Black currant compote: properties and cooking technology

Black currant is a deciduous shrub of the gooseberry family, which grows in both hot and temperate climates. Black and purple glossy berries have a peculiar sweet-sour taste with bitterness and strong aroma. It is most useful to eat them fresh, but the fruits ripen only once a year, and keeping the berries fresh for a long time does not always work. In addition, not everyone likes to use them from the bush because of the complex taste, preferring currant jam, jam or compote.

Dark juicy berry is valued for the high content of several groups of vitamins and minerals. Not only the fruits of the dark green shrub are useful, but also its leaves, from which you can make a healing decoction or add them to other fruits during conservation. Eating compote from the berries of black currant will help in the fight against many diseases.

• The high concentration of vitamins in the berry drink allows him to fight the first signs of colds and flu. You can regularly drink it for preventive purposes and to maintain immunity.
• The currant leaves added to the compote have an anti-inflammatory and antipyretic effect. Warm compote will help reduce the temperature and speed recovery. The aroma of currant calms and helps with increased anxiety.
• A strong diuretic effect will be useful in cystitis and other kidney diseases, will help relieve puffiness.
• Currant compote normalizes blood sugar levels and is indicated for people with diabetes. The main thing that when cooking compote was added not too much white sugar.

• Black berries help with problems with the intestines: they reduce bloating, help with diarrhea and purify the intoxicated human body from toxins.
• Currant juice softens the cough and removes phlegm from the lungs, so it is often used in various diseases of the respiratory tract. It is recommended to drink tuberculous patients to alleviate a strong cough.
• Black currant berries, even those that have undergone heat treatment, contain a lot of folic acid, which is necessary for the development of the fetus during pregnancy. Currant compote is often served in the maternity wards for nursing mothers: it helps to cope with the effects of heavy labor and increases the benefits of the milk that the infant receives during breastfeeding. However, it can be consumed in an amount not exceeding 150 grams per day.

In addition to all of the above, black berries are often included in the composition of various cosmetics:

• their juice is rubbed on the skin of the face in order to reduce the age pigmentation of the skin;
• juice diluted with plenty of water, rinse hair to add volume and shine;
• It is useful for strengthening and increasing the growth rate of nails;
• allows you to give the skin a lot of elasticity and cleans bags under the eyes.

Unfortunately, there are certain contraindications to the use of both fresh berries and various drinks from it. Currant increases blood clotting, so it is not recommended for people with an increased risk of blood clots. Gastric ulcer and gastritis also exclude black fruit from the diet.

In addition to the treatment of various diseases, currants contribute to enhanced fat burning. Because of this, it is often added in a fresh and canned form to the diet and vegetarian menu. It includes:

• B vitamins that remove toxins and soothe the nervous system during stress;
• Vitamins A group, useful for skin and hair;
• ascorbic acid, which helps with colds and viral diseases;
• manganese, useful for the growth of bones and their formation in children and infants;
• copper for low hemoglobin;
• potassium to restore water-salt balance and treatment of cardiovascular diseases;
• many antioxidants that preserve the youth of the body.

Calorie fresh berries is only 44 kcal per 100 grams. This amount of useful delicacy contains 7.3 g of carbohydrates, 0.4 g of fat and 1 g of proteins. The calorie content of the currant compote is slightly lower and is only 28.8 kcal per 100 g. At the same time, the amount of proteins is reduced to 0.1 g, carbohydrates - to 6.8 g (depending on the amount of sugar added to the drink), and the fats disappear completely .

Before you roll up the compote for the winter, you need to prepare all the products and dishes. Berries should be carefully selected and separated as overripe and immature. The former will transform a translucent drink into a liquid slurry, and the latter will add strong bitterness to its taste. The berries are separated from the branch, inflorescences and peduncles gently come off. Currants washed several times with warm and cold water alternately. This will not only remove dust and dirt, but also allow you to wash off all excess chemistry, if the shrub is treated from pests.

If the berries have been frozen, they must be thawed at room temperature and allowed to drain off excess moisture. You should not dip frozen currants in hot water, of course, this will increase the defrosting speed, but it will break the integrity of the berries and make it looser and softer. Ready selected fruits are poured into a deep bowl or immediately poured into jars. Banks, it is desirable to sterilize in advance, so as not to be distracted by the preservation process.

You can cook a delicious vitamin drink for the summer heat or winter cool in many different ways. Currants go well with most berries and fruits, but they are good on their own. You can add plain white sugar or brown cane, make a berry mix or dilute the sweetness of compote with mint leaves.

For its preparation will need only three ingredients:

• 1 kg of fresh or thawed currant berries;
• 350 grams of sugar;
• 3 liters of spring or filtered water.

The water is poured into a large saucepan, all the sugar is added, and the resulting syrup is stirred until all sugar crystals are completely dissolved. The berries are poured into one three-liter jar or in several cans of a smaller volume. Tara is poured almost to the neck with hot syrup and is closed with a tin lid. Closed cans are turned upside down and wrapped with a blanket. After the temperature of the container reaches room temperature, they are stored in a dark and cool place.

The combination of sour currant with a sweet cherry is considered by many to be the most successful. To prepare one liter of compote you will need:

• 100 grams of cherries;
• 100 grams of black currant (you can take a mixture of red and black currants);
• 0.5 glass of white sugar;
• a pinch of citric acid;
• 1 l of spring or filtered water.

Prepared and washed berries are laid out in a jar and covered with sugar. A pinch of citric acid is added on top: it not only gives a little acid to the drink, but also gives it a more saturated color. Water is put on the fire in a separate saucepan and immediately after boiling, poured into a jar of berries. Compote is closed with a lid and placed under a fur coat or a warm blanket upside down to cool completely.

Black currants are often mixed with apples to make the compote taste softer and not so cloying. To prepare 3 liters of fresh drink will need:

• 500 grams of apples of any kind (you can even take a little shriveled apples: they will still give the drink its full flavor);
• 150 grams of black currant berries;
• 5 tbsp. spoons of white sugar;
• 3 liters of purified or bottled water.

Apples need to be cut into slices, removing the core. All crumpled or rotten pieces should be ruthlessly thrown away, otherwise they will ruin the entire drink. Water is poured into a large pot and sliced ​​fruit is poured out. Berry is added to them, the mixture is brought to a boil and sugar is poured. After that, the pan needs to be covered with a lid and allowed to boil well for 5–7 minutes.

The finished decoction should be allowed to brew for 5–10 minutes under a closed lid, and then strain it through a sieve to separate the liquid. It can be stored in a large jug in a refrigerator or rolled up for the winter in glass jars.

Bright currant flavor perfectly emphasizes a light raspberry aftertaste. In addition, the amount of vitamins and microelements necessary for a person contained in raspberries is comparable to their content in currants. Therefore, the drink not only has a rich sweet taste, but it is also extremely healthy. To prepare such a compote you will need:

• 100–120 grams of currant berries;
• 100–120 grams of raspberry berries;
• 800–1000 ml of purified or spring water;
• 120 grams of sugar.

At the bottom of a sterilized jar, gently pour out a soft raspberry, with black currant on top of it. Sugar is poured over the berries, after which the entire contents are filled with boiling water in 1/3 of the volume of the jar. The lid is placed on top, but does not roll. In this form, you need to leave the ingredients for 10-15 minutes to let them brew. The loss of temperature is not so critical, but you can additionally wrap the jar with a thick towel.

After the berries have given away some of their juice, the jar is poured with boiling water to the neck and further sterilized in a saucepan with water for about 10 minutes. The container with the finished compote is tightly closed with a metal lid and placed under the blanket upside down.

Black currant compote does not have any one recipe - each housewife adds something of his own. Perfectly combine sweet varieties of currants with sour gooseberries, rhubarb or cranberries. Sour currants well dilute the sweetness of strawberries or cherries. And if the compote is consumed chilled, then fresh mint or lemon balm leaves will add to it. However, oddly enough, the most popular drink is the usual compote, which solo exclusively juicy currants.

To learn how to make blackcurrant compote, see the next video.