Cooking strawberry jam

Fragrant, spicy and juicy strawberries - it is difficult to find a person indifferent to them.However, the strawberry season does not last long, and it will be useful to learn how to harvest berries for the future.

Jam involves rubbing berries, but it is impossible to use softened and damaged berries for its preparation. They may contain bacteria that cause fermentation processes in the finished dish. Rotted, damaged by insects or unripe berries will not work either.

Optimal use of ripe whole strawberries - it contains the most pectin. The collected berries need to be washed. First you need to fill it with cold water and leave for 7-10 minutes. During this time, various litter and insects will float to the surface.

After that, strawberries can be discarded in a colander and washed under running water. Pure berries should be sprinkled on a pre-covered towel and let them dry.

After washing your hands with soap and water, you can proceed to the separation of the sepals. You can do this manually or resort to unconventional methods. For example, use a straw from the juice. It is inserted into the lower part of the strawberry (opposite to the one where the tail) and, after breaking through the strawberries, are pulled at the top along with sepals.

A suitable container for making jam would be enamelled. With the metal surfaces, the acid contained in the berries will react, which can lead to oxidation and deterioration of the taste of the dessert. Carefully inspect the enameled pan so that there are no chips on its surface. In an aluminum container, the jam will burn, and in a stainless steel pot, it will have an unpleasant, specific flavor.

For even heating of the jam, it is necessary that only the bottom of the dish in which it is cooked is heated. If the walls are heated, the jam will burn, accumulate an unpleasant burning smell. It is believed that the most delicious is jam in an enameled pelvis. Due to the wide bottom it is possible to achieve uniform heating and avoid burning the jam.

However, even in the right pot, the composition must be mixed. For these purposes, you should use shovels or spoons, but not metal, but wooden.

Banks under jam should be sterilized. For seaming can be used as a conventional metal lids, and the option twist-off (screw). If the jam will be stored in the refrigerator, it is also permitted to use capron lids.

Before using sterile cans, let the condensate be removed. Usually for this they are turned on a clean towel and left for a few minutes. Banks before unpacking the jam must be dry.

Each berry contains pectin, some (plums) - in larger quantities, others (strawberries) - in smaller quantities. Pectin is a thickener, because of the berries with a large number of it turns out elastic jam. However, the lower content of such thickener in other berries does not mean that they are unsuitable for cooking jelly and jams.

The desired consistency in strawberry jam allows the addition of gelling components (gelatin, pectin) or an increased amount of sugar. If the second method is chosen, then for 1 kg of berries you need to take 800 g of sugar.

Not only those mentioned above, but also a natural thickener agar-agar can be used as gelling additives.

Recipes “five minutes” in the preparation of various berries, including strawberries, are particularly popular. And it's not so much the speed of cooking, as in its benefits. Subjected to minimal heat treatment, strawberries retain most of the vitamins, minerals and other valuable components.

In this recipe, gelling sugar is used, so that the berries in the composition remain elastic, do not boil soft, and the dish acquires the desired texture.If you need to increase or decrease the number of berries, you should remember about the proportional change of the second ingredient. Usually 1 part of sugar is taken on 3 parts of berries:

• 500 g strawberries;
• 170 g of gelling sugar.

To remove berries from sepals and to wash, then to dry on a towel. The next step is to cut each berry along, and the resulting halves into another 2-3 pieces. The result is medium sized pieces, which are filled with sweetener. The composition must be thoroughly stirred until complete dissolution of the latter.

Put the dishes on high heat and bring to a boil. At this time, the jam has the ability to burn and boil, so you need to stir it all the time. As soon as the jam boiled, the fire should be lowered to a minimum and after 5 minutes turn it off. The evidence of the readiness of the dessert will be a pink foam that appears on the surface and needs to be removed from the jam. Eat it safely, but when ingested, it significantly reduces the shelf life of the workpiece.

In a warm form, put the jam in sterile jars and roll up the lids. Cool in the room and then put in the refrigerator. You can store the jam in a cool mezzanine or cellar.

Pectin, which is a purified polysaccharide, allows the liquid to turn into jelly. At moderate dosages, it is beneficial for the body, since it has an enveloping effect on the stomach. In addition, using pectin, it is possible to reduce the cooking time. This means that the benefits of strawberry jam with pectin will bring more.

Adding pectin reduces or eliminates the use of sugar, because it is also able to play the role of a natural preservative. If you don’t put sugar at all, you will get a light and sour dessert, this recipe uses the minimum amount that you can change to your liking.

A glass of sugar requires about 15 g of pectin. With an increase in the amount of sugar to 1.5-2 glasses, the amount of pectin should be reduced to 10 mg. If you are cooking without sweetener, then pectin will need 20 mg.

Ingredients:

• 500 g strawberries;
• 200 grams of sugar;
• 15 g of pectin.

First of all, you need to mix pectin and sugar so that in the future, when cooking, the first one does not clump together, it is not easy to get rid of them. To prepare the berry, dry and whip with a blender into a homogeneous mass. Add it to the sugar with pectin and knead for a long time (most of the bulk components should dissolve in the berry mass).

Put the future dessert on the fire and cook until the first signs of boiling appear, then reduce the flame and roast for another 3-4 minutes. You will find that the jam will begin to thicken. No need to digest it, because when it cools, it will become a little more dense and thick than hot. Remove from heat and pour dessert over the cans, capping with lids.

Another supplement that helps keep berries in shape is gelatin. It also speeds up the cooking process, which helps to preserve almost completely the chemical composition of the berries. The addition of gelatin also reduces, or rather, almost completely eliminates the swelling of the covers and damage to the workpiece.

Composition:

• 600 grams of strawberries;
• 500 g of sugar;
• 1 teaspoon gelatin;
• a third cup of water.

Prepared berries fill with sweetener and mash in mashed potatoes. You can manually using tolkushku. You can use a blender, reducing the time of the process.

Put the berries on a strong fire, not forgetting to stir the mass, so that it does not run away and burn. At this time, dissolve the gelatin. Water should be poured into the dry powder in small portions and thoroughly knead the resulting jelly so that then there are no lumps left in the finished dish.

After boiling, reduce the heat, simmer the jam for a quarter of an hour, removing the foam. By the end of cooking, it will become more saturated. It's time to pour in the gelatin: it should be done in a thin stream, always mixing the dessert. Continuing to interfere, soak the jam for another 5 minutes on the fire, then distribute it over the banks.Last sterilize in advance.

If you like jam with whole berries, then you will appreciate this recipe. To obtain the desired consistency in the jam gelatin is added, in addition, it allows you to save strawberries, do not let the berries boil soft.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 kg of strawberries;
• 1.5 kg of granulated sugar;
• 3 teaspoons of instant gelatin (optional).

Prepare strawberries and cover them with sugar in a container for cooking. That is, the first layer - berries, then sand and berries again. The result should be 3 layers of strawberry and sweetener. The container should be chosen in such a size that these layers occupy no more than 1/3 of the pan or pelvis.

Strawberries with sugar in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours. During this time, fragrant juice will stand out. Having carefully mixed the composition, it is necessary to catch berries with a skimmer and put it aside.

Syrup is put on a strong fire and let it boil, then reduce the flame to a minimum and boil the sweet liquid for another 10 minutes. Pour them berries and leave for 12 hours in the refrigerator.

After the indicated time, repeat the procedure - remove the berries and boil the syrup. Reconnect the strawberries and syrup and also hide in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

Repeat the procedure for the third time, but after boiling the syrup, without removing it from the heat, you need to add strawberries to it, and boil the mixture for 5 minutes.

In the process of all the manipulations of the berries will decrease in size, giving the juice. Syrup will thicken due to evaporation of the liquid. In general, it will turn out pretty thick, so you can do without the addition of gelatin.

In this recipe, no thickening agents are used, and thick jam is obtained due to the increased sweetener content. Lemon juice also serves as a preservative, which also helps preserve the color and flavor of strawberries.

If necessary, increase the amount of strawberries increase proportionally all the other ingredients. It is better to make jam in portions, without putting more than 2-3 kg of berries into a pan or basin.

Composition:

• 2 kg of strawberries;
• 1.6 kg of sugar;
• 2 lemons.

Prepare berries (suitable and frozen). Wash the lemons thoroughly, remove the zest from one of them, squeeze the juice out of both. Stir all ingredients and put on fire. After boiling, reduce the power of the flame and cook jam for 35-40 minutes. If frozen strawberries are used, boiling time is increased because it has more liquid.

You can check the readiness of the dessert by using a kitchen thermometer - the temperature of the dish should reach 100-105 ° C. In the absence of such a unit should be a quarter of an hour to clean the plate in the freezer. When you think that the jam is ready, put a teaspoon of the composition on a plate and wait 1 minute. After a while, the mass should resemble a gel. If you hold your finger over it, a “path” is formed, and between the two halves should not flow.

Ready jam mash with a blender. You can achieve maximum uniformity or leave small berry pieces. Do not be afraid that the composition does not seem thick enough, it will thicken after cooling. Pour the composition of the banks, not filling 0.5 cm to the neck, and then put the banks in the pan. Approximately to the hangers of cans, pour warm water and put the pot on a slow fire, boil for 10 minutes.

Then get the jars and immediately roll up the metal lids. Leave in room conditions until cool, then clean in a cool place.

At home, you can also make jam jam in a bread maker or a slow cooker.

Step by step this process can be represented as follows:

1. preparation of berries;
2. falling asleep sugar (proportion 1: 1) and turning into mashed potatoes using a blender;
3. boiling until cooked in the program "Baking" or "Pilaf" with the lid open and stirring constantly.

If the jam is prepared correctly, that is, the minimum possible amount of time is boiled down, then it retains most of the beneficial elements, in particular, ascorbic and folic acid, as well as other vitamins, fiber and minerals.

Strawberry jam is especially useful for high blood pressure, kidney and heart disease, and a tendency to swelling. The richness of the vitamin and mineral composition provides immuno-strengthening properties of the dish.

You can use dessert as an independent dessert, and add it to baking. You can get a simple and delicious breakfast by spreading strawberry jam on bread with butter or toast. Dessert can also be used for impregnation of biscuit, cheesecake filling and additives in sand cakes. It becomes a suitable filling for cupcakes, can be used to decorate ice cream.

If you get a watery strawberry, it is better to cook it with pectin to get the desired consistency of jam. In this case, it is possible to reduce the amount of sweetener from 1.6 to 1.2 kg (the amount of sugar per 2 kg of berries is indicated). It is better, of course, to follow the instructions of the pectin manufacturer, since there may be differences between different brands.

The cooking time for jam without thickener is about 40 minutes. However, this is too much - most of the useful components are destroyed. Reducing the time of cooking allows the addition of thickeners, and the most useful dessert can be called "five minutes", as well as those that suggest 10-15 minutes of boiling after boiling.

A jam with more sugar or added pectin will save more time. If there is a little sweetener in the preparation, or it is completely absent, it is better to keep the jam in the refrigerator for no more than 6-8 months.

Be sure to remove the foam from the jam. It is a result of the breakdown of proteins, which, if released into the jar, will cause a quick breakdown of the jam in the worst case, at least clouding and the appearance of unpleasant bitterness in taste. However, in itself, the foam is an aromatic "snack", which can be used without fear for your health.

Also watch the video recipe of making strawberry jam.