Keep Sliced Apples from Turning Brown in the Refrigerator
If you're trying to keep sliced apples from going brown in the fridge, lemon is a good option to keep them fresh a little longer. Lemon juice will keep apple slices fresh and stop them from turning brown. Best of all, it's completely natural, no artificial preservatives needed.
Steps
- Squeeze the fresh lemon juice into a bowl.
- Chop the apples into slices.
- Coat the apple slices in lemon juice. Dip each one into the bowl and coat well. The sooner after slicing that the lemon juice is applied to the exposed areas, the brighter they will stay.
- Place the slices on a plate or in storage containers. An airtight seal of any sort will help.
- Refrigerate as needed.
- Use the apple as soon as you can. This will keep apple slices looking nice for a while, not indefinitely.
Tips
- Use this for lunch boxes, fruit salads, fruit plates, and any other situation where you'll be cutting up fruit and not eating it immediately.
- Another option is to use ascorbic acid, or Vitamin C. It's sold as powder and you'll find it in the canning section. Fruit Fresh and Ever Fresh are two brands. You can sprinkle it on directly or dissolve it in a little water and dip the apple slices in.
- If you're slicing apples for pie or cobbler, drop the slices in a bowl of lemon juice and water as you go and leave them there until you're ready to use them.
- The acid (whether citric acid from or ascorbic) is a preservative (an agent that acts to preserve the food), but in either case it is a natural one. In home canning, salt, sugar, and acids are used as preservatives.
- Lemon juice and ascorbic acid are also used to keep canned applesauce bright and fresh looking.
- Apples still taste fine after they've turned a bit brown in air; they just don't look quite as attractive.
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