How to properly store garlic at home in an apartment in winter until spring

Garlic is a fairly popular product that is an ingredient in many dishes. Due to its healing properties, it is also often used in medical practice.

Inhaltsübersicht

The benefits of garlic for health

Candidate of Medical Sciences, therapist at the Hadassah Clinic branch in Skolkovo

“The use of garlic and its use for medical purposes dates back more than 3,000 years.”

Modern medicine uses garlic and preparations from it for therapeutic purposes. Mechanical crushing of this product produces an organic compound-allicin, sulfoxide, which has a pronounced bactericidal and antifungal effect. The product also contains valuable vitamins and minerals, such as sulfur.

Its compounds activate the enzymatic apparatus of the liver, responsible for the neutralization of toxic substances and their subsequent excretion from the body.

Today it is recommended to include garlic in the diet of patients with high blood pressure, bad cholesterol and triglycerides, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, toxic hepatitis, as well as people who are often sick with ARVI (acute respiratory viral infection). Use the vegetable and choleretic purpose, for the prevention of chronic fatigue, degenerative changes in the brain.

Contraindications

There are also restrictions. It is undesirable to eat garlic in patients with exacerbations of gastritis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer, as well as people who are diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Choosing the right garlic for storage

Garlic will bring the most health benefits when consumed fresh. This way, it retains more of its beneficial substances. In pickled and baked garlic, their number decreases.

Also quite well preserves macro- and macro-elemental composition of garlic in dried form.

It is very important to properly select garlic for storage. It should be intact heads without mold and signs of fusariosis – a fungal disease of vegetables. It looks like “transparent” slices.

To prepare garlic for storage, you need to follow certain rules:

First, you need to separate the heads from the stems. This can be done either by hand, or with a knife or kitchen scissors. It is better to remove about five centimeters from the head – this will avoid damage to the lobes.
Then it is necessary to clean garlic from the soil and dry peeling scales. Do it delicately, with your hands.
After the garlic is cleaned of soil and dry leaves, it must be dried. You can do this in a warm and dry room.

For long-term storage, you need to select only healthy heads, with tightly adhering to each other lobes.

Proper storage conditions

The best place to store garlic is a dark, cool room with humidity of 50-70%. Higher humidity promotes rotting of vegetables. If the air is too dry and the temperature is high, garlic dries out and loses juiciness. Therefore, you need to find a place where it will be cool and dry.

There are two ways of storage:

cold, at a temperature of -1°C to -3°C;
warm, at temperatures from +18°C to +22°C.

As explained by experts Rosselkhoznadzor, in the temperature range from +1 ° C to +16 ° C for garlic are the most favorable conditions for germination. Temperatures above or below can suspend these processes.

In the conditions of a city apartment, a small amount of garlic can be kept in the refrigerator, in the department for vegetables, preferably in paper or cloth bags. If the product is a lot, it is recommended to store it on an insulated balcony, or in a dry pantry, or in any room closer to the floor, away from heating radiators (this does not apply to apartments and houses equipped with warm floors).

As noted in Rosselkhoznadzor, the vegetable preserves its properties well in the following containers:

wicker baskets;
plastic, wooden or cardboard boxes with perforations;
glass, but not lidded jars.

The main thing is that the chosen container should have good air circulation.

Long-term storage

Even if all the rules of storage are observed, there is a risk of spoilage of garlic. If you have purchased a large amount of the vegetable or you had a good harvest, then you can think about methods of long-term storage.

Canning. There are many ways of canning garlic – it is pickled, salted, sour. Store the vegetable in this form in sterilized jars in a cool place.

For example, garlic can be poured with ordinary vegetable oil, well heated. Or prepare a marinade using salt, sugar and table vinegar.

Drying. This is another effective method for long-term storage. Garlic is peeled, cut into slices and dried either naturally, or in an oven, or in an electric dryer. Such seasoning can be stored in glass jars in a cool and dry place.

What is fraught with the use of garlic with violation of storage conditions

If you took out garlic and when cleaning saw signs of lesions with mold fungi, then definitely should not use this product fresh for food. Anaida Buchina explains that such mold can contain toxins and, as a consequence, cause poisoning and allergic reactions.

If the lesion is insignificant, then the spoiled areas can be removed. In the future, such slices can be used in food only after heat treatment.