now be unfit for eating: soft and sweet. There is logic in these words. The fact is that potatoes freeze if the air temperature drops below 0 ° C. The optimum air temperature in the room where potatoes are stored is 3-5 ° C. Above 8оС - sprouts appear. When the air gets too cold, the enzymes in the potato convert the starch into sugars. That is why it becomes sweet.

What if the potatoes are frozen? The potatoes were kept at a low temperature for a long time (from 0 to 3 ° C). The process of transition of starch into sugar has already begun, but when the tubers are transferred to a warm room, sucrose will turn back into starch. It will take 5 to 8 days. The quality of the vegetable will remain the same. Sudden freezing of potatoes. This is a little more complicated. All the pulp is already frozen and such potatoes cannot be taken to a warm place. It will become soft, slippery and you will no longer want to eat it. Therefore, for cooking, take the required amount of potatoes from the balcony (basement), and leave the rest unchanged.

There are several tips for properly defrosting potatoes without changing their taste: from the storage places of the potatoes, take the amount of root vegetables that are immediately used. It sinks into hot water (about 50-60 ° C). Watching how the potato peel begins to thaw and becomes easy to peel. Peel and add immediately to the cooking dish. The taste of such defrosting potatoes does not change. This is how frozen potatoes are prepared by the peoples of the Far North. The required amount of frozen potatoes is taken from storage. Immersed in cold water for 5 minutes. Then the peel is peeled, and the potatoes are cut in half and dipped in cold water again. The whole procedure takes about 30 minutes. Such potatoes can not only be boiled, added to soup, but also fried. The only negative is that it becomes a little dry due to the lack of starch. How to remove excess sweetness from frozen potatoes? To do this, again, the required number of tubers is taken and immersed in cold water for 5-10 minutes. Then it is peeled, cut into pieces and boiled in boiling water with vinegar. 1 tablespoon of vinegar per liter of water. The potatoes are cooked until tender, then drained. Now it can be added to the soup, the main course. But unfortunately, the sweetness will not disappear at all. It can be added to sauerkraut cabbage soup or borscht - there it will give them a special piquancy.

Frozen potatoes, while they have not yet thawed, grate. Add flour, egg and form patties. Salt, seasonings to taste. Fry on both sides in a pan, and delicious pancakes are ready! Spices and herbs will help to disguise the sweetness of potatoes: salt, bay leaf, allspice, dill, parsley. Mayonnaise-sour cream sauce, grated carrots will do. Frozen root vegetables will make delicious homemade french fries. Children need to appreciate. Despite your best efforts, potatoes still taste sweet and unpleasant to eat? Get rid of stocks. If there is a lot of potatoes and it is simply a pity to throw them away - give them to livestock farms for feed to pigs, cows, horses. And the next time, before storing potatoes, insulate the room in accordance with all the rules so that there is no such problem in the future.

Very often, residents of multi-storey buildings save vegetables on the balcony, this is especially true in winter, when the temperature there is optimal and contributes to long-term preservation. But if a fierce winter is raging outside the window, and the temperature drops to exorbitant values, then even the best glazing will not cope with it, then there is a risk that all your reserves will begin to freeze. This is especially true when potatoes are injured on the balcony, and very often it freezes all over there, what to do with it then?

How to understand that the potatoes are frozen

If frosts hit, and your balcony absolutely cannot cope with them, and you suspect that the potatoes stored there are frozen, you should check this. But how do you do it? There are two options for the development of events, the first, when the potatoes are frozen, and the second, when they just froze.

The first option is very easy to check, you just need to bring the potatoes indoors for one to two hours, and then try to cut them. If everything went smoothly without difficulty, and the potatoes remain in their normal color in the middle, then everything is in order.

In order for the crop to be stored much longer, it must be stored in complete darkness.

If it was difficult to cut, then leave the potatoes to freeze for a longer period, about six hours. After that, take one potato, cut into several pieces and boil for half an hour. If it takes on a sweetish taste, then your potatoes are completely frozen.

Can I eat frozen potatoes

There are many different theories, some experts claim that such a product is absolutely harmless and suitable for food, others say that in the process of being torn apart, potatoes release toxic substances and can no longer be consumed.

So which of this is true? Of course, there are no poisons in potatoes, the most common fructose and sucrose, which will give an unusual sweetish taste to cooked food, begin to stand out from it.

Frozen potatoes do not carry any harm to the body and no harmful substances are formed in it at all. So, if you are not embarrassed by the fact that the potatoes will be sweet, you can safely eat them.

What to do with frozen fruit

If suddenly more than one hundred kilograms of potatoes were stored on your balcony and after severe frosts it was all frozen, do not despair there are ways to fix it, of course, they do not always work, but even if the situation is not corrected, spoiled potatoes can be used practically without loss. So, let's look at the option of correcting the situation and returning the potato to its original position.

Tip 1: Culling and cleaning

First, select as many potatoes from the total frozen quantity as you can eat at one time. Potatoes must be immediately immersed in hot water, the temperature of which is between forty and sixty degrees Celsius.

Remove the top layer, sort the tubers, wash them thoroughly and dry them. You need to dry in the dark, the potatoes should not be cramped.

This way, the top layer will thaw pretty quickly and you can clean it up quite easily. After peeling, potatoes should be immediately used to prepare the planned meal. Having done everything quickly and correctly, the sweetish aftertaste should not appear, so you can cook potatoes without fear.

Tip 2: For feeding livestock

If the potatoes are too frozen, and the sweetness still appears, then it can be used in other areas, such as feeding livestock, making moonshine, or making homemade potato starch, which will always come in handy in the household and in the kitchen.

Tip 3: Culinary recipes

If you have never tried eating frozen potatoes, do not be afraid, first try a dish made from such ingredients, and then draw your final conclusions. Many people like to eat just such a potato, because of its sweetish taste, which makes the dishes unusual. Simply put, dishes made from frost-bitten potatoes are an amateur and should not be completely written off from the bills.

There are many recipes from frozen potatoes: you can make dranniki or cook in uniforms.

If the potatoes are not too frozen, but you are still worried about their quality, pancakes are the best dish in this case. Having fried potatoes well, they will not change their original taste at all and the dish should turn out to be quite tasty and satisfying.

Such potatoes can be baked in the oven, then the sweetish taste will completely disappear.

Also, if you want to make soup or borscht from such ingredients, then the potatoes in it will be too soft and for an uninformed person this may seem an unusual phenomenon.

If you want to fry such potatoes, then there is a risk that it will turn black very quickly and completely lose its pleasant taste and become unpleasant. This is possible if the frostbite was too strong or there were mistakes in the cooking process.

Dip the frozen fruit for a minute in cold water, then in boiling water, to which a little vinegar has been added.

One of the conditions that is fundamental when eating frozen potatoes is the time it is torn apart. The most important thing is not to do so that thawing will be slow, but to speed up this process as much as possible.

If slow thawing has not occurred, then the enzymes that are in the potato do not have time to completely break down and the starch does not go into the sugar state. This method of storing potatoes is used in the north, where it is kept completely frozen, and during cooking, it is allowed to thaw a little to peel the skin, and then boiled immediately.

Watching the video: Potato recipes, master class

The sweetness from frozen potatoes cannot be removed.

And, you can use it if you make various sweet dishes from it, mainly baked goods. For instance:

cinnamon, lemon peel, soda, salt.

Remove the sweet taste of potatoes

You can try not only WHEN cooking, but BEFORE cooking potato dishes. To do this, peel the frozen potatoes, soak them in water. Potatoes should be kept in water for at least an hour. It is better to cut it: if for soup, then in small cubes, if for frying, then in circles, semicircles or straws. Soaking potatoes will not bring any particular benefit, although what benefit can we talk about, since it is still frozen?

But the sweet taste must still disappear.

★★★★★★★★★

The sweetish aftertaste of frozen potatoes does not need to be removed. The main thing is to have time to eat it before it starts to rot. And slightly sweet potatoes are tasty enough ...)

I have the same story. We bought the most delicious potatoes this year. We did everything as expected. The sack of potatoes was washed, dried and stored in a cool place - on a glazed and insulated balcony.

But! We missed the temperature difference - during severe frosts. Didn't notice when "0" degrees formed on the balcony. Only then they transferred the potatoes to a warm room. And - this was the main mistake ...

Conclusion: if the potatoes are already frozen, all manipulations are useless. And the storage temperature should not be changed. Better to leave it in the same place.

By the way, the sweetish taste of potatoes does not spoil the dishes prepared from it ...

After all, we are happy to eat fast food potatoes ...

And she is only frozen. Is always…)

★★★★★★★★★★

Removing the sweet taste from potatoes is quite simple.

To do this, boil the potatoes and change the water at least three times during cooking. This will almost completely remove the sweetish taste of the potatoes.

Unfortunately, sweet potatoes will not work for other dishes (such as frying or baking).

I don’t know if the above tips helped you, but you CANNOT remove the sweetish taste from frozen potatoes.

It can only be suppressed by using it along with some other food. For example, if you make pancakes from frozen potatoes, the dough of which is mixed with pepper, salt, onions and garlic, then it turns out very tasty. If you decide to make mashed potatoes from such potatoes, then do not be lazy to add onions fried in vegetable oil to it, as well as carrots.

Frozen potatoes will not spoil the taste of the soup either.

The sweetness from frozen potatoes cannot be removed. And, you can use it if you make various sweet dishes from it, mainly baked goods.

For instance:
SWEET POTATO DONUTS.
Peel the potatoes, boil, mince. Add salt, egg, butter or vegetable oil, sugar, flour and mix thoroughly. Mix the yeast with sweetened warm milk and a tablespoon of flour, leave to rise, then mix with the prepared potato mass. Prepare a tough dough and leave to rise for 1 hour. On a table greased with vegetable oil, roll out the dough 1 cm thick, cut into circles with a glass and fry in vegetable oil on both sides. Discard on a sieve, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve with tea.
5 pieces. potatoes, 1 egg, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of sugar, 1.5 cups of vegetable oil, 20 g of fresh yeast, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of milk, 1.5 cups of flour, powdered sugar, salt.
POTATO PIE WITH APPLE.
Boil potatoes, peel, mash. Peel the apples, grate on a coarse grater, mix with potatoes, add the mashed egg with sugar, butter, salt, soda, cinnamon, lemon zest and flour. Stir all this thoroughly, put in a cake pan, grease it well beforehand and bake for about 1 hour in a well-heated oven.
4 things. potatoes, 4 apples, 1 egg, 2 tbsp. spoons of oil, 7 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar, 3/4 cup flour, 1 teaspoon
cinnamon, lemon peel, soda, salt.

We love these dishes very much, and you may also like them, Good luck!

To get rid of the sweet taste of frozen potatoes, you can soak them. Only this method will not remove the sweetness, and it will also make the potatoes useless, since many minerals pass into the water when soaked. Such as potassium, for example. Therefore, in order to remove the sweetness, it is better to add a tablespoon of vinegar to the cooking water.

This method helps to achieve the familiar taste of the potatoes.

Or this way. Peel the potatoes, cut the tubers in half, put in a baking dish (cast iron or ceramic pot), salt (by eye), cover tightly and put in the oven / oven without water. The pot contains only potatoes sprinkled with salt. Potatoes should languish for no more than an hour. Then you need to take out the pot, open the lid and let the potatoes "breathe". It is already ready and not so sweet. The lid should be heavy and tight to the pan.

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