Often the potatoes kept in the apartment quickly rot. It depends on how and where the tubers are kept. Is it possible to store potatoes in the refrigerator? I suggest you find out right now.
Potatoes in the fridge?
Experienced owners probably know that not all vegetables should be stored in the cold. For example, onions, garlic and... potatoes. Cold, of course, allows you to preserve the beneficial qualities of products, but sometimes it is harmful.
How long do boiled potatoes last in the refrigerator? Ready tubers should be eaten within two days. As for raw potatoes, if you brought the potatoes home and intend to use them within a week, nothing bad will happen to them.
4 warnings
Storing potatoes in the refrigerator has a number of features that make it difficult to maintain:
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Caveat 1
The starch in tubers turns into sugar at low temperatures. This gives the product a sweet taste. |
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Caveat 2
High humidity in the refrigerator leads to rapid rotting of root crops. |
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Caveat 3
As a rule, in order not to dirty the refrigerator, vegetables are stored in plastic bags. This is not true - potatoes need to breathe, otherwise they begin to rot. |
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Caution 4
Potatoes will take up a lot of space. |
To store potatoes in a cold place, you can create favorable conditions with your own hands by turning refrigerated containers into special ones, pouring sawdust into the space between the walls or laying polystyrene foam.
The outside of the box is lined with linoleum or plastic to prevent moisture penetration. Before putting them in a box, the tubers must be sorted and dried.
Rules for preparation and bookmarking:
- Early varieties cannot be stored until winter. They are not intended for long-term storage, so they will quickly deteriorate: they will sprout and wither.
- Before storing in the refrigerator, the tubers should be kept in a warm room for several days.
- Potatoes can be stored with beets. The beets will absorb excess moisture, which will slow down the emergence of sprouts and prevent rotting.
- Place dried mint leaves at the bottom of the refrigerator drawer - this will prevent early sprouting.
- You can put a few apples between the tubers. This also prevents germination.
Storing tubers in the apartment
Preparing potatoes in the summer is only half the battle. To preserve the beneficial and tasteful qualities of tubers, special conditions must be maintained. The ideal room is a cellar. But not everyone has it.
Appropriate place
At what temperature should potatoes be stored? The vegetable needs a special room to be kept, and the apartment has a number of places suitable for storing it. Apartments often have convenient storage rooms, balconies and dark closets.
Where to keep potatoes in the apartment:
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Pantry
This should be a room that does not receive sunlight and receives minimal heat. |
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Balcony
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Closet
It will be most convenient to place the potatoes in baskets or boxes with ventilation. It is recommended to place them in dark closets, close to the cold, or in hallways. |
Long-term storage: 3 conditions
From summer to February - March, the tubers begin their dormant time, which must be ensured with the correct preservation regime. It is based on illumination, temperature and humidity:
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Condition 1. Temperature
The ideal temperature for keeping most varieties of vegetables is from +2 °C to +4 °C. |
Probably every person asked himself the question of how to store potatoes in an apartment. Of course, the ideal option would be to store potatoes in a cellar, but even in urban housing conditions you can find a place for root vegetables.
Preparation for storage
If the potatoes were collected on your own plot, then after harvesting the tubers are recommended to be dried in the sun for several hours. Firstly, this will significantly reduce the risk of their subsequent rotting, and secondly, the stuck earth will be separated much easier. When choosing potatoes in a store, you should remember that they should be medium in size and without any damage or disease visible to the naked eye. Later varieties of potatoes are optimal for storage, and those that ripen early can last until November - early December at most.
Potatoes are sorted, damaged tubers are used for food first, since they will not survive long-term home storage. You should not wash the potatoes before storing them; you just need to shake off the stuck soil from the tubers.
How to store?
It is recommended to give the potatoes a kind of preventative period for a couple of weeks to a month, during which all previously undetected diseases usually appear. During this period, the tubers should be stored in a well-ventilated place and inspected regularly.
Storing potatoes requires good ventilation, so you can pack potatoes either in fabric bags or in boxes with holes. You should not use polyethylene - the tubers in it quickly become damp, mold and rot. For the same reason, it is not recommended to keep the tubers in the refrigerator for a long time. To protect against all kinds of pests, it is recommended to put aromatic herbs in a bag or box for storing potatoes - rowan leaves or sedum, twigs of wormwood, etc.
At what temperature and humidity should potatoes be stored?
Like many other vegetables, potatoes do not like heat. It should only be stored in a cool place as far as possible from heating appliances. At home, this may be an unheated balcony or loggia, pantry, hallway, but not a refrigerator.
At what temperature should potatoes be stored? Although it should be quite low (5-6 degrees), it still should not fall below zero.
To absorb accumulated moisture, potatoes are laid out with thoroughly dried straw, sawdust, or beets are placed with them. But storing potatoes with other vegetables is not advisable.
Why is low potato storage temperature so important? With it, all life processes in tubers slow down. Once there is strong warming, the potatoes will begin to sprout, their respiration will become more intense, as a result of which the tubers will lose moisture and become flabby. Therefore, it is imperative to maintain optimal storage conditions at home – 3-4 degrees Celsius and humidity within 85-90%.
It will be easier to maintain comfortable temperature conditions during storage if you put a thermometer in the box with it.
How to store potatoes on the balcony in winter
If the balcony is unheated, then in severe cold weather outside the frost can reach the potatoes. How to properly store potatoes in this case? To prevent it from freezing, bags or boxes can be wrapped in an old cotton blanket. Some people warm up the boxes with tubers with electric lamps or a hairdryer. The latter not only warms the potatoes, but also provides additional ventilation.
If severe frosts occur in the region for a couple of days throughout the winter, then such storage of potatoes is, of course, possible. But if the cold lasts for months, these methods will be uneconomical.
The best way to store potatoes on the balcony in winter is to build double-layer containers for them. To do this, you need two boxes of different sizes, where one of them should be at least 15-20 cm smaller than the second in length, width and height. At the bottom of a larger box, either sawdust or even any artificial insulation, except mineral wool, should be poured, since its small particles can get into the potatoes. Next, a smaller box is placed inside; the gaps between the walls of the two boxes are sealed with the same sawdust or other insulation. The top of the structure is covered with an old blanket or just a thick cloth. In such boxes, storing potatoes is possible even when exposed to frost of 10-15 degrees.
Other conditions
It is equally important that the tubers are not exposed to light - in addition to the fact that this causes them to begin to sprout, they also produce the toxic substance solanine, the appearance of which is easy to notice - the potatoes begin to turn green. You shouldn’t throw away the entire potato because of this, but you will need to cut off the green layer before eating it.
At the end of winter - beginning of spring, potatoes often begin to sprout eyes. And so that all the nutrients from the tubers do not go into them, these sprouts must be removed.
Mint is considered an effective remedy against potato sprouting during storage - its dry leaves are poured into bags or boxes with tubers.
It is better to store potatoes in the apartment in small portions. Then it will be much more convenient to inspect the potatoes for safety, and if they go bad in one box, the rest will not suffer.
Each potato storage box should be located at least on a slight elevation from the floor (15-20 cm), and should not be pushed close to the walls.
Can it be stored in the refrigerator?
Small stocks of potatoes are often sent to refrigerator drawers. As a rule, they are quickly eaten, and nothing has time to happen to the tubers. But is it permissible to store potatoes in the refrigerator for a long time? No no no. There are several reasons for this.
- Too much space will be taken up in the refrigerator; there simply won’t be any space left for other products.
- The temperature in the refrigerator is usually below 5-6 degrees, and under these conditions, potato starch breaks down into sugars, and the potatoes become sweet. Not fatal, but not pleasant.
- The refrigerator is a closed space. Even though it is opened several times a day, this does not provide adequate ventilation and the potatoes quickly become soggy.
As you can see, storing potatoes in an apartment is not at all difficult. The main thing is to create suitable conditions for it and regularly sort it out. Even if at first glance the tubers look healthy, but an unpleasant odor emanates from the box, and small midges fly around it - this is a sure sign that not everything is in order with the potatoes and they need to be examined more carefully.
Potatoes are one of the main ingredients in most dishes. The ripe vegetable is harvested in September or early October. It is very important to properly store potatoes during the winter. It is not advisable to allow vegetables to freeze or dry out. Rotting, the appearance of a green tint and new shoots make the tubers unsuitable for further consumption as food and as planting material. The appearance of signs of damage indicates the accumulation of poisons and harmful substances in potatoes.
Potatoes require proper storage conditions during the winter.
There are several popular methods for preserving the beneficial properties of potatoes at home. Four methods are ideal for storing vegetables in your apartment.
Kitchen storage
You can store potatoes in a dark and cool room. To do this, choose a place with an optimal humidity level. It is not recommended to pack vegetables in plastic bags or hermetically sealed bags.
Potatoes can be stored under the sink.
Wicker baskets, a wide bucket or basin are ideal. You will need to make several holes in the container to improve air circulation. In the kitchen, the best place for storage is in the cabinet under the sink.
Vegetables on the balcony
It is advisable to use a wooden box or box as packaging. The product must be made of natural material (timber, boards or pressed sawdust).
It is advisable to use a wooden box for storing vegetables.
The top of the box can be covered with old jackets, fur coats or a blanket. The foam material will not affect the quality characteristics of the potatoes. Warm clothes will help keep the heat inside the container.
How to store potatoes in the refrigerator
In old "Khrushchev" apartments, small cabinets are built under the kitchen windows. Previously, they were used to store non-perishable food products. The air temperature in the niche in winter changes according to the weather conditions outside. The thermometer reading is higher than outside the window and lower than indoors.
For control, you can build a thermometer on the shelf of the cabinet. Using the device, the need to insulate potatoes can be easily determined.
Vegetables can be placed in a niche under the kitchen window.
In new buildings, you can use cabinets made of high-quality plastic with a control device. The hole in the niche resembles the neck of a bottle. To decrease or increase the temperature, just turn the knob in the right direction.
The operating principle of the device is no different from other storage methods. A significant drawback of the technique is its small volume. The low capacity of the cabinet does not allow storing vegetables in sufficient quantities.
Potatoes in the hallway or entrance
In non-residential premises the temperature is much lower. Therefore, it is convenient to store vegetables in the service room. A convenient and capacious container should be provided. A bulky box can be a nuisance.
To store potatoes in the hallway or utility room, it is recommended to purchase a compact container or box.
Storing it in the entrance is quite risky. It is necessary to provide security measures. To do this, you can equip the box with a lock. It is recommended to fix the container on the floor.
It is necessary to take into account the humidity level in the room. Temperatures above +27 degrees can spoil potatoes. The vegetable will dry out. To monitor the water content in the air, place a psychrometer in the room or place an open plastic container near the storage area. The appearance of spots indicates an increased level of air humidity.
Additional information about storing potatoes at home can be found in the video:
How to extend shelf life
Vegetables should be inspected periodically. Potatoes often show signs of rotting. A dangerous disease can destroy the entire supply of vegetables.
You can protect potatoes from fungus using some plants. To do this, it is enough to evenly spread the leaves of rowan, cherry, elderberry, and wormwood in the storage area. Representatives of the flora contain a high percentage of phytoncides.
You can also protect potatoes by treating vegetables daily with a decoction of wormwood and tobacco. Preparations containing copper have an effective effect. You need to purchase copper sulfate and dilute it in warm water. The tubers need to be placed in a container with a solution. Processed vegetables should be thoroughly dried.
You can extend the shelf life of potatoes using pre-treatment.
Mint leaves and onion peels can increase shelf life. It is enough to place particles of peel or mint between the potatoes. The tubers will not form sprouts until spring.
Potatoes can be stored for a short time on a cool windowsill in the northern part of the building. An opaque container with adequate ventilation should be used.
Potatoes as planting material should be stored in nets. Fern leaves should be placed evenly between the tubers.
Alternative storage method
Potatoes can be moved to the basement for storage. The room, as a rule, maintains a favorable level of humidity and air temperature in winter and summer.
Before moving, the tubers should be thoroughly dried in the open air. Exposure to sunlight will help prevent rotting.
Ideal conditions for potatoes can be created in the basement.
It is not advisable to store vegetables in bulk. The height of the slide should not exceed one and a half meters.
If there is a risk of a sudden drop in temperature in the basement, it is necessary to insulate the room with burlap.
You can store potatoes in the refrigerator in any form. We often do this without thinking about whether there are time restrictions and how long a cooked or raw vegetable can be stored in the refrigerator. But few people know that improper handling of potatoes can play a cruel joke on our digestion and such a healthy product can even become dangerous.
Storing fresh
Nutrition experts advise storing potatoes in the cold for as little time as possible. We are currently talking about raw potatoes. What does this mean:
- When the temperature drops, the tubers of raw potatoes begin to take root, and they begin to rot and deteriorate. As a result, the vegetable will not last long on the shelf and will soon have to be thrown out.
- Starch actively breaks down at a temperature of +5C. The longer the potatoes lie in the refrigerator, the less nutrients will remain in them.
- The frozen product acquires a sweet taste and becomes loose after cooking.
In addition, how to store potatoes in the refrigerator, if you still can’t fit a lot. It is believed that the maximum time at which raw potatoes can be stored in the refrigerator is 5-7 days. The ideal temperature for this product is about +5C, while the humidity should not exceed 85%. Choose shelves that are away from the freezer. Try not to let the vegetable come into contact with the walls. A plastic bag is not the best container for storing potatoes. It's better to stick with the paper version.
It's good if you have your own basement. But often apartment owners do not have this opportunity. Potatoes spoil quickly in warm conditions, so they are forced to put them in the refrigerator. You shouldn’t buy a large amount of it; it’s better to get by with the minimum than to eat a spoiled product.
If the potatoes are already peeled
- You have leftover peeled potatoes and don't plan to use them yet. How long can peeled potatoes be stored in the refrigerator? You must remember:
- Peeled potatoes are stored only in water. At the same time, it must be washed well. In the open air, the vegetable will quickly darken and the taste of the product will deteriorate. Potatoes can only be kept on the table in a container of water for a few hours; in the refrigerator this period increases to a day.
- Peeled potatoes can be frozen. Put it in a bag and tie it. When defrosting, do not use the microwave or leave it on the counter. It is necessary to pour the product with steep, salted boiling water, and then treat it as with ordinary peeled potatoes.
- If you dry the potatoes well with a napkin or towel, you can use the dry freezing method. In this case, there is no need to defrost it. Just pour the slices into a heated frying pan with sunflower oil.
- Store potatoes whole in the refrigerator. If possible, do not cut it in half, into cubes, strips, etc.
Boiled
Can potatoes be stored in the refrigerator after boiling? It is possible, but again not for long. Our national cuisine is famous for all kinds of potato dishes. As a result, it is possible that you boil too much. Where to put the remainder, how and how long can it be stored? The first thing that comes to mind is to put it in the refrigerator until better times. But it needs to be done correctly.
Place potatoes in the refrigerator only in a container with a tightly closed lid. It can be kept in the cold for no more than two days. Even if after a while the potatoes seem edible to you, this does not mean that they are safe to eat. She can be dangerous. It’s better to fry the boiled potatoes along with onions or even other vegetables in a frying pan the next day. It is important to remember that the more additional ingredients you add to the potatoes, the shorter their shelf life will be. It's better to throw away the leftovers than to get poisoned later.
Potatoes keep well in many places, but it is better not to keep them in the refrigerator. You can store many fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator, except potatoes and garlic. Potatoes have properties that do not allow them to be stored in the conditions created in the refrigerator. In order to avoid losing the nutritional properties of potatoes, you need to know why tubers cannot be stored in the refrigerator.
Reasons for the impossibility of storing potatoes in the refrigerator
Potatoes are valuable because they contain many useful substances and vitamins that a person needs for his life. When stored in the refrigerator, it may lose its nutritional properties. The main reasons for the impossibility of storing potatoes in the refrigerator include:
- The starch in tubers, when stored in the refrigerator, turns into simple sugars, which are not very beneficial for the human body. At the same time, potatoes, when cooked, have a sweet taste.
- Potatoes get soggy in the refrigerator and cannot be stored for long.
- Potatoes cannot be stored in plastic bags or nets, but only in paper bags, and such bags are completely inconvenient in the refrigerator. Paper bags should be used so that the potatoes can breathe and so that the soil does not fall off the tubers.
- Takes up a lot of space in the refrigerator.
Potatoes should not be stored in the refrigerator. However, it can be stored for a relatively short period of time in paper bags in the kitchen, away from the heating system. Thus, it will not lose its nutritional properties for several weeks, as would happen if stored in the refrigerator. Therefore, you should always remember this and do not put potatoes along with other foods in your refrigerator, as they will take up precious space and lose their nutritional properties. And no one needs this.
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