How to cook viburnum for the winter: 8 ways

How to cook viburnum for the winter? Someone will say: why stock it? It’s hanging on the bush outside the window. Interestingly, have you seen the bush? Usually by mid-November all the berries are pecked by feathered companions. There is nothing left for people.

Therefore, in order to enjoy healthy berries in winter, you need to take care of this in advance. In total there are 4 types of cooking viburnum:

• freezing
• drying
• fresh storage
• heat treatment

All methods are good and allow you to save the maximum amount of vitamins. Consider each in detail.

Freeze viburnum

Usually the berries ripen in September. But many are in no hurry to pick them off. Only with the advent of the first frosts does the collection of viburnum begin. But it makes no sense to wait for the cold weather if you are going to store viburnum in the freezer. She already will lose all her bitterness.

To do this, use scissors to trim the brush. Some sources ask to be careful not to lose berries. We assure you that they hold on to the branches tightly enough, so you can not really stand on ceremony with shaking. But the skin of the viburnum is thin, so crushing the berry is simple. You need to be careful with this.

At first, the brushes are shaken at home or sorted out to remove insects and small debris. Then gently directly with twigs washed in three waters. Or rinse under clean running water.

Now you need to dry the viburnum. Just do not put brushes on the old wallpaper, as some articles advise. They absorb moisture very slowly. Better lay several layers of paper towels or newspapers. It is even more convenient to use an old thick towel for such purposes. It will fit for other berries.

After drying, take a wide baking sheet or tray, but such that it fits freely in the freezer. They cover it with dense polyethylene, then lay the berries (torn from the brushes), a layer of about 0.7-1 cm. Put in the freezer.

After 46-48 minutes, the skin of viburnum is already enough seized by frost. Now you can carefully pour the workpiece into a bag with a zip-fastener or food container for deeper freezing. A new portion of berries is placed on a baking sheet, the process is repeated.

If you freeze the entire volume at once, then in winter it is likely to get from the refrigerator bins not crumbly berries, but a monolithic piece of pulp and juice. Then you have to immediately use the entire supply. Or arm yourself with a chisel and sledgehammer to chop off the right amount.

Tip. Be sure to store frozen viburnum in sealed containers. The smell of long not washed socks in the freezer is not a pleasant thing. Namely, such an amber is possessed by viburnum in all forms. But useful.

Dry viburnum

The easiest way to cook viburnum for the winter is to dry it. To do this, it is not necessary to pick each berry separately. You can cut the brushes with scissors and tie them into small bundles. Now it remains only to hang them in a warm, dry barn or in the attic.

What to do for those who live in an apartment building and do not have an attic room in stock? You can dry viburnum for the winter on the balcony or loggia. Hanged and forgotten. In winter they remembered, went, scored as needed.

A conventional oven or electric dryer also helps in this matter. Only in this case you have to remove the berries from the twigs.

The refrigerator with the “but frost” function perfectly dries any berries or greens. Allocate one shelf for such purposes. As a rule, in such refrigerators they are glass. They put a newspaper, sprinkled a thin layer of berries. Cover with another layer of newspaper or tissue paper. Leave for 6-8 days. Stir occasionally. Then dried berries can only be poured into the prepared container.

The advantage of this method of preparing viburnum for the winter:

• There is no dust in the refrigerator like in the attic.
• Insects or birds cannot reach the berries.
• Cold drying preserves most of the vitamins.

The disadvantage of this method is only one. The notorious smell of viburnum! But, if you calmly eat berries, then tolerate aroma for a week in the refrigerator.

Tip. Dried viburnum is perfectly stored at room temperature in paper bags or glass jars. For example, in a kitchen cabinet or dry closet.

Keep viburnum fresh

One of the advantages of this magic berry is the ability to kill putrefactive bacteria and mold spores. Has anyone seen mold viburnum on a bush? This feature can be used to prepare viburnum for the winter.

You will need:

• scissors
• clean dry cans
• sealed covers
• White paper
• old towel

Procedure. Choose a nice autumn day. Viburnum brushes are cut with scissors and carried home. There they are laid out on white paper to sort out possible debris and insects.

Then an old unnecessary towel is spread, berries are gently torn off onto it. The fabric absorbs protruding juice. If, through negligence, crushed berries are obtained, then they can be postponed. Then make a fruit drink or jelly.

After half an hour, when the ragged berries dry out, they are poured into clean, dry jars. Now they are put in the refrigerator for 2 hours to cool completely. And only then you can close the sealed lids. If this point is neglected, then condensation will appear in the banks, the berries may get wet.

After all preparations, you can put the jars in storage in the refrigerator. If everything is done correctly, then viburnum, prepared in this way for the winter, perfectly lives up to six months.

Tip. For greater safety, lids and cans can be sterilized. They must be completely dry just before use. But often this is superfluous, berries have antibacterial properties.

Cooking viburnum for the winter

Despite the wide selection, the most popular cooking method is heat treatment. From viburnum, you can cook a great many beautiful and useful preparations. Below are the classic recipes. You can vary them at will or adapt to your taste. For example, add other fruits, spices or berries.

Raw jam
A glass jar with a volume of 1 liter will need about 250 g of sugar, berries - how much will be included. The cooking process is extremely simple. Pour a layer of berries 2 cm, then 1 cm sugar. And so on to the top. The jar is periodically shaken, sugar is poured in a thin stream.

Everything, now you can close it with a plastic lid and put it in the refrigerator. After a while, the jar will contain a delicious syrup with whole berries. By the way, such a blank is stored for up to 2 years.

Tip. Do not store raw jam in the cellar or basement; it may ferment.

Classic jam
For 1 kg of berries, 250 ml of pure water and 1 kg of granulated sugar will be required. Guelder-rose is freed from brushes, then washed with cold water and dried. At the same time, syrup is made from sugar and water. As soon as it boils, turn off and pour the berries. Gently mix with a wooden spoon or spatula. Allow to cool for about 6 hours.

Then put on a small fire and boil to the desired density. As a rule, 32-34 minutes are enough. Remember to remove the foam! Then hot poured into sterilized jars and rolled up with metal lids.

This jam is perfectly stored in the basement, cellar or cool pantry for more than a year.

Tip. Instead of the usual tin covers with an elastic band, you can take screw caps “twist”. They perfectly keep tight without additional elastic bands.

Juice
For 1 kg of berries you need to take 250 ml of pure water and 200 g of sugar. Kalina is pre-frozen, so she will give away more juice. Then the raw material is poured into an enameled saucepan, water is poured and boiled for 6-8 minutes.

Now you need to rub the resulting mass through a hair sieve, pour in granulated sugar. Bring to a boil, boil until sugar is completely dissolved. Then it is poured into clean dry bottles or jars, hermetically sealed.

Viburnum juice is well stored in the winter in a cool place. It can be a refrigerator, basement, underground, insulated balcony.

Tip. Sugar can be replaced with natural honey. The calculation is simple: 100 g of sugar are replaced by 2 tbsp. l liquid honey. Such replacement does not affect the quality and duration of storage.

Candied fruit
It will take 500 g of clean washed dried berries, 10 g of potato starch and 150 g of powdered sugar. Guelder-rose is carefully mixed with sugar and starch, then laid out on a wide baking sheet. Previously, it is covered with baking paper. It is better to take siliconized, practically nothing sticks to it. The layer of berries should be no more than 1.2 cm.

The baking sheet is put in the oven. Drying takes about 11-13 hours at a temperature of 55-65 ° C and always with ajar door. After that candied fruit should cool. Then they are poured into glass jars with a ground lid.

Such viburnum is well stored at room temperature. The main thing is to try to protect the banks from a sharp temperature drop. Otherwise, condensation will form, and candied fruit will turn into an unappetizing sticky mass.

Tip. Instead of an oven, you can use an electric dryer. Just be sure to set the mesh for the pastille. Without it, icing sugar will crumble onto the fan inside the dryer. Temperature 70 ° C, time 7-7.5 hours.

Paste
2 kg of viburnum, 0.5 l of pure water, 2 kg of sugar. The berries are frozen, then boiled in water until soft (about 12-14 minutes). The resulting mass is rubbed through a hair sieve or squeezed through two layers of gauze. Then add sugar and boil over the smallest fire. When the mass becomes similar in texture to a thick jelly, the fire is turned off.

The baking sheet is covered with parchment paper and the mixture is poured with a layer of not more than 6 mm. In the oven, the pastille dries, like candied fruits. Time and temperature are the same. In the electric dryer, the pastille is poured onto a special mesh.

After preparation, the viburnum pastille is stored in cardboard boxes or paper bags. It can be rolled into a roll, cut into rhombs or squares.

Tip. Sprinkle a paste of sugar on both sides with a thin layer of icing sugar. This will give the workpiece a finished look and extend its shelf life. By the way, it amounts to as much as 8 months, subject to temperature conditions and optimal air humidity.

Valuable Tips

1. It’s not necessary to take sugar to make raw jam. Kalina can be poured with honey. Proportions for 2 parts of berries - 1 part of a bee present.
2. When preparing viburnum for the winter, try to use only glass, wooden or enameled dishes. Copper, metal or aluminum can strongly oxidize vitamins. Then you get just a sweet treat, which is practically of no use.
3. If you do not dry the viburnum puree, achieving transformation into a marshmallow, you can just roll it into jars. In winter, it remains to get such a blank and enjoy the wonderful ... marmalade!

How to cook viburnum for the winter? After our advice, such a question will no longer worry you. Just choose any suitable method and go ahead to harvest vitamins and nutrients.

Video: viburnum