How To Correctly Store Cucumbers To Maintain Crispiness

The stark actuality is that every 12 months, 119 billion pounds of food is wasted in the USA. That’s the identical as 130 billion meals and greater than 408 billion {dollars} in meals thrown away yearly. Studying this stat was greater than sufficient motivation for me to search for new methods to maximise the lifespan of my recent produce and arrange a foolproof game plan for organizing my pantry and fridge to scale back meals waste. After all, whereas we will not overhaul our whole meals system in a single sitting (a lot as we may need in any other case), even the smallest adjustments we make could be a step in the best route and make an influence on the quantity of meals waste we contribute.

So, first on my record of the way to scale back meals waste is a genius meals storage hack for maintaining cucumbers crisp—learn: stopping them from turning into soggy, slimy mush–for over every week that I got here throughout on TikTok. Spoiler alert: All you want is a resealable container, clear water, cucumbers, and a fridge. Straightforward sufficient, proper? We definitely assume so.

Learn how to clear and retailer cucumbers in order that they final over every week

In a latest TikTok video by @kelseyvenkov, Kelsey Venkov demonstrates methods to prep and retailer cucumbers in order that they final over every week and preserve their crunchy texture. To begin, she removes the cucumbers from their authentic packaging and rinses them below cool faucet water. (FYI, this step is one hundred pc consistent with the FDA’s guidelines for cleaning produce, which recommends you wash all produce completely below working water earlier than getting ready and/or consuming, together with produce grown at house or purchased from a grocery retailer or farmers’ market.)

@kelseyvenkov My cousin confirmed me this and we have finished it ever since! They final a lot longer and style crunchier✨ #storingvegetables #vegetablestorage #cucumbersnack #storingfood #foodstorage #foodstoragetips #kitchenorganization #fridgeorganization #fridgeorganizing #freshvegetables #fridgestocking #fridgestorage #fridgeorganizer ♬ original sound – Kelsey Venkov

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Subsequent, Venkov fills a big bowl with clear water and provides a couple of cup of distilled white vinegar. She then soaks the cucumbers within the vinegar-water answer for about quarter-hour. Why? A do-it-yourself vinegar-and-water answer could be simpler than a store-bought produce wash, as Megan Roosevelt, RDN, a nutritionist and founding father of Healthy Grocery Girl, previously shared with Well+Good. This additional step (though it’s not totally necessary) can probably assist take away much more grit (as you might do with fresh strawberries) in the event that they’re tremendous soiled.

As soon as they’ve soaked, Venkov strains and rinses the cucumbers yet another time. Then, the enjoyable (and barely stunning) half: she preps a number of clear hermetic containers and fills them with recent water. Lastly, Venkov provides the cucumbers into the water-filled jars, closes the lid tightly, and stashes them within the fridge. The result’s crunchy, crisp cucumbers for over every week.

Why this cucumber storage hack is useful for sustaining crispness

Cucumbers—that are mainly synonymous with H2O—are made up of about 96 percent water. Which means apart from their ultra-hydrating, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, in addition they have the innate capacity to turn out to be a soggy mess within the blink of an eye fixed when stashed within the produce drawer. That’s why we’ve discovered that storing cucumbers immersed in water might help protect them and maintain them from drying out attributable to your fridge’s harsh cooling system for over every week.

The important thing to nailing this trick, nonetheless, is swapping out the water each few days to scale back the danger of contamination or bacterial development. And ICYMI, the identical water-submerging storage technique applies to carrots (and celery), too. Because the meals storage and produce queen, @emilymariko, demonstrates on this TikTok video.

@emilymarikoVeggie prep for the week!♬ original sound – Emily Mariko