How far ahead can I cut fruit ?!
How far ahead can I cut fruit ?
I have always cut fruit the same day that I was to serve it. But I need to know if I can make a fruit salad two days ahead of serving it. I know to use Fruit Fresh to keep it from turning brown, but how will it taste that far ahead? What about putting the fruit into separate bags and putting it together the night before? I want to use strawberries, berries, pineapple, melons, grapes, citrus fruits and kiwi. I know not to try bananas..
Additional Details4 weeks ago
Can I cut it now and freeze it? The event is on Saturday.
Answers:
4 weeks ago
Can I cut it now and freeze it? The event is on Saturday.
Cutting everything a day ahead and storing them separately until the day of the event is the answer. The more acidic fruits will begin to break down the less acidic if you mix the fruit the night before. You will loose a lot of the moisture in the fruit, and get a soup of liquid at the bottom. It is quick and easy to put it all together right before you serve it. If possible, rinse and cut the strawberries at the last moment. Also, if the kiwis are ripe, instead of mixing them into the salad, use them on top as a decoration. Ripe kiwis then to fall apart very easily. Be careful about the berries. Use a solid one like blueberries. Blackberries, raspberries and the like will turn to mush quickly if you stir the fruit mixture together.
For an unusual and decorative touch, you can use a clear glass bowl (never plastic) for the fruit salad, and place each fruit in a layer into the bowl, with the kiwi layer on the top, and the fresh berry layer right below it. This gives it a classier look, in case you want to step up the presentation. Do not use any lemon or sugars, as they will degrade the quality of the fruit rather quickly. Personally, I would leave out the citrus as it's difficult to get it to come out into sections without spending a lot of time, and you sound like you'd like to save some time if possible.
If you add lemmon juice or a similar acid, it will keep the fruit from turning brown.
For the most part, just make sure to add some lemon or lime juice to keep it from turning brown. Beware of freezing, though -- some fruits will do alright, but strawberries and citrus fruits can get really mushy when you thaw them out.
Covered and kept from air, it should keep two days. After you have made the salad, spray it with filtered lemon juice (use a coffee filter). The citric acid in the lemon juice will keep the colors from ''turning''. Don't add your juice (orange, apple or whatever) until you are ready to serve. Otherwise the fruit will get soggy. GGAAAKKKK!!!! Good luck!
you can cut it up to a few days before you want it, the trick is to put lemmon juice over it when your done so it stays fresher longer. and it doesn't get brown.
a day or 2 at the most depending on storage
You can cut the melons, pineapple and the grapes 2 days( but 1 would be better) ahead but the rest I would cut the night before or the morning of the event. Don't freeze it because it causes it to go transparent when it thaws.
go buy some freaking fruit salad already put in a container