My grandmother and I used to pluck tons of figs from our back garden in season. Honestly, we could pluck around 40 – 60 figs, and I was never able to finish eating all of them once. As this fruit is enriched with vitamins and minerals, my granny did not allow me to throw away them either.
So, do you know what did I do? Thanks to my granny she taught me to freeze figs. The figs do not last very long when they are ripened. Therefore, freezing is one of the best options you can use to preserve them.
Now, let me share everything I know about freezing figs. The following table of content will guide you through the article.
Can You Freeze Figs?
You will be pleased to know that the answer is yes. You can freeze figs. The freezing allows you to keep figs up to 6 to 8 months. Normally, fresh figs do not last that long. They could only last for 2-5 days. When refrigerated, figs can be kept for like 7 days.
How to Freeze Figs
Freezing figs is quite simple, but it requires a few hours from your busy schedule. You can freeze figs in two methods; either by putting them directly into the freezer or putting them in syrup and then freeze.
Let us look into the detailed steps.
Step 1: Clean Your Figs
Cleanliness is important. Before you do anything to your fruits, make sure you wash them properly to remove the dirt. To do so use a bucket full of cool water and put the figs into it. Leave them in the bucket for 1 to 2 minutes and gently scrub the skin of the fruits by using your hands. Be careful because figs are more likely to bruise. The washing will rinse off the bacteria in the peel and make your figs look clean and nice.
Step 2: Cut Your Figs
It is not necessary to cut your figs. If you prefer to store them right away, dry them with a towel and store them in an airtight container. Simply, keep it in the freezer.
However, if you need to make your life easier, you can just cut the fruit into pieces and store it. When you do that, you do not have to struggle to cut a frozen fig. You know that is not easy. So, I recommend you to cut a fig into quarters. It allows you to use them in smoothies, salads, and other dishes without any effort.
If you are planning to make fig jam or sauce, you must remove the peel before freezing. So, slice the fruit and remove the peel before you store them. Make sure, you peel them with clean hands otherwise the bacteria may spoil the slices.
Step 3: Flash Freezing
Put parchment paper on a tray and lay the fig slices in a single row. Avoid keeping them closer to each other because it helps to minimize the clumping up of slices.
Once you finish arranging the tray, put it in the freezer. Leave the tray there until the figs are completely frozen.
After the freezing step is finished, you can transfer them into freezer bags or air-tight containers. As a quick piece of advice, I would say not to put all the slices into one freezer bag because once you open the bag you have to finish it without any excuses. So, if you have more than a dozen slices, use separate two, three freezer bags.
Step 4: Label and Freezing
With a marker, write the date of freezing on the airtight container or freezer bag. Then put them in the freezer.
After successfully completing all these steps, keep the bags in the freezer until you feel like consuming figs again.
Bonus Step
This is a bonus step for anyone who would like to add more texture and flavor to figs. Simply add sugar syrup to the figs slices before you freeze them.
If you wonder how to make sugar syrup quickly at home, just sprinkle a pinch of sugar on the figs slices and let them turn into moisture condition. Leave the slices in the syrup for 20 minutes until it absorbs the sweet liquid.
How Does Freezing Affect Figs?
Freezing changes the taste and the texture of figs. You may feel the difference in the texture when you touch a fresh and non-fresh fig. The frozen figs have a watery and mushy texture.
The frozen figs also have a different color. After thawing, you will see the slices are much darker than before they are. Most of the time, thawed fig slices never going to taste like raw figs again.
How Long Can You Freeze Figs
How long figs last in the freezer will depend on if it’s fresh or dried. For fresh figs, you can expect them to last between 6-8 months. On the other hand, dried figs will last for much longer, which is about 12-18 months.
Dried figs tend to last much longer in the freezer due to all the moisture being removed from the fruit. Since there is no moisture, there will be no ice crystals forming in the fruit.
Can You Refreeze Figs?
You can freeze figs again, only if it has not thawed yet. This means the figs were removed from the freezer for no longer than 10 minutes. You can safely place them back into the freezer without any texture or flavor is altered.
On the other hand, if the figs have thawed, either partially or entirely, it’s best to not refreeze it again. Doing so will cause the quality of the figs to deteriorate even further. Once it’s thawed for the second time, you’ll notice that the fruit is soggy, and it doesn’t have that sweet taste to it anymore.
How to Tell When Figs Are Rotten?
If you get a sour fermented smell from the figs, they are not good to consume. The over ripped figs are not edible either. If you keep a rotten fig near your other fruits and vegetables, they will be spoiled quickly because figs produce ethylene gas. Therefore, throw away all the rotten figs without trying to preserve them. There is no use in preserving already rotten figs.
Sometimes, mold may appear on the peel of the fig because of the moisture condition. If you identify any fig with mold, do not consume them.
Final Thoughts
Figs are a sweet fruit that anyone would love to eat. During the season many people struggle not knowing how to preserve the excess fruits. But you do not have to worry any longer now. You can freeze your figs as long as you wish to consume them later.
Also, you can use your frozen figs to prepare jam, smoothies, homemade ice cream, sauces, and a lot more!
I hope this article is helpful for you to preserve the figs. If you get the best use from this, do not forget to share it with your friends. Also, let us know your comments. We cannot wait to hear.