To prevent mold on banh chung and banh tet after Tet, remember these tips

During Tet holiday, every family usually has a lot of square glutinous rice cake and cylindrical glutinous rice cake. These are traditional dishes that cannot be missed during Tet. If not properly preserved, these dishes can easily become spoiled and moldy. However, if you know how to preserve them, they can last for a long time.

In addition to principles such as thoroughly washing and drying the banana leaves, tightly wrapping the cakes, thoroughly boiling the cakes, and letting them dry after boiling, you need to remember the following things to extend the shelf life of the cakes:

Clean cutting knife

To extend the shelf life of the cakes, you should use a clean cutting knife. Do not use a knife that has touched other foods, as this will cause the cakes to spoil faster after cutting. You can use the string that wraps the cakes to divide them into multiple portions without needing a knife.

Avoid excessive cutting

Note that you should not pre-cut all of the square glutinous rice cake or cylindrical glutinous rice cake because these dishes have a large size. If there are many people eating, you should cut more portions, but if there are few people, you should only take enough. The reason is that when the cakes are exposed to air and dust, they can easily develop bacteria, spoil, and lose their flavor.

Therefore, for the remaining portion after cutting, you should wrap it tightly with banana leaves or plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator. Each time you want to eat, you can steam it or use a microwave to reheat it.

Preserve the cakes in the refrigerator

If the cakes have been cut, you should wrap them tightly and store them in the chilled compartment of the refrigerator. If the cakes have not been used and you want to preserve them for longer, store the cakes in the freezer compartment of the refrigerator but make sure to wrap them in an airtight plastic bag and remove all the air.

Before eating, you should thaw the cakes on the chilled compartment. If you don’t have time, you can soak the bag of cakes in cool water to defrost them.

If you find mold on the outer layer of the cakes, you should inspect them carefully. If the mold is only on the outer layer, you can heat the cakes on a small gas stove or put them back in a pot to cook again. But if the mold has penetrated into the cakes, you should discard them and not consume them.