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Storing Fabricated Produce
Appears in
By Jaclyn Pestka, Wayne Gisslen and Lou Sackett
Published 2010
Once a vegetable or fruit is peeled or cut, its inner plant tissue is exposed to oxygen. This leads to rapid deterioration through dehydration, loss of volatile flavor compounds and nutrients, bacterial invasion, and, in some cases, enzymatic browning. For this reason, most fabricated vegetables should be used as quickly as possible. Fruits to be served raw should be fabricated at the last possible moment. Those subject to enzymatic browning should be brushed with lemon juice.
If you must hold uncooked, fabricated produce for longer than an hour or so, keep it moist by storing between clean, damp towels in freshly sanitized, covered containers. Some fabricated uncooked vegetables are stored submerged in water. Potatoes and artichoke hearts are stored in this manner. Vegetables for crudités are held submerged in ice water to crisp them. However, do not keep crudité vegetables in water longer than a few hours because they will become waterlogged and may lose nutrients.