Homemade jam. Jam "raspberry flavor"

Everyone knows the taste of jam since childhood. Our grandmothers stocked them for future use in order to enjoy a sweet treat on cold winter evenings. But does everyone know how to cook it properly?

How to cook jam

Jam in winter - a piece of summer in a jar. How pleasant it is to open a jar of jam on frosty winter evenings and remember the warmth and sun. The right jam looks very nice. Berries or pieces of ripe fruit are evenly distributed in a thick transparent syrup. Although some craftsmen can cook from zucchini, carrots or chestnuts. There is already someone who is much into it, but there are still general rules for cooking “summer in a jar”.

1. First of all, you need to seriously approach the selection of fruits for jam. Give preference to berries grown in your area. This reduces the risk of storing harmful chemicals for the winter instead of healthy fruits. Slightly unripe fruits are best suited for jam. If you take overripe - there is a risk of getting an incomprehensible mess. It also does not have a positive effect on the beauty and taste of the product, if you use raw materials with signs of deterioration - rot spots, damage from birds or insects, crumpled sides.
2. The right utensils are very important in this matter. A copper, not deep basin is best suited. Make sure that there are no rust stains or green deposits on the dishes. Enamelware is not suitable for the simple reason that everything burns in it most often. Which, of course, will spoil the taste of the finished product.
3. Before you start cooking, the fruits must be carefully sorted out. Remove leaves, crushed berries, seeds and stalks. Also rinse well with clean water.
4. Properly prepared syrup is the most important thing in preparing this delicacy. The syrup is prepared like this - take the amount of sugar equal to the weight of the berries. If the feedstock is 3 kg, then pour 3 kg of sugar too. Plus, for every kilogram of sand you need to add 200 g of water. Mix everything and bring to a boil over low heat. A good syrup will slowly drip off the spoon.
5. After boiling, pour the berries into the syrup. On the contrary, you can pour jars with berries already laid out with syrup and boil the whole mass.

When cooking, proportions must be observed. If you put less sugar than according to the recipe, there is a risk that the jam will ferment. Packed in glass jars with tin lids. To prevent the jam from becoming moldy, the jars must be dry and thoroughly washed. Also, the storage place for rolled cans should also be dry and well ventilated.

How to cook jam for five minutes

As the name implies, this method is fast, easy and allows you to save the maximum amount of nutrients in berries and fruits.

For quick preparation, the berries must be washed, sorted from twigs, seeds and dried, then transferred to a deep basin and covered with sugar, mixed and left for several hours so that the berries or fruits give juice. Then put on the stove and, stirring, wait until it boils. After that, cook for another 5 minutes. If the jam turned out to be liquid, boil again. You can also add a little citric acid if the finished jam turned out cloying. Then mix thoroughly and boil again.

You can add spices to the jam. For example, apples and pears go well with cinnamon. Orange - with cloves and cardamom.

How to cook apple jam

When making apple jam:

1. Wash the fruits, cut into pieces, removing the middle. For a particularly tender apple jam, the fruits can be grated on a coarse grater, after removing the peel.
2. Make sugar syrup by mixing sugar and water in the ratio of 1 kilogram of sugar to 200 ml of water. Pour in the apples. Cook over high heat until the syrup thickens.
3. Or sprinkle chopped apples with sugar and leave for a couple of hours. Then bring the mixture to a boil.
4. After the syrup is ready, pour the apple pulp into it and cook over high heat for 5 minutes. Then reduce and cook for another 5 minutes.
5. Pour into jars and roll up with a tin lid.

If the jam is liquid - what to do

The easiest way to thicken the jam is to add gelatin or agar-agar to it. Also for this purpose, you can add grated apple pulp, currants, lemon juice or orange zest to the jam. These pectin-containing natural products will not only give the desired density to the jam, but also add zest to its taste.

So that in the future the jam does not turn out to be too liquid, pay attention to the quality of the berries. Raw materials harvested in rainy weather become excessively juicy. And therefore, it will take more time to digest excess liquid. The same goes for freshly washed berries. Let the water drain before adding raw materials to the bowl.

Tips if the jam turned out to be very liquid:

1. Don't forget to skim off the foam.
2. Do not use a saucepan to cook this delicacy - dishes with low walls will help excess moisture evaporate more quickly.
3. Do not keep the product on fire for 3 hours in a row. It is better to cook it in 3 stages. Boil the raw materials, hold on fire for about 15 minutes. Then turn off the stove and cool the delicacy. Repeat 2 more times.

Mold on jam, what to do

If mold is found after opening the jar, then you can simply remove it and eat the jam, since the mold does not penetrate inside. You can also boil moldy jam with sugar, at the rate of 100 g of sand per 1 kg of jam. Hold on fire for 5-7 minutes. Rolling up such jam again is not worth it. Better rather than him.

Mold can occur if:

1. The jam is poorly cooked.
2. Not enough sugar added.
3. The jars were screwed on with lids still hot. When twisting still hot jars of jam, condensation forms. And excess moisture is mold's best friend.
4. The jars were poorly washed or not sterilized.
5. The finished product was stored in a humid room with poor air circulation.

If the jam has fermented

• Fermented jam can be boiled with sugar and put into jars. Calculation of 100 g of granulated sugar per 1 kg of jam.
• Add water to it and cook compote. Keep in mind that in this case, the raw materials should not smell strongly of wine.
• Add as stuffing to . Having heated up in the stove, all the formed alcohol compounds will disintegrate.
• Make homemade liqueur from fermented jam. Place "suspicious" cans closer to the battery. The bacteria will do their job. It is better to remove the lid, and tie the neck of the jar with gauze folded in 1 layer. Usually the process of active fermentation takes 2-3 days. And about 2-3 more weeks for the product to ripen. The readiness of the liquor can be determined by the absence of bubbles and the clarification of the infusion.

There is also such a situation that the jam, on the contrary, candied. This happens due to the fact that the recipe was violated during cooking and a little more sugar was put in than it should have been. This problem can be solved by simply placing the jars in warm water and heating the water to a boil. The sugar will dissolve. To avoid this in the future, it is recommended to add a little lemon juice or acid to each jar.

In this section, I hope you will find jam recipes that will eventually become your family's favorite. I tried a lot of different recipes before I chose the most successful ones for myself. All recipes are tested by me personally!

What winter dessert can be called traditional for our country? Of course, jam is a fragrant, tasty, very sweet delicacy, the taste of which is familiar to everyone since childhood. They are poured over pancakes, pancakes and ice cream or eaten with a spoon, washed down with hot tea.
Some types of jam have healing properties and save those with a sweet tooth from colds, seasonal vitamin deficiencies, and annoying coughs. In addition, thick jam is an ideal filling for baking.

Space for imagination

Classic jam recipes are popular at all times. However, those who are really passionate about cooking know that during the harvesting season there is an opportunity not only to thoroughly stock up on sweets for the winter, but also to experiment from the heart. Bold housewives create different, sometimes quite unexpected combinations of fruits, berries, nuts, flower petals, vegetables and spices. Thanks to such experiences, the folk piggy bank of jam recipes for the winter is constantly updated with new masterpieces.

Little secrets of a successful jam recipe

The main thing is to come to the kitchen in a good mood. To make the cooking process more interesting and more fun, you can involve your household members in the work. Children are especially fond of tinkering with berries and fruits. With their participation, the jam always turns out to be very tasty, as if charged with positive energy.
In addition to a good jam recipe and the presence of assistants, the choice of dishes is also important. It is more convenient to cook fragrant sweetness in enameled or aluminum basins and large cups, gently stirring with a slotted spoon or wooden spatula. You can not do without a large spoon with special holes, it is needed to remove the foam. A deep ladle will be needed to fill the jars.

Jam loves attention, without constant stirring it tends to burn and absorb the smell of burning. With a long absence of the hostess in the kitchen, she treacherously runs to the stove, so do not leave the delicacy unattended.

At the end of the working day, do not forget to praise yourself and your loved ones, as well as tasting your favorite dessert.

Before we proceed directly to cooking jam, I want to tell you a few chips that will come in handy in the process of making jam.

1. Before making jam from cherries or sweet cherries, it is necessary to soak the berries in salted water, at the rate of 100 g of salt per 10 liters of water, this will get rid of the worms, if they are there.

2. The ratio of cherries and sugar is 1: 1, you can 1 kg of cherries per 800 g of sugar or 1 kg of berries 0.5 kg of sugar, adjust yourself.

3. Instead of lemon juice, you can add a pinch of salt to the jam, this enriches the taste, and the salt is not felt.

4. If you plan to store the jam for a long time, you need to add a gelling powder for jam, or a handful of green gooseberries.

5. In order to avoid foam, when cooking jam, you need to add 1 tbsp. butter, the foam will disappear. Butter will not affect the quality of jam.

6. To preserve color, add 1 tbsp. lemon juice.

Cherry jam recipes with and without pit

Cherry jam with five-minute bone

We need:

• 1 kg cherries
• 800 g sugar
• 5 g gelatin for jam

Cooking:

1. Wash the cherries and cover with sugar, leave for at least 4 hours, preferably at night. Add gelatin, stir and put on low heat, cook.

Be sure to remove the foam and stir. From the moment it boils, cook for 5 minutes.

2. Ready jam, pour immediately into sterilized jars and roll up.

Pitted cherry jam

We need:

• 2 kg cherries
• 2 kg sugar

Cooking:

1. My cherry, we clean it from stones. Currently, there are special machines for cleaning,

I use the old-fashioned way, freeing the cherry from the stone with a pin (paper clip).

2. We do not throw away the bones, to them and the resulting juice, when cleaning cherries, add sugar and set to boil until the sugar dissolves.

Then we remove the foam and take out the bones, they can be thrown away, we will no longer need them.

3. In the resulting syrup, pour the cherry and cook until the first boil,

turn off the fire and leave for a day. Then boil the jam for 40 minutes and pack it in sterilized jars.

Pitted cherry jam with almonds

According to this recipe, we also cook jam with raspberries and strawberries.

We need:

• 1 kg cherries
• 0.5 kg sugar
• 30 ml lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• 20 g jam gel
• 150 g of almonds can be replaced with any nut)

Cooking:

1. My cherries, pitted and covered with half the norm of sugar, left for 4 hours. During this time, the cherry should release juice, about 300 ml, if you add boiled water less.

2. Mix cherries with gelatin, remaining sugar, ground cinnamon, lemon juice and almonds, mix everything, bring to a boil.

Cook, stirring, over low heat for 10 minutes.

Important: for diabetics, we cook jam with fructose or stevia.

Pitted cherry jam recipes

We need:

• 1.5 kg cherries
• 1 kg sugar
• 100 ml apple juice can be canned or nectar)
• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon with sugar, optional

Cooking:

1. Wash the cherry.

Tip: so that the berries do not boil, soak the cherries in a soda solution for 30 minutes (1 tsp of soda for 1 liter of water).

2. Pour sugar with juice and set the syrup to boil over low heat.

3. Put vanilla sugar and cherries, mix and bring to a boil.

After boiling, cook for 15-20 minutes, do not forget to remove the foam. 10 minutes before the end of cooking, add cinnamon. We close hot in jars.

Yellow cherry jam recipes

You can talk a lot about the benefits of yellow cherries, but I want to speak from my own experience. My children, in childhood, and my grandchildren suffered from acetone, I don’t know how in other cities, but in Odessa, children get sick with acetone very often, I can’t say what it’s called correctly, from a medical point of view, but the point is not this. So, yellow cherries help a lot in this matter, in any form.

We need:

• 1 kg yellow cherries, peeled
• 1/2 lemon
• 300 g sugar
• 1 st. boiled water

Cooking:

1. Washed cherries, we clean them from the stone, with such tools.

2. We shift it into a basin for cooking, and fill it with boiled water, add sugar. We put on a slow fire and, while stirring, cook for 3-5 minutes.

3. Cut the lemon into thin slices, wash it first and pour boiling water over it, be sure to remove the bones, otherwise it will be bitter. Add it to the cherries and boil for 10 minutes, you can simply cover, remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes, and then boil for 10 minutes and pack in jars and roll up.

Pitted cherry-cherry jam

We need: (jam yield 1.6 kg)

• 1 kg cherries, pitted
• 1 kg cherries, pitted
• 1.5 kg sugar

Cooking:

1. Prepared cherries and cherries, pour into a saucepan, add sugar and put on fire, mix,

after it boils, take out the berry,

and continue to boil the syrup for 30 minutes.

2. We return the berry to the syrup and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes, put it in a sterilized dish.

Gooseberry jam recipes

Emerald green gooseberry jam

We need: (yield 3 liters of jam)

• 2 kg gooseberries, green
• 2 handfuls of cherry leaves
• 5 st. water (1 st = 250 ml
• 2 kg sugar

Cooking:

1. Pour water into the pan and put the washed cherry leaves, bring to a boil and boil for 15 minutes, then take out with a slotted spoon, set aside 1/3 of them, the rest can be thrown away.

2. My gooseberries, cut off the tails and prick with a toothpick in 2-3 places, this must be done so that the berries do not turn into gruel.

3. In a decoction of leaves, add sugar and cook until the sugar dissolves. Then, pour the berries with this syrup, in portions, so as not to burst, leave for 5-6 hours. You can do it in the evening and leave it overnight.

4. Then put on a slow fire, boil for 2-3 minutes, cool for 6 hours, then put the remaining leaves, mix and cook for 5 minutes.

Transfer the finished jam to sterilized jars.

Raw gooseberry jam

We need:

• 1 kg gooseberries
• 1 kg sugar
• 2 oranges (lemons)

Cooking:

1. Washed gooseberries, pass through a meat grinder with orange, with skin, pitted.

2. Add sugar to this mixture and mix thoroughly until smooth, let stand overnight.

3. Arrange in sterilized jars in the morning, cover with nylon lids and store in the refrigerator.

Tip: jam can be divided into plastic bags or glasses and frozen in the freezer.

Recipe for jam from any berry

According to the recipe, you can cook jam from currants, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, etc.

We need:

• 1 kg of any berries
• 1 -1.2 kg of sugar

Cooking:

1. We fill the berry with sugar and leave it overnight.

2. Then we send it to the fire and boil it. To avoid the appearance of foam, put 1 tbsp. butter, and to preserve the color 1 tbsp. lemon juice (OPTIONAL) Cook for 5 minutes, remove from heat and cool until the next day.

3. In the morning of the next day, boil for 20 minutes. We roll the finished jam into jars.

Raw cranberry jam

For a 3 liter jar of cranberries = 2 kg of sugar, 2 oranges, 1 lemon, pass through a meat grinder, mix, add 2 tbsp. vodka. We shift it into jars and close it with nylon lids, you can store it in the basement.

Blackcurrant jam

1st option

We need:

• 1 kg blackcurrant
• 1 st. water (1 st = 250 ml)
• 1.5 kg sugar

Cooking:

1. Pour currants with water and put on fire, bring to a boil. We put sugar in small portions, each time we wait until it dissolves.

2. From the moment of boiling, cook for 5 minutes and distribute the finished jam into jars.

2nd option

We need: 1 tbsp =250 ml

• 7 art. currants
• 9 st. Sahara
• 3 art. water

Cooking:

1. Boil water, put currants, bring to a boil, then add sugar and boil for 20 minutes. Cork in sterilized jars.

Blackcurrant jam without sugar

We need:

• 1 kg currant
• pot of water
• towel or pot holder

Cooking:

1. We put a pot of water on the fire, put a towel on the bottom.

2. Fill a 0.5 liter jar with currants and put in a saucepan with water. We warm it up, as the berries settle in the jar, add the berries, and do this until the jar is full, with the top warmed up. Roll up the jar tightly, store in the basement.

Raspberry jam

We need:

• 1 kg raspberries
• 800 g sugar

Cooking:

1. Sprinkle raspberries with sugar and leave overnight.

2. Cook the next day, over medium heat for 5 minutes, from the moment of boiling.

3. Ready jam, pour into jars, wrap and leave to cool.

Raspberry jam without cooking

Cooking:

1. Mix 1 kg of berries and 1 kg of sugar and beat in a blender. Pour into jars, cover with nylon lids, store in the refrigerator. Or pour into plastic glasses, cover with cling film and freeze in the freezer.

Video: How to sterilize jars and lids

If you read the comments, after watching the video, you will learn even more ways to sterilize lids and jars.

Happy tea drinking in winter!

1. Royal gooseberry jam

Ingredients:
Large green unripe gooseberries - 5 cups,
Sugar - 1 kg,
Cherry leaf - 2 cups
Water - 3 glasses,
Peeled walnut - 2 cups

Cooking method:
Release the gooseberries from the stalks, “flowers”, carefully cut and remove the pulp with seeds from the nick, trying to preserve the integrity of the berry. Pour 1 cup of cherry leaf with water, bring to a boil and simmer for 3-5 minutes, making sure that the water remains green. Strain, pour over the berries, put in a cold place for 24 hours. Prepare the second glass of cherry leaves as follows - remove the rough parts, divide each leaf into 4 parts. Drain the cherry broth from the berries and put a piece of cherry leaf and a piece of walnut into each berry, sprinkle the berries with vodka. Add sugar to the strained broth and cook the syrup over low heat for about 15 minutes (make sure that it does not “turn pink”!). Pour the berries into the prepared syrup and cook for 15 minutes. IMPORTANT! - Chill very quickly! - to keep the green color.

2. MINT JAM

‣ First way

250 g of mint leaves, 1 kg of sugar, 2 lemons, 0.5 l of water.

Rinse mint leaves with stems, dry slightly and chop. Finely chop the lemons along with the peel. Put everything in a saucepan and boil for 10 minutes. Leave for a day.
After that, squeeze the mixture, filter the infusion, add sugar to it and cook until tender. Pour hot jam into boiled jars and immediately roll up.

‣ Second way

400 g of mint leaves, 1 kg of sugar, 1 teaspoon of citric acid, 1 glass of water.

Wash the mint in cold water, put it in a colander, gently blot with a towel. Pouring into a saucepan, alternate with sugar, taken in the amount of half the prescription rate. Top with citric acid mixed in a tablespoon of water. Shake, cover and leave for 6 hours. In the meantime, boil the syrup from the remaining sugar and one glass of water, remove the foam and pour the mint juice into it. After the prescribed 6 hours, put the mint on the fire and boil over low heat for 5 minutes. Hot pour the jam into sterile jars and roll up.

2.1. MINT JAM

Mint jam is not only unusual and very pleasant in taste, but also good for health: it helps with colds and stomach diseases.

200-300 gr. mint
0.5 l. water (I poured more, I just thought of it and did it right)
1-2 lemons (better taste and smell)
1 kg. sugar (if more water, then more sugar)

So ... collected mint leaves along with twigs and stems (and I also with flowers), lemons, cut together with the “skin”, pour water and cook for 10 minutes. Infuse this magical brew for one day. After a day, squeeze the mass, and strain the infusion. Add sugar and cook until done. The word readiness frightened me, but ... I cooked for two hours on low heat, removing the foam. Then later ... after three hours I boiled it again and poured it into jars. It is better to put parchment in the lid so that mold does not appear due to condensation after a while. That's all ... In winter, God forbid you catch a cold, you will have a medicine or just a sweet "summer"

3. "LIVE JAM" FROM RASPBERRY AND CURRANT

From raspberries:

For every 1 kg of raspberries
1.5 kg sugar
Sort the raspberries and put them in a cup. Cover with sugar and leave for 2 hours. Then mix with a wooden spatula in one direction. Stir the jam for a day until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the jam into sterile and dry jars, close with plastic lids and store in refrigerator for about 4-5 months.

From currant:

For every 1 kg of currant
1.5 kg sugar
Sort the currants, remove the stalks so that there are only berries, wash and put on a sieve to drain excess liquid. Transfer the currants to a cup. Cover with sugar and leave for 2 hours. Mix. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Pour the jam into sterile and dry jars, close with plastic lids and store in the refrigerator for about 4-5 months.
If you want to keep the jam for a short time, then you can reduce the amount of sugar by 500 gr.

4. KIWI AND LEMON JAM

Ingredients:
Kiwi 1 kg,
lemon 1 piece,
juice of 1 lemon,
sugar 900 g

Cooking:
1. Wash the lemon thoroughly with a brush and cut into thin circles. Put in a saucepan along with 100 g of sugar and 100 ml of water. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
2. Peel the kiwi, cut into circles and put in a saucepan with lemon circles. Add lemon juice and remaining sugar. Boil. Pour into a ceramic dish and leave at room temperature overnight.
3. The next day, return the jam to the pan, bring to a boil again and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour into sterilized jars, let cool. Then close and store in a dark, cool place.

5. ORANGE PEEL JAM

Ingredients:
Orange - 3 pcs
Water - 400 ml
Sugar - 300 g
Citric acid (half of an incomplete tsp) - 0.5 tsp.
Ginger (root, optional. You can not add) - 10 g

Cooking:
Wash the oranges thoroughly, pour boiling water over them (in order to wash off the wax that is applied so that the orange does not deteriorate during transportation) and clean it in any way convenient for you. I cut the peel in the center so that I got two hemispheres. Then she cut each hemisphere in half and each part into three more strips.

If the orange is thin-skinned, the inside can be left, if it is thick-skinned, remove a little from the inside so that the curls are easier to wrap and they are neater. My oranges were thin-skinned, so I didn’t take off the inner white part - I photographed it for a sample.

Roll each piece of peel into a tight roll and string on a thread like beads. The thread must be pulled tighter so that the curls do not unfold. Pour orange beads with cold water. Change water two to three times a day. It is necessary to soak the peel for 3-4 days, until the crusts become soft and stop bitter. It's even convenient - you can add the peel as you eat oranges, so the soaking period can be extended by two to three days. After that, boil the crusts 3-4 times for 15-20 minutes, each time changing the water. After each boiling, the peel should be doused with cold water. I did it very simply - I boiled the kettle and filled a bowl of cold water. I boiled it for the first time - I put the beads in a bowl of cold water, poured fresh hot water into a saucepan and put the peel back in. And so several times.

Now we need to weigh the peel. I took three oranges - it turned out exactly 200 grams.
The proportions for jam are as follows - 1.5 times more sugar, twice as much water. If you do not have scales, I give other proportions: for 10 oranges - 1 kg of sugar, 1-1.2 liters of water and 1 tsp. citric acid (or juice of half a lemon). I read such proportions in another recipe, but I did it myself as indicated above.

So - peels from 3 oranges (200 g), 300 g of sugar, 400 g of water, (as a gag - 10 g of ginger root cut into small pieces) put in a saucepan and cook until slightly thickened - the syrup should be quite liquid , similar after cooling to very liquid honey. Add citric acid before removing from heat. We remove the threads after the jam has cooled. Pour into a clean dry jar. The output turned out to be a little more than a 0.5 liter jar. How much is stored - I can not say. I had a jar of jam at room temperature for only a week.)) They ate it very quickly.))

6. RASPBERRY JAM WITH VANILLA

Ingredients:
250 g raspberries
Juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons
500 g sugar
Vanilla (1 vanilla bean / 1 tablespoon vanilla)

Cooking:
Put raspberries, juice and 2 tablespoons of water in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Reduce the temperature and leave to cook for 5 minutes.
Add sugar and stir until completely dissolved.
Scrape off the vanilla pod and let it simmer for another 10 minutes.
Taste the jam and if it is not ready, leave to cook for another 5 minutes. Pour the jam into a jar and serve.

7. BLUEBERRY JAM

Products

1kg blueberries
1.2-1 kg of sugar
2-3 grams of citric acid

Transfer the prepared blueberries to a cooking bowl, pour hot 70% sugar syrup (700 g of sugar per 300 ml of water) and soak in the syrup for 3-4 hours.

After that, cook over low heat until fully cooked, removing the foam. At the end of cooking, you can add citric acid.

Pack hot blueberry jam in prepared, heated jars. Pasteurize at 95°C: half-liter jars - 10 minutes, liter - 15 minutes.

8. CHERRY JAM WITH AMARETTO…

It is prepared very simply and quickly, and most importantly, it is unrealistically tasty.

Ingredients:
Pitted cherries - 1.5 kg
Sugar - 525 gr
Amaretto liqueur - 100 ml

Amaretto Cherry Jam Recipe:
First, place the cherries and sugar in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook for about 35-40 minutes, skimming from time to time, until a thick syrup is reached. Then pour in the amaretto, stir well, bring to a boil and remove from heat. Pour into sterilized hot jars and close with sterilized lids.

On the floor or on a shelf, spread a double-folded kitchen towel, put the jars turned upside down. Wrap stocks in an old blanket or a couple of kitchen towels and leave to cool completely. After cooling, turn to normal position. Store in pantry for up to 6 months. After opening, store in the refrigerator.
Bon appetit!

Jun 6, 2016 admin

1. Royal pear jam.

Unusually tasty and beautiful pear jam can be cooked from very inexpensive raw materials. At the beginning of the season and at the very end, small hard pears are on sale. They are not suitable for eating, but such pears are just perfect for jam!
Hard pears keep their shape well when cooked, the addition of saffron gives the jam a beautiful sunny color. Wine, lavender and honey turn a simple jam into a royal one. In winter, when you open a jar of such jam and put it on the table, you will feel that summer itself is your guest!

Ingredients for a 500 ml jar you will need:

500g small hard pears (net weight)
250 ml aromatic dry or dessert wine (muscat, etc.)
1/2 lemon
1 tbsp fragrant honey
250g sugar
1/8 tsp strands of saffron
1/2 tsp lavender flowers (dried or fresh)
1 tsp pectin
1/2 st. table vinegar

Cooking.

1. Pour cold water (2 liters) into a saucepan and add vinegar to the water. Prepare a cleaning bowl.
2. Peel and cut the pears as follows:
- cut off the petiole and the very top of the pear;
- peel the skin;
- cut the pear into 4 parts;
- cut the middle with a small knife, starting from the top, where there are solid remains of the cutting and ending with the seed box.
3. Immerse the finished pear slices in vinegar water.
4. Put all cleanings (including cuttings and seeds) into a saucepan and add wine to them. Put the pot on the fire and bring the wine to a boil.
5. Pour saffron into one small cup, lavender flowers into another and pour some hot wine into both cups. Set the saffron and lavender aside to infuse. Boil the cleanings with wine over low heat for another 15 minutes.
6. Strain the boiled wine into a jam bowl. Wring out the cleaning thoroughly and discard. The wine after boiling will be cloudy and slightly sticky from the boiled pectin.
7. Put a bowl of wine on the fire, add sugar and, stirring, bring the syrup to a boil.
8. Drain the pears in a colander, drain and add to the bowl of sugar syrup. Through a fine sieve, pour infusion of saffron and infusion of lavender into the basin.
9. Wash the lemon thoroughly with a hard washcloth and dish soap, cut in half, and then cut into thin slices. Add lemon to pears.
10. Bring the jam to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to a minimum and cook the pears, shaking the basin occasionally, until all the slices are soft and transparent.
11. Mix pectin with 1 tbsp. sugar, pour it into the basin and stir so that it is evenly dispersed in the syrup. Add honey to jam. Bring the jam to a boil, cook for one minute.
In order for the jam to fully reveal its taste and aroma, do not rush to eat it, let it ripen for a month or two.
12. Transfer the jam to a clean, dry and hot jar. Close the lid tightly and refrigerate.
Tip: If you don't want to use pectin, increase the amount of sugar to 350g per 500g pears.

2. Apricot jam.

Apricot jam has always been my favorite. Grandmother cooked it masterfully: she cut each berry, took out the bone, and broke it. She put the nucleoli back in and cooked like that. Amber, transparent jam with a marvelous aroma and taste was served on the table on special occasions.

Ingredients:

1300 - 1350 gr apricots, hard, with green barrels (gross weight, pitted. Net weight - 1 kg).
700 -1200 gr sugar
1 lemon

Cooking:

1. Wash the apricots by immersing them in water.
2. Cut the apricots in half, remove the pits.
3. Sprinkle apricots with sugar and refrigerate for 2 days.
If the fruits are very soft, add some alcohol to the sugar, ideally food alcohol, at the rate of 100 ml per 1 kg of raw materials. Under the influence of alcohol, the fruit will become more solid and will not boil.
4. Remove the apricots from the refrigerator two or three times and stir, lifting wet sugar from the bottom.
5. Put apricots together with the resulting syrup in a bowl for cooking. A layer of wet sugar will remain at the bottom of the dish - it also needs to be scraped off and added to the berries. Stir the apricots gently - the sugar will disperse. Place the bowl over medium heat and heat, stirring constantly. After 5-15 minutes, the syrup will boil.
The time it takes the syrup to come to a boil depends on the amount of sugar.

6. As soon as the syrup boils, reduce the heat to the very minimum. Add cinnamon and lemon.
As for the lemon, check that it is not bitter. If bitter, then just squeeze the juice. The acid will help release the pectin better. If you cook with lemon, then cut it, taking into account whether you will then get it out of the jam or not. If you remove, cut into large pieces, if you leave, then cut into very thin slices.
7. A lot of foam will appear in the basin, all the berries will float to the surface.
Do not rush to remove the foam - at this stage it is useless.
Make sure the boil is even, fire in the center of the basin - and leave the jam alone. Let it simmer gently for 15 minutes.
8. Remove the jam from the heat and leave to cool for 8-12 hours.
9. Return the basin with jam to the fire, bring to a boil again and cook for 10-15 minutes. Remove from heat and leave for 8-12 hours.
10. Bring the jam to a boil for the last time, cook until tender and pack in clean and hot jars.
Apricots are more tender than cherries or sweet cherries, because their skin is very easily separated when heated and the apricots themselves are boiled, so they are kept in sugar for a long time, and it is advisable to cook them in several stages, although it is possible in one if the full amount of sugar is taken .
If you see during the cooking process "malicious troublemakers" - boiled halves - remove them from the jam so that they do not spoil the syrup. No matter how carefully you sort the fruits, there will always be a couple of too ripe ones.
As a rule, no spices are added to apricot jam, but apricot pits can be added (they are added at the beginning of cooking, after removing the skin like from almonds).

3. Jam from pumpkin, dried apricots and lemon.

An unusual, very fragrant jam that can be cooked in late autumn and winter.
The main thing is to find a good, juicy pumpkin. Cooked jam should be put in the refrigerator for a week; when the pumpkin absorbs the taste of dried apricots, the taste of the jam will change, it will become completely apricot. A very pleasant taste and texture contrast is created when a slice of dried apricots, pumpkin, lemon or ginger is alternately placed on a spoon.
If you do not like ginger - do not add, but do not refuse lemon!

Ingredients:

1 kg pumpkin
300 gr dried apricots
300 gr sugar
1 lemon
2 tsp pectin
1 tbsp chopped candied ginger
a little nutmeg
2 glasses of water

Cooking.

1. Cut the dried apricots into cubes, cover with hot water and leave for 30 minutes.
2. Cut the pumpkin into 1x1 cm cubes (or as you like), cut the lemon into 4 parts lengthwise and then cut each part into thin slices across (with the peel).
3. Drain water from dried apricots into a saucepan, add sugar, heat until a clear syrup is formed.
4. Add pumpkin cubes, dried apricots, lemon and cook until the pumpkin is soft.
5. Mix pectin with 1 tsp. sugar, pour into the jam, add a little grated nutmeg and cook for a minute or two.
6. Pack the jam in jars, let cool and refrigerate for a week.

4. Plum jam (jam) with liquor and spices.

Any plum goes well with spices, so plum chutney and pickled plums, and plum jam with spices are unusually tasty.
This year I cooked several different varieties of jam: with cardamom and cinnamon, with allspice and bay leaf.
But the most delicious was jam with Amaretto liqueur! The taste of plum, harmoniously merging with the nutty note of the liquor, has acquired completely new shades.

1 200g plums (net) - hard, not fully ripe
400 - 600g sugar *
1/2 lemon
2 tsp pectin + 2 tbsp. Sahara

Option 1: 10 allspice allspice, 2 bay leaves
Option 2: 4 - 5 cardamom pods, 1 cinnamon cinnamon stick
Option 3: 60ml Amaretto liqueur

Cooking:

1. Put the plums in a large bowl and wash thoroughly, changing the water until it runs clear.
2. Cut the plums in half, remove the stones.
3. Place the plums in a saucepan or basin, sprinkle them with sugar and shake well to distribute the sugar evenly. Cover the plums with foil and leave on the table for two hours (you can put in the refrigerator for up to 12-24 hours).
If the fruits are very soft, add some alcohol to the sugar, ideally - food alcohol, at the rate of 100 ml per 1 kg of raw materials. Under the influence of alcohol, the fruit will become more solid and will not boil.
4. In a saucepan (basin) for cooking jam, put the plums along with sugar and juice. A layer of wet sugar will remain at the bottom of the dish - it also needs to be scraped off and added to the berries. Put the basin on a strong fire and gently mix the contents - the sugar will gradually turn into syrup. After 10-15 minutes, the syrup will boil.
The time it takes the syrup to come to a boil depends on the amount of sugar.
The more sugar in the jam, the faster the syrup will boil.
5. As soon as the syrup boils, reduce the heat to the smallest. Leave the berries to cook for 30 minutes. Periodically stir the jam by running a spatula along the bottom of the basin, under the berries. Do not remove the foam that has appeared, it will disappear on its own later if the granulated sugar is of good quality.
6. Remove the jam from the heat and leave to cool for a period of 2 hours to a day**.
7. Prepare jam jars. I usually put them in an oven preheated to 120 degrees C. Lids with rubber seals or separate seals are poured with boiling water.
8. Return the bowl with jam to the fire, add spices (option 1 and option 2), bring the jam to a boil and cook for 10 - 15 minutes. A sign of readiness: the berries settled to the bottom, became transparent and dark.
9. Remove large spices from the jam (bay leaf, cinnamon). Wash the lemon thoroughly, remove the zest, squeeze out the juice and add everything to the jam.
10. Mix the pectin with sugar, add to the jam, mix gently so that the pectin disperses. Bring the jam to a boil. Pour in the liquor (option 3).
Jam (jam) with Amaretto liqueur will be an excellent accompaniment to cheese.
11. Spread the jam in hot jars, cover with lids and put in a warm oven (temperature 100 degrees C) for 20 minutes (or cover the jars with a blanket so that the jam cools slowly).
A few notes and clarifications.
* If you don't want to use pectin, take the maximum amount of sugar given in the recipe.
** Plums are delicate berries, their skin is very easily separated when heated and the berries themselves are easily boiled, it is advisable to cook them in several stages, although it is possible in one if the full amount of sugar is taken. However, if jam instead of jam suits you, you can cook without aging even with a little sugar.

5. Jam from the freezer.

A very interesting and convenient way to prepare berry puree, which resembles jam in consistency, while containing a small amount of sugar and retaining all the vitamins.

Ingredients:

1 kilogram of any berries (strawberries, currants, raspberries, cherries)
250-350 gr cane sugar (depending on the taste of the berries)
30 gr pectin
1 tsp lemon juice (or more if the berries are very sweet)

Cooking.

1. Prepare the berries, as for regular jam - wash, dry.
2. Place the berries and lemon juice in a blender and blend them into a smooth puree.
3. Mix sugar with pectin, add to the blender bowl and process the puree for another minute or two until all the sugar has melted and the puree has thickened.
4. Transfer the "jam" to a clean, dry jar, close the lid and refrigerate. Jam will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
If you need to keep the jam for a longer time, put it in the freezer. Before use, a jar of jam should be rearranged in the refrigerator for several hours so that the jam thaws.
In winter, this jam can be prepared from freshly frozen berries.
The berries must first be partially thawed, you can not completely, and then cooked, mashed as fresh.
The amount of pectin and sugar affect the consistency and freezeability of the "jam".
The more pectin and sugar, the thicker the finished “jam” turns out and the less it hardens when frozen. Jam with the maximum amount of sugar and pectin can be served as a dessert, for example with yogurt or cream.
Jam with a minimum amount of sugar and pectin immediately after preparation resembles a delicate airy soufflé, and when frozen it resembles fruit ice cream, it can be frozen in molds and eaten in this quality! It's very tasty and healthy!

6. Peach jam with cardamom and thyme.

Ripe peaches flowing with fragrant sweet juice are one of the most beloved summer delicacies. But the jam from them turns out to be quite simple - there is not enough sourness and aroma to make the jam more interesting. However, this is an easy fix!
If you're lucky enough to buy small, firm, underripe peaches, try making spiced jam out of them. It has a completely unique taste and aroma thanks to cardamom and thyme. And the old secret of cooking jam will help keep the peach slices intact.

Ingredients for 2 jars of jam with a capacity of 0.5 l:

1kg peaches (net weight)
250 - 300g sugar
10 sprigs fresh thyme
5 boxes of cardamom
5 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup drinking alcohol or vodka*
1 tsp pectin

Cooking.

1. Immerse the peaches in a bowl of cold water and wash thoroughly.
2. Cut each peach into 4 parts, remove the stone.
3. Place the peaches in a bowl, sprinkle with sugar, lemon juice and alcohol. Cover the peaches with cling film or a lid and refrigerate for 48 hours. Twice a day, gently stir the peaches, swapping top and bottom.
4. On the third day, drain all the accumulated juice into a basin / pot for cooking jam and put the basin on the fire. Bring the syrup to a boil, put the peaches together with the remaining sugar in a bowl.
5. Bring the jam to a boil, constantly scraping off the stuck sugar from the bottom.
6. Cook the jam over low heat for 15 minutes.
7. Remove the bowl of jam to the side, let cool and cover with a film / lid. Leave the jam in the room for a day.
8. Crush the cardamom in a mortar, remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs. Add cardamom and thyme to the jam, stir. Put the basin on the fire, bring the jam to a boil again, reduce the heat and cook for 20 minutes.
9. While the jam is cooking, heat clean canning jars.
10. Mix pectin with 1 tbsp. sugar, pour the pectin into the jam.
11. Boil jam with pectin for 3 minutes, pour boiling jam into hot jars and seal immediately.
12. Put the jars in the oven, heated to a temperature of 120 - 140 degrees C and warm the jars for 15 minutes.
If you want to make jam without sterilizing the jars and/or adding pectin, increase the amount of sugar to 700 grams per kilogram of fruit.
Fresh thyme is optional, but if you don't have it, don't substitute dry thyme for fresh thyme, as dried thyme has a different smell and flavor.
* Adding alcohol or vodka to tender fruits or berries that you want to make jam from will help them stay intact while cooking. Alcohol has tannic properties, making fruits and berries harder.

Bon appetit!