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It happens that you cook eggplant shish kebab, caviar, salad or other dish, but it turns out to be bitter and unpleasant in taste.

Then gardeners and summer residents have a question: why are eggplants bitter, what are the reasons for the bitterness, because the fruits are grown on their own plot? We will find out what factors and violations of agricultural technology can spoil the taste of a given crop, how to protect the fruits from bitterness, and the housewives from grief.

Why are eggplants bitter?

There are several reasons why eggplants grow bitter and spoil the taste of dishes.

Late cleaning

If ripe fruits are not harvested in time, their skin will turn yellow and harden, and the flesh will acquire a bitter taste.

We harvest eggplants when the achenes are still light - about a month and a half after the ovaries appear.

Changeable weather

In unstable and rapidly changing temperatures, eggplants grown outside greenhouses can become bitter.

If the weather in your region is changeable, it is better to grow your favorite crop in a greenhouse.

Insufficient watering

If the soil is poor in moisture, the fruits will also become bitter. When the weather is sunny, do not allow the soil to dry out.

Every other day, we water the plantings with warm water (about 25 degrees), but not in the evening, but in the first half of the day.

Bitter varieties

There are naturally bitter varieties. To avoid them, we carefully study the description of the crop, or better yet, choose proven seeds like:

• “Diamond”, “Purple Miracle”, “F1 Lolita”, “Nutcracker”, “Early Czech”.
• For exotics, we choose Pelican F1, Thai White or Rosita.

Having found out the reasons for the bitter taste of the fruit, we will find out what to do to prevent eggplants from becoming bitter when growing and cooking.

How to grow eggplants without bitterness

You can prevent the appearance of bitterness in fruits with the help of competent cultivation.

Obtaining eggplant seedlings

To begin with, it is important to grow good seedlings:

• We choose proven varieties that produce decent yields in your climate.
• At the end of February - beginning of March, we sow the achenes, washed with a weak solution of potassium permanganate, in containers with high-quality soil: if it is taken from the garden, we first steam it. We deepen them a couple of centimeters at a distance of 3 cm from each other.
• Cover the box with polyethylene and keep it at a temperature of about 28°C.
• We remove the polyethylene after the seedlings peck and regularly water the plants with warm water, placing the container on the windowsill, where the temperature is maintained at no more than 22 degrees.

A couple of weeks after the sprouts appear, when they have three true leaves, we plant the seedlings in half-liter containers with fertile soil.

Paired vaccination

When the seedlings grow to 15 cm and their stems become as thick as a pencil, we plant them in pairs:

• We take a couple of seedlings and make two-centimeter cuts on each stem with a razor blade - so that they are at the same level.
• We loosely wrap the stems together, pressing cut to cut, with soft polyethylene and wait 7 days.
• We cut off the weaker seedling above the grafting zone and leave it for another week.
• We remove the polyethylene wrapping and get one eggplant with two root systems.

Thanks to grafting, you will not have the question “why are eggplants bitter”, since they will begin to produce a harvest a couple of weeks earlier and without bitterness.

Further care

• We plant the grafted seedlings in a greenhouse or in open ground.
• Don't forget to prevent the soil from drying out.
• We collect fruits on time.

Proper preparation of seedlings and good care will allow you to get a large harvest (30 percent more than with conventional cultivation) without a bitter aftertaste.

What to do to prevent eggplants from becoming bitter in prepared dishes

What if you bought or picked eggplants and they are bitter? There are several ways to remove bitterness from these fruits:

Soaking in milk

We cut the fruits into pieces, immerse them in fresh milk and press them down with something heavy.

After 30 minutes, squeeze out the pieces, wrapping them in a paper towel.

Salt method

Cut the eggplant, sprinkle the cuts with coarse salt and wait 20 minutes: drops of moisture will appear on the fruit. Rinse parts of the fruit or wipe with a dry cloth.

Unlike fine salt, coarse salt will not have time to be absorbed into the eggplants, and you will not over-salt them when cooking.

Cleaning

If the recipe does not specify that the fruits should remain in the peel, cut it off and the bitterness will go away.

Soaking in salt water

Cut the harvest into pieces and keep in cool salted water (1 tablespoon per liter), pressing with something heavy, for 30 minutes. Rinse, wring out, place in a paper towel, and use for cooking.

If the recipe calls for whole fruits, soaking should last at least two hours.

Freezing

We cut the fruits into longitudinal slices, place them on a plate and put them in the freezer for four hours. Squeeze the frozen slices so that the bitterness goes away along with the water.

Attention: With this method, the raw material acquires the consistency of puree during cooking.

Removing seeds

You've probably already noticed that eggplant seeds are similar to pepper seeds. But, although they are not spicy, they still impart bitterness to the fruits. To get rid of it, cut the fruit lengthwise into two parts and scoop out the achenes with a spoon.

Choose the most convenient method, and you won’t have to rack your brains over what to do so that the eggplants don’t taste bitter in the finished dish.

So, you have learned why eggplants are bitter, the reasons that lead to a deterioration in the taste of the fruit, and ways to prevent and eliminate bitterness. The main thing is to grow them correctly, and then the eggplant harvest will never become bitter and spoil the taste of your favorite dishes.

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 for 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.

Eggplants are readily used in cooking in many countries. This tasty and healthy vegetable, a valuable source of protein, is used to make a wide variety of dishes, snacks and preserves for the winter. During the preparation of many dishes, blueberries undergo special treatment, which helps them get rid of bitterness. So, what should you do to prevent eggplants from becoming bitter?

This useful information will be useful to many cooks, especially beginners, who want to properly prepare this wonderful vegetable.

Causes of bitter taste

Why are eggplants bitter? The blue ones contain large amounts of solanine. This is a toxic substance that gives the fruits a bitter taste. The longer the blue ones ripen, the more bitter and poisonous they will taste.

Today, many hybrid varieties have been bred whose fruits do not contain bitterness, for example, “White Night”, “Taste of Mushrooms” or “Green”.

Options for removing bitterness

There are several ways to get rid of bitterness in eggplants.

Soaking

To remove bitterness, the fruits are soaked in salt water. First, the vegetables are cut into circles, cubes or cubes, depending on the cooking recipe, then dipped in a salty solution. Give 1 tablespoon of salt per liter of water. Then the blue ones are thrown into a sieve or colander to drain the remaining juice.

How long should you soak eggplants in salt water? It all depends on the condition of the pods. The older the vegetable, the longer it takes to soak. For young eggplants, half an hour is enough, but for old fruits – at least an hour. During this time, the vegetables will release juice and completely get rid of bitterness.

Sprinkling with salt

You don’t have to soak the eggplants. Many housewives use another method of “processing” the blue ones, sprinkling the sliced ​​eggplant with salt. After 30 minutes, the blue ones are washed under cold water, drained in a colander and the remaining water is allowed to drain.

Freezing

• There is another way to remove bitterness from eggplants - by. First, the blue ones are peeled, then cut into slices or cubes, placed in a plastic bag and placed in the freezer for four hours. Then the sliced ​​eggplant is thawed and the resulting juice is squeezed out. True, after such treatment, the little blue ones quickly lose their shape and turn into a puree-like mass during the heat treatment process.
• The little blue ones give off bitterness well if you put them in milk for half an hour and put them under pressure. After this time, the fruits need to be slightly squeezed.

You can do it differently, bypassing manipulation with saline solution or freezing, removing the seeds in the fruits. The fruits are cut into two longitudinal parts and cleared of seeds using a teaspoon.

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 eggplant, 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 the public table.

Hello, dear hostesses. Novice housewives are concerned about the question of how to remove bitterness from eggplants so as not to spoil the dish. You can learn about this from our material. Before you start cooking, take note of our tips. There is probably not one among you who doesn’t like to pamper your family with eggplant dishes or surprise your winter guests with delicious preparations. After all, you can prepare such a variety of dishes from this vegetable that you only have time to wash the plates.

Experienced housewives may be surprised by such a question, because there is no bitterness in fresh vegetables. But those that have been sitting for a while actually have a bitter aftertaste. Bitterness may appear in the finished dish if it is not removed in advance. There are several ways to do this.

Ways to eliminate bitter taste

The first method, the most common, is to soak the eggplants in water. You can immerse the whole eggplant in water, but this method is for those who are in no hurry.

If you can’t wait to start preparing a culinary masterpiece as soon as possible, we recommend cutting the vegetable into pieces and placing it in salted water. Salt should be put 1 tablespoon per liter of water. This will be enough for the bitterness to go away and for the little blue one not to be too salty. The pieces will certainly float, so you need to press them down with pressure. Leave for about half an hour, squeeze and rinse. You can cook.

This method is good because after this soaking, the eggplants become very tasty. It is especially recommended to do this before frying. The dish will acquire an extraordinary taste and will absorb less oil.

The second method is suitable when you need to remove bitterness without using salt. The little blue ones just need to be frozen. Place the sliced ​​eggplants on a plate and place in the freezer. After 4 hours, take them out and let them go away. Then squeeze out the liquid from them, which will remove the bitterness. But we must remember that only puree or caviar can be prepared from frozen fruits, since they will quickly lose their shape.

The third method is also called “dry”. In this case, the vegetable is cut into two halves and rubbed with salt for 15 - 20 minutes. The eggplant will release juice, which must be washed off under running water.

The fourth method will come in handy immediately before cooking, when there is neither time nor desire to soak. But only for those dishes for which the shape of the vegetable is not important. It is cut into cubes and placed in boiling water for 2 - 3 minutes. Then drain in a colander. After the water has drained, you can start cooking.

The fifth method is the easiest. Since the bitterness comes from the skin, you can simply trim it off. This must be done carefully, cut off with a sharp knife in a thin layer, without touching the blue flesh.

The sixth option is somewhat original, but it is very good for eliminating an unpleasant aftertaste before canning. It is necessary to peel the vegetable “in stripes”; do not peel off the entire skin, but leave strips 2 - 2.5 cm wide. The bitterness will be removed along with the peel, and the vegetable itself will retain its shape and taste. If the taste remains, then you should soak it by immersing it in salt water for several hours, and then start canning.

It happens that for various reasons, bitterness appears after cooking. What to do? Throw everything in the trash or force household members to choke on what happened?

You can try to save the dish by adding herbs or spices. Hot sauce will help mask the bitterness, especially if no one in the family has stomach problems.

How to Avoid Bitter Eggplant Dishes

The best vegetables are those grown with your own hands. You know for sure that you did not fertilize them with harmful chemicals. An experienced summer resident will certainly pay attention to varieties of eggplants without bitterness. The varieties Epic F1, Almaz, and F1 Bourgeois are especially popular. The main thing is not to make a mistake when choosing the growing region.

If there is no opportunity for gardening, then you should carefully choose a vegetable in the store. It is better to buy young, smooth, blue ones without putrefactive spots. Before cooking, it is necessary to remove bitterness, especially from old fruits, since it can make itself felt in the finished dish.

We hope that the information was useful to you. You can read many other useful tips on our blog. Subscribe and be sure to share with your friends.