Step-by-step preparation for removing bitterness from eggplants using the dry method, recipe with photo:
1. Wash the eggplants, cut off the stem and cut the fruits as required by the recipe. In this case, the blue ones are cut into circles. If the recipe calls for peeling, do so.
2. Place the chopped vegetable in a bowl, sprinkling it with coarse salt in the cut areas. When using the dry method of removing bitterness from eggplants, it is preferable to use coarse rather than fine salt, because The structure of eggplant pulp is very porous.
3. Stir them and leave for half an hour.
4. During this time, the salt crystals will dissolve, and droplets of moisture will appear on the surface of the vegetable pieces, along with which all the bitterness comes out.
5. Place eggplant pieces in a sieve and rinse under running water.
6. Dry the vegetable well with a paper napkin and use the eggplants to prepare various dishes.
Alternative ways to remove bitterness:
- Wet method. Sliced eggplants are placed in a container of cold salted water. Proportions: for 1 liter of water 1 tbsp. salt. Since eggplants do not sink in water, press them down using pressure. After half an hour, all the bitterness from the vegetable will go away. Rinse it, squeeze out excess water and start cooking. You can soak the whole eggplant in salt water, but then the soaking time will be 1.5 hours. The amount of salt and water remains the same as with chopped eggplants.
- Freezer. Cut the eggplant into slices, place them on a plate and place them in the freezer for 4 hours. Remove the eggplants from the freezer and squeeze out the liquid, which will remove the bitterness. Keep in mind that these eggplants lose their shape when cooked and acquire the consistency of puree.
- Removing seeds. If you don’t have time to remove bitterness from eggplants, then simply remove the seeds from the fruit. They are very similar to pepper seeds. They are, of course, not spicy, but it is interesting that seeded eggplant no longer needs manipulation with salt and the freezer. Cut the eggplant lengthwise and scrape out the seeds.
- Soaking in milk. Immerse the sliced eggplants in milk for half an hour, and press on top with a press. After half an hour, take them out and squeeze them out with a paper towel.
See also the video recipe on how to remove bitterness from eggplants.
Housewives prepare delicious salads, various snacks, vegetable caviar and side dishes for meat from eggplants. They were popularly called “little blue” and the vegetables are great for preserving for the winter. Remove the bitterness from eggplants before cooking, otherwise the taste of your favorite dish will spoil.
Removing bitterness from eggplants with salt
Wash the eggplants and cut into circles or slices. It all depends on the dish you will prepare. Next, your actions are as follows:
- place the chopped vegetable pieces in a deep bowl;
- add coarse table salt and mix carefully. The second option is to rub each piece with salt, but this takes a long time;
- Leave the salted eggplants in a bowl for 20 minutes. You will see droplets of water appear on the surface of the vegetables, this is where bitterness comes out;
- Rinse the vegetables under cold water and start preparing the dish. In the same way, you can remove the bitterness from whole blueberries.
Removing bitterness from eggplants in water under pressure
Pour clean cold water into a large saucepan. For 1 liter of water, take a tablespoon of salt. Pour salt into water and stir. Soaking process:
- cut the eggplants or place them whole in salted water;
- Place a weight on top of the vegetables. This is necessary so that the little blue ones do not submerge completely in the water and float out. For oppression, take a wooden round board the size of the vessel, and place a stone or a jar of water on top of the board;
- keep the blue ones in the water for half an hour. For whole vegetables, it will take longer - up to several hours. You can leave them overnight;
- After the required time has passed, rinse the eggplants under cold water and use as directed.
Removing bitterness from eggplants in the easiest way
The easiest way to get rid of bitterness is to cut the skin off the eggplant. Use a sharp knife or a special vegetable peeler. The bitterness is in the skin. Its source is solanine. Cut the skin from the vegetables in a thin layer, wash and remove the tails first.
Other alternative ways to remove bitterness from eggplants
Other alternative methods that will help deal with the problem:
- Place the cut or whole blueberries in the freezer for 4-5 hours. After the required time has elapsed, squeeze out excess liquid from the vegetables and prepare the dish;
- use milk. Lightly salt the chopped vegetables, place a large paper napkin or towel on top of them and sprinkle with milk. Press the towel down with a weight and remove it after 10 minutes. The bitter juice will go away along with the paper. Wipe the blue ones dry and prepare the dish;
- Pour boiling water over the eggplants for five minutes. Do not salt the water. Then drain the liquid and dry the vegetables;
- Boil the blue ones. This method of getting rid of bitterness is suitable if the shape of the eggplant for the dish is not important to you. Pour water into a saucepan and place on fire. Place diced eggplants in boiling water and boil for 2 minutes. Take the blue ones out into a colander. Let the water drain and start preparing the dish. If there are a lot of blue ones, boil each chopped batch for two minutes.
Choose young and fresh eggplants; they have no bitterness and do not need to be processed. There is a lot of bitterness in the old blue ones. Young eggplants are without dark spots, rot, firm and with shiny, smooth skin. Buy these vegetables and you won't have to do extra work in the kitchen.
Eggplant is a wonderful vegetable from the nightshade family. It pleases us with color, pleasant roundness of shapes, and taste. There are hundreds of recipes for eggplant dishes, but in almost every one we read: before cooking eggplants, you need to remove the bitterness from them. This advice will seem strange to those who are used to cooking fresh eggplants, just picked from the garden. There is no trace of bitterness in fresh eggplants.
But old eggplants that have been lying on the shelves for more than one day can indeed taste bitter. Some people perceive this bitterness as a piquant characteristic of eggplants, but these are in the minority. The majority of cooks and cooks struggle with the bitterness of eggplants, and successfully, using several methods, the effectiveness of which has been tested over the years.
Salt to the rescue
The first way to remove bitterness from eggplant is to use salt. This method has several options - “dry” and “wet”.
The “dry” method is very simple. The eggplants are cut and sprinkled with coarse salt at the cut points. After 20 minutes, droplets of liquid will appear on the surface. Now the eggplants can be rinsed with water or simply wiped with a dry towel. With this method, coarse salt is preferable to fine salt, because the structure of the eggplant pulp is very porous. Remember how much oil a slice of eggplant absorbs when fried. Therefore, if you take finely ground salt, you may end up with over-salted eggplants rather than bitter ones.
The “wet” method is also not particularly complicated. Eggplants are cut and placed in a pan of cold salted water. Since eggplants do not sink in water, you will have to drown them using pressure. Half an hour of this “bath” and all the bitterness from the eggplant goes away. All that remains is to rinse them, squeeze out excess water and proceed directly to cooking. You can soak whole eggplants in salt water, but then the exposure time increases to a couple of hours. As for the amount of salt, a tablespoon per liter of water is enough.
Alternative ways to remove bitterness
The most basic way is to simply peel them by removing the skin from the eggplants. But such “naked” eggplants are not suitable for every recipe. In this case, there is another alternative way to remove the bitterness from the “little blue ones”. You need to cut the eggplant into slices, place the slices on a plate and place in the freezer for 4 hours. When you take the eggplant slices out of the freezer, simply squeeze out the liquid - the bitterness will go away. But keep in mind that such eggplants quickly lose their shape when cooked and turn into puree.
Those who don’t want to wait four hours can try the third method - remove the seeds from the eggplant. If you look closely, you will see that eggplant seeds are very similar in appearance to pepper seeds. They, of course, are not so spicy, but it is interesting that seeded eggplant will no longer need any manipulations with salt and the freezer. You just need to cut the eggplant lengthwise and scrape out as many seeds as you can with a spoon.
The fourth method is to soak eggplant pieces in milk. You need to immerse the eggplants in milk for at least half an hour, and press on top with a press. After half an hour, remove the eggplants and squeeze them thoroughly with a paper towel.
Eggplant is a southern plant, rare in our harsh climate. The vegetable, brought from India by the ubiquitous Arabs, appeared in Europe only in the 15th century, and even today it is exotic in Russia. So far it has been appreciated mainly in the southern regions, in the Krasnodar Territory and Stavropol Territory.
Related to tomatoes and potatoes
Did you know, for example, that eggplant is a berry? This is a nightshade, a close relative of tomatoes. And potatoes, of course. Like potatoes, it is susceptible to attacks by the Colorado potato beetle and late blight, but is not at all as unpretentious in cultivation. Loves warmth, moisture and rich soil. He somehow likes the subtropics more than our middle zone. But Russian breeders and hardworking summer residents managed to adapt to the demands of the sissy, and the “little blue ones” are successfully winning the hearts and stomachs of our compatriots.
Eggplant fruits, by the way, are not necessarily blue. When ripe, they generally range from gray-green to brown-yellow. But no one eats them when ripe - they are coarse and inedible, and they also accumulate solanine. They are eaten unripe when they are lilac and violet. However, very light varieties have also been developed (“golden egg”, “white egg”). There are large and very small, pear-shaped, spherical and cylindrical shapes.
Eggplants are fried, boiled, stewed, baked, stuffed, marinated, grilled, crushed into caviar, and eaten raw. “Longevity vegetables,” as they are called in the East, are really recommended for the elderly, especially heart patients - they contain a lot of potassium. In addition, they break down fats, therefore they are respected by those seeking to lose weight and those who are predisposed to atherosclerosis, metabolic disorders, diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys and liver.
It's upsetting that they're bitter. Are they bitter?
The main disappointment of experienced housewives and cooks is that eggplants are bitter. Who enjoys eating bitter things? Are they bitter? It’s interesting that people of the older generation claim this. And the young people are surprised: there are no bitter eggplants!
It turns out that everything is very simple. Indeed, the plant once produced bitter fruits. But breeders have gone to great lengths, and new varieties do without this drawback. However, here everything is like with cucumbers: there are bitter ones, there are non-bitter ones. Depends on growing conditions. Fruits that suffered during the growth period from cold and lack of moisture become bitter. And overripe. So the “little blue ones”, which grew in summer cottages in warmth and comfort, were watered on time and picked, do not give bitterness.
And supermarkets sell greenhouse fruits of non-bitter varieties. Although, of course, they are inferior in taste to those grown in the ground. But you need to choose small fruits, with blunt noses and immature ones, with small light seeds.
Cook eggplants without bitterness
But what should you do if you are unlucky and bought bitter eggplants? How to cook eggplants without being bitter?
Method one, “bald”
Just remove the skin.
Method two, “wet”
Soak in cold water. If cut - for half an hour, whole - for two hours. By adding salt to the water (two tablespoons per liter of water), you can quickly achieve the desired effect.
Method three, “salty”
Slice and sprinkle with salt. After half an hour, squeeze out the released juice.
Alternatively, you can sprinkle the chopped vegetables with salt and pour boiling water over them. After three to five minutes, drain the water and dry the eggplants.
If the recipe calls for whole fruits (say, you are going to stuff them), you can throw the eggplants into salted boiling water for a couple of minutes.
Or do this. Cut off the ends and place the top on a centimeter-thick layer of salt. After half an hour, turn it over and put it upside down, also for 30 minutes. If the recipe allows, cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and place on salt. Just rinse thoroughly afterwards to remove excess salt!
And one more little secret. Eggplants have the unpleasant property of absorbing vegetable oil like a sponge when frying. Soaking also helps to cope with the problem of excess fat. The fruits are cut, soaked in salt water for 20 minutes and squeezed. Then they will take significantly less oil.
Now that you know several ways to cook eggplants without bitterness, it's time for recipes for incredibly delicious dishes from this product.
Sometimes incorrectly chosen eggplants become bitter and spoil the taste of your favorite dishes. Why is this happening? Typically, bitterness is characteristic of overripe vegetables or those that lacked heat and moisture during ripening. But the bitterness of eggplants does not depend in any way on whether they are ground vegetables or greenhouse vegetables.
To select non-bitter eggplants, when purchasing, choose small, unripe fruits with blunt noses. But if the subtleties of choosing vegetables are not within your competence and you come across bitter eggplants, you will definitely need one of our tips on how to remove bitterness from eggplants.
To prevent eggplants from becoming bitter...
Experienced housewives have long invented reliable ways to rid eggplants of bitterness:
- The easiest way is to cut off the skins of vegetables, which is where the bitterness is concentrated;
- Cut the vegetables into pieces, circles or strips (as required by the dish being prepared) and sprinkle them with salt, mix thoroughly so that all the eggplants are saturated with it. After 15 minutes, the eggplants should be thoroughly rinsed under running cold water and dried. The bitterness will go away with the juice released from the vegetables;
- The vast majority of housewives advise soaking eggplants to remove bitterness. To do this, you need to chop the fruits and pour plenty of salt water on them (at the rate of 2 tablespoons of salt per liter of water) for an hour (for finely or thinly chopped vegetables, half an hour will be enough). The fruits should be under pressure - then the efficiency of soaking will increase significantly. After the specified period of time, drain the water and dry the eggplants;
- Salt the eggplants, chopped as necessary, and cover them with a paper towel lightly moistened with milk. Press the towel onto the vegetables (you can use a cutting board as a priss), and after 15 minutes, remove it from the vegetables. The bitterness will be absorbed into the paper, and the eggplants will only have to dry;
- If using salt in the above tips doesn't work for you, the method of soaking eggplants in boiling water will come in handy. Vegetables need to be cut and pour boiling water over them for 5-10 minutes. Then the water is drained, the eggplants are dried - the bitterness is gone!
- If you need whole vegetables to prepare a dish, for example, stuffed eggplants, you can put them in a saucepan of boiling salted water. To prevent eggplants from becoming bitter, only 2-3 minutes of this procedure will be enough;
- Another way to remove bitterness from whole eggplants is to cut off the top and tip of the vegetable and alternately place it for half an hour in an upright position on a 1 cm thick layer of salt. After this, the eggplants should be thoroughly washed and dried.
How to remove the bitterness of an already cooked eggplant dish?
If you do not take care of removing the bitterness from the eggplants prematurely, the dish prepared from them may taste bitter. What should you do, should you throw it in the trash or make the whole family choke on a failed culinary experience?
Of course, it’s unlikely to change anything radically in the case of a ready-made dish. Try to overcome the bitterness with your favorite spices, herbs or hot sauce. Be sure to try your experiment in person before serving the dish to a common table.
