Pomelo are one of the hardest fruits to find without visiting specialist food stores or getting lucky at the supermarket. If you’re a fan, then perhaps you’ve managed to buy a load of them – more than you can eat? Well, how should you store them?
Can You Freeze Pomelo?
Yes, you can freeze pomelo for up to 12 months, though only the fruit wedges and not the skin. To freeze pomelo, first, peel the fruit, and then separate out the individual wedges. Remove any pith, and place them into a freezer bag. Remove excess air, and freeze.
Does Pomelo Freeze Well? Sometimes
Can You Refreeze Pomelo? Yes
How to Freeze Pomelo
Freezing pomelo isn’t complex but there are a few steps you’ll need to take if you want your pomelo to freeze well:
- Prep the Fruit: Peeling the fruit should be a relatively simple job, but in this case, you need to make sure that you avoid puncturing the fruit segments themselves. The reason for this is that any leaking fruit juice would cause the fruit segments to freeze unevenly.
- Separate the Segments: Ultimately, you’ll eat the pomelo as segments so you might as well get this prep work done now so cut the pomelo into segments, being careful not to damage any.
- Remove Excess Pith: Removing the pith from the pomelo is vital as that element of the fruit doesn’t contain any flavour other than bitterness.
- Bag Up: Place the pomelo into a freezer bag, making sure the wedges sit as flat as possible. Where possible, each of the wedges should be laying flat, such that the final bag forms a bumpy, yet relatively flat, layer.
- Seal: To ensure that the pomelo retains its flavour, remove all the excess air you can, and then seal the bag that you’re using.
- Freeze: Finally, pop the bag of segments into the freezer where they will keep for around 12 months.
3 Tips for Freezing Pomelo
Now you know how to freeze it, we’ve got our 3 top tips which we strongly recommend following when freezing pomelo to have the best results:
Separate the Segments
Separating the segments will make the whole process of freezing the pomelo much, much more manageable. On top of that, every wedge of pomelo that you freeze will likely retain its shape and structure a little better when frozen separately.
Do Not Freeze the Skin
The skin of a pomelo, and any citrus fruit, is too dense and thick to freeze well. There is some level of oiliness in the skin that makes it unable to freeze, while the pulp underneath does. This disparate nature of the two leads to a fruit explosion in most cases.
Expect an Unfortunate Loss of Texture
Because there’s a lot of moisture within the pulp of a pomelo, you can expect rather a lot of textural loss during the freezing process. The fibrous tissue of the pomelo can become damaged by the freezing process, leading to a poor final eating experience. You can mask this by using the pomelo in smoothies or purees.
How Long Can You Freeze Pomelo?
You can freeze pomelo for between 10 and 12 months. Over that time, the pomelo may lose some level of texture, but it will tend to retain any flavour from the juice itself.
To ensure you get the full 12 months in the freezer, we recommend using a thicker freezer bag, which should protect the fruit from freezer burn quite nicely.
A whole pomelo will last for around 2 weeks in the fridge. Once prepared and cut into segments, it will only keep for 2 to 3 days, however.
How Do You Defrost Pomelo?
The simplest way to defrost pomelo is to transfer the sealed bag from the freezer into the fridge. This will allow the ice to thaw while also allowing for the pomelo to be stored at a safe temperature.
If you’re going to use pomelo in a blender to make a smoothie or puree then you don’t even need to thaw it. Just use the segments straight from the freezer.
Can You Refreeze Pomelo?
Yes, you can refreeze pomelo.
Not only does it not contain any bacteria that may become contaminated when thawed, but the intense citrus nature of it prevents bacterial growth. Therefore, it’s safe to refreeze pomelo.
Despite the safety, though, the texture will degrade more and more over time, with the final texture leaving an awful lot to be desired.
Does Pomelo Freeze Well?
Yes and no. Pomelo freezes well in that the flavour is well maintained. However, the texture is often totally lost, with the final pomelo not possessing anywhere near the texture it once had.
If you’re only planning to use the pomelo in a blended or crushed drink, though, you could easily use it all the same – the flavour is very much still present.
Related FAQs
If you’ve still got questions about freezing pomelo or pomelo in general, then these may help:
Although you can keep pomelo out at room temperature, you will extend its shelflife by storing it in the fridge.
