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How to cook pumpkin jam? And do not ask why! If until today this ... vegetable or berry? Since the product did not have any popularity with you or your household, you can safely say that you lose a lot.
Remember what you can cook from pumpkin? Porridge with slices or whole fruit, bake in the oven or fry. Everything? It’s sad. All these dishes have a specific flavor and aroma of raw pumpkin pulp. And let's learn how to cook a pumpkin so that no one would guess its presence on the plate! Neither aroma, nor appearance, nor taste can help your guests determine what kind of interesting food they eat. Are you intrigued? That's the same.
Learning to cook jam properly! Yes, from pumpkin. Just don’t fuck, now you will find out why.
Pumpkin jam is not much different from preparations from other berries or fruits. But it contains most of the vitamins, minerals and nutrients. In addition, it helps to lose weight, despite the presence of sugar.
Let's love this wonderful plant and learn how to use it to the fullest.
How to choose a pumpkin
It would seem simpler than her - only turnips. He came to the market or to his own personal plot, chose the largest pumpkin. Dragged home and ... treat your back, for it was torn until the colossus reached the house. He lay down on the floor next to the Cinderella’s carriage, chopped it with an ax, poured granulated sugar and cooked.
In fact, everything is not so simple. The largest fruits are always the most unsweetened. This sins feed varieties. They are suitable only for cattle feed. From a human point of view, such fruits taste unappetizing. Hence the conclusion: big is not always good. So we choose a ripe pumpkin weighing no more than 3 kg, then you’ll guess for sure.
Table varieties are suitable for use in cooking. How to distinguish them from fodder if you have not seen a pack of seeds in your eyes? About the size already said, remain the shape and color of the pulp. Oblong, like a zucchini, or a guitar-like shape of the fruit always indicates a high sugar content and an amazing taste.
If there are no such ones in the field of vision, and there are only spherical pumpkins, then everything is simple. The orangeer the pulp, the more pleasant the pumpkin tastes and aroma. Pale yellow or light green flesh hints that it would be better to give the vitamin to livestock.
The color of the peel or its thickness does not matter. In any case, the pumpkin will have to be cleaned. From here, we smoothly move on to the topic of removing the "shell".
Whoever ever used ripe fruit in the kitchen was impressed by the peel. Often dealing with a simple knife is unrealistic. And if you take young pumpkins that undress quietly under a peeler, they have not yet gained the desired juiciness and sweetness. The pleasure of cleaning is completely neutralized by the disappointment of taste.
It is better to give preference to mature fruits. And how to quickly clean a pumpkin - there is a secret. You will need: a kitchen hatchet, a tablespoon, a cutting board and a sharp knife with a thick blade, so as not to bend. What do we have to do:
- With a kitchen hatchet, carefully, but with good effort, chop the pumpkin in half.
- With a tablespoon, carefully remove the butor with fibers and seeds. You can do this by hand, but a spoon will scratch out all the insides with a better quality.
- Again, chop the halves with an hatchet as it turns out, but try to get something similar to stripes.
- On a cutting board we put a strip on an edge. With one hand, gently hold the piece, with the other we take the knife strictly from top to bottom, separating the peel from the pulp. We do not saw or cut, but simply press hard.
- There are several such movements to be made.It’s unlikely that you can clear the entire strip at one time. Yes, it is not necessary. Thin slices of the skin are easier to remove.
If everything is done correctly, it will be loud. The knife, sliding down, will hit the board from the effort. Do not be alarmed, it should be so. This is the best option. If you try to make cutting or sawing movements, then you are tormented to pull out the stuck blade and then you will heal wet corns for a long time. At this price, we do not need jam.
Tip. Even if the fruit looks clean from the outside, wash it thoroughly with a brush or hard sponge before cutting. Sand grains from the peel that have fallen into the food will bring few joyful moments.
Pumpkin Jam Recipes
So, the pumpkins are chopped and peeled. But we will not cook them such shmatkov? Depending on what type of workpiece we will do, we cut pieces of a certain shape. And do not make such a sour face! In the absence of a peel, the pulp is perfectly processed without much effort:
- a meat grinder is useful for raw
- for classic cut into cubes, slices or straws
- for jam on a coarse grater
Nothing special needs to be cut, everything is done easily. Raw pumpkin flesh is slightly harder than oil in density.
Raw jam
As the name says - without heat treatment. Yes, you can eat raw pumpkin.
Structure
- prepared pumpkin pulp, 2 kg
- medium whole lemon
- big orange
- granulated sugar, 1.5 kg
Cooking
Remove a thin layer of zest from citruses, cut into small strips. The remaining peel is thrown out, it will not be required. Bones and internal white fibers are removed. Pumpkin pulp along with lemon and orange is passed through a meat grinder. Sugar, zest shavings are added, mixed thoroughly. They are laid out in sterile containers, closed with nylon covers or parchment paper.
To store such a magical storehouse of vitamins will only have to be in the refrigerator. At room temperature or high humidity in the cellar, this jam will quickly deteriorate and turn sour.
Tip. To ensure maximum preservation of all vitamins and nutrients, it is recommended to use a glass bowl and a wooden funk during cooking. A ceramic cup is also suitable.
Classic recipe
In itself, pumpkin in dishes does not have a stunning smell or an attractive taste. Therefore, when preparing the simplest pumpkin jam, a small amount of aromatic products is added. Together with sugar, the flesh acquires an original aroma and indescribable taste. Additives can be any citrus fruits, ginger, fruits, spices, vanilla, dried fruits, berries.
The most common recipes are citrus fruits, dried apricots and sea buckthorn berries. The following is the standard basis for such blanks. And what you will add there, in what quantity - it depends on your taste preferences.
Structure
- 2 kg of pumpkin pulp
- 1.6 kg of granulated sugar
Procedure
The pulp is cut in a convenient way - in cubes or straws. Shift in a wide bowl in layers, pouring sugar. Forget for 5 hours. After the juice has stood out, the selected ingredients are added. They put on the quietest fire, bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Cook for 15 minutes, cool. Bring to a boil again and cool again. After the third time, jam can be transferred to jars and corked. Covers take any comfortable. The material does not matter.
You can store such a blank in a cellar, basement or pantry.
Tip. If it seemed to you that the juice turned out to be small or the pulp of the pumpkin was initially dry, then before starting the cooking, you can add 250 ml of pure water to the above proportions.
Pumpkin jam
For flavoring, you can use the same components as for the classic recipe. But the most delicious is pumpkin jam with apples or plums.For greater originality, you can add to it a good handful of your favorite nuts 7 minutes before the end of cooking. Of course, if your household likes such supplements.
Structure
- ripe peeled sour apples without a core, 500 g
- prepared pumpkin pulp, 500 g
- pure water, 500 ml
- a pinch of ground cinnamon
- granulated sugar, 600 g
- peeled and roasted walnuts, 150 g
Cooking
Grate pumpkin and apples on a coarse grater, add sugar. Pour in water and put on the smallest fire. Cook for 30 minutes, often stirring. If the mixture starts to burn, then you can splash some more water. Then add ground cinnamon, cook for another 7 minutes. After pouring crushed walnuts, boil for 15-18 minutes.
Then the jam is poured into sterilized jars, corked with plastic lids and put in storage in the refrigerator.
Tip. Before closing, allow the workpiece to cool completely. Condensation formed on the lid can cause mold to form. And it’s better to lay out the jam already completely cooled, then you don’t have to worry about safety.
Useful Tips
- If you have nowhere to store Cinderella’s carriage, then boldly prepare jam. Some comrades manage to shove the fruits out of the sofa or under the bed. In principle, this is also a way out, though unaesthetic.
- By the way, from these amazing stocks from under the bed you can make jam even in late autumn or winter. Fruits, of course, can lie even before spring, but they will begin to be very bitter and dry. Of these, it’s not like jam, you can’t even cook porridge. Timely everything needs to be done.
- Replace all your favorite sweets with pumpkin jam. Naturally, not for elephant servings. 100-150 g per day will bring a sufficient amount of carbohydrates, and more, as a rule, you do not want.
- Properly prepared pumpkin jam has an amber color, a jelly-like consistency and a pleasant taste. It is very beautiful to water them with ice cream or add to homemade unsweetened yogurt.
- Some do not peel lemons and oranges, and add unpeeled slices to the jam. The method has a place to be. Let's just say that if you are a lover of the original bitterness and light piquancy of sweets, then boldly put citruses along with crusts.
- In order for the pumpkin harvest to stand reliably for a long time, citric acid or acidic additives are added to it. For winter storage, jam without acid is cleaned strictly in the refrigerator. In other conditions, you risk getting a sour product. Or worse, a fermenter.
- By the way, in order to avoid such excesses, containers for pumpkin jam should be thoroughly sterilized. In what way, it does not matter. The main thing is that it is convenient and familiar to you.
- Harvesting can be done in a slow cooker or bread machine. In the first one, they put out the quenching mode, and in the second they press the jam button. Then they follow the instructions, because each model of household appliances has its own specifics of jam preparation and the method of loading raw materials. The only difference between these methods is the different volumes of the bowls, respectively, and the yield of the finished product will be different. The taste is almost the same.
Why do few people like pumpkin? Because they tried only feed varieties. Plant a good table variety on your site. Then you can safely answer the question “how to cook pumpkin jam” - very simply and in huge quantities.
Video: pumpkin jam with orange
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