2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Dates are an incredibly healthy product, especially a favorite of healthy eating enthusiasts. And in the Middle East, these attractive fruits are equated with bread: hospitable Arabs greet them as a sign of respect for the most honored guests. Fortunately, dates can now be easily found on our counters as well. The most important thing is to learn how to choose and store them correctly. However, this is not at all difficult to do, especially if you know some of the subtleties
How to choose?
Good quality ripe dates should have a uniform dark brown color and a uniform shade. If the dates are light, then they are not mature enough. In naturally dried fruits, the skin should not have visible cracks - the presence of such indicates a hasty drying in the oven. By the way, oven-dried dates often have a fried aftertaste and are too dark and flaky. And their sticky consistency promotes adhesion to the teeth while chewing. Recognizing such fruits is not so difficult - dates that have been dried in an oven almost always caked in packages into a single layer.
Before you start choosing dates, you need to carefully look at their appearance - all fruits should be moderately soft and whole, and their surface must be matte. Good dates should not be greasy or sticky to the touch, and even more so in no case should they be easily smeared with your fingers.
Excessively wrinkled dates with a slight aroma of fermentation are definitely not worth taking - as a rule, such fruits have been in the store for a very long time or were not sufficiently dried. And the sticky fruits, the surfaces of which are dotted with numerous sugar crystals, indicate that the dates were treated with syrup. Sometimes they are also treated with fat - in this case, the dates shine noticeably.
The best dates are those with seeds. Firstly, such fruits are much less exposed to all kinds of treatments, and secondly, they contain much more various useful substances.
How to store?
The best way to store dates is to store them in the refrigerator in a container with tight-fitting lids: the lids will reliably protect the fruits from absorbing extraneous odors. Both plastic containers and glass jars are perfect for storing dates. In this form, dates are perfectly preserved for two to three months. If you put them in the freezer, then there they can last up to five years!
And if the dates are not planned to be stored for too long, then you can simply put them in an airtight container and transfer them to a cool place.
In the event that you were suddenly lucky enough to get not dried, but fresh dates, they must be folded into a paper bag and must be placed in the refrigerator. Sufficiently fresh unwashed fruits can easily lie in such conditions for up to two months - throughout this period they can be gradually removed from the package and eaten.
Do dates need to be washed?
Before you start feasting on sweet dates, it is recommended to wash them, because it is possible that they were soaked in syrup or were subjected to extremely undesirable chemical processing.
The benefits of dates
Dates are an excellent remedy for diseases of the eyes or blood, as well as for nervous disorders and overwork. Moreover, they are able to significantly reduce the risk of cancer. Moreover, these cute fruits are great helpers in the prevention of colds and for strengthening the immune system.
Dates are especially beneficial for pregnant women - these wonderful fruits contain substances that strengthen the muscles of the uterus and significantly facilitate the process of childbirth. Dates will also provide invaluable help to nursing mothers - their excellent vitamin composition has a very beneficial effect on their emotional state, saving women who have recently given birth from extremely undesirable postpartum depression.
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