What can be tastier in wintertime than a fragrant jam made with mother’s caring hands or a grandmother? It seems that the intoxicating aroma and delicate taste is reborn from only one memory. And if it is also strawberry jam, then along with excellent taste, you will get a huge portion of vitamins, because strawberries are an incomparable storehouse of useful substances.
To prepare such a treat is quite simple. Enough to learn the recipe for strawberry jam - five minutes, the secrets of which are now open to you.
Kitchen appliances and utensils
Starting to prepare sweets for the winter, many hostesses ask the question "What are they to cook?". Not so long ago, the myth was popular that the most delicious jam is obtained in copper dishes. But, recent research scientists have debunked it. It turned out that copper releases substances that lead to the destruction of vitamins and the beneficial properties of the berries.
Jam can be made from red and black currants, yoshta, strawberries, squash, tomatoes, dogwood, black chokeberry, apples, melons, gooseberries, apricots, pears, cherry plums, rhubarb, sea buckthorn.
Important! In the process of cooking, the vitamin reserve of strawberries is not lost, if you cook for a short time. Almost 100% of vitamins C, B6, B9, E, folic acid, zinc, organic acids, manganese, iron, calcium, tannins are stored and ingested during the consumption of magic jam.It is not suitable for cooking delicacies as aluminum, and enamel dishes, but it is best to choose stainless steel inventory.
To make strawberry jam for 5 minutes, you need to stock up on the following kitchen equipment:
- colander;
- pelvis or pan;
- wooden spoon for stirring;
- sterilized jars and caps for twisting (2 pcs);
- sealer key;
- gas or electric stove.
Required Ingredients
Inventory ready, now you need to ensure the production process with the necessary ingredients. Oddly enough, but to make five-minute jam from wild strawberries, you will not need a lot of ingredients.
Main products: the berry itself and sugar, in a ratio of 3: 1, that is, it is necessary to take, for example, 3 cups of berries and 1 cup of sugar for 1 floor liter jar. Such a short list of products for the incomparable yummy.
Features of product selection
The selection and preparation of berries is perhaps the most important task in the process of making strawberry jam for the winter for a five-minute recipe. As for the berries, then, of course, wild strawberry is a real jewel, because it accumulates in itself a lot of useful vitamins and substances.
Did you know? Wild strawberry is used in the treatment of diseases of the kidneys, heart, liver, circulatory and vascular systems, esophageal pathways, stomach, hypertension, atherosclerosis. She successfully removes from the body toxins and cholesterol. In addition, it is a rich source of vitamin C, which stimulates the adrenal glands and normalizes their release of adrenaline and cortisol into the blood, which improves working capacity. Therefore, do not advise to feast on berries at night.
However, finding wild strawberries is not so easy. She lives in forests and fields. Of course, you can buy on the market, but the berry is expensive. In this regard, garden strawberries are often used to make jams and sweets.
The difference between these two varieties is the size of the berries and the smell: the garden is much larger and sweeter, but it loses with forest aroma. In addition, the concentration of nutrients in wild strawberries is three times higher than that of the garden. Natural medicine justifies its cost.
If you decide to harvest wild strawberries yourself, then it should be done in mid-June - early July. When buying it on the market, pay attention to the size of the berries (they should be small), aroma and color (bright red).
To save as many vitamins in foods as possible they can be frozen. Learn how to freeze green peas, sunberry, eggplant, blueberries, strawberries, apples, milk mushrooms, cilantro, apricot.
How to make jam: a step by step recipe with photos
After collecting inventory and products, you can directly begin the process of preparing a vitamin delicacy.
Berry preparation
The first step on the way to fragrant sweets for homemade gourmets is the preparation of berries. They must be cleaned of sepals, peduncles, herbs and insects that could get into the dishes during collection. It is also necessary to remove unripe, or rotten berries.
Important! Forest strawberries are not advised to wash. But, if you doubt its purity, you can put the berry in a colander and rinse it under a sharp stream of water, or you can lower it several times in a container with water. Such methods of washing will not violate the integrity of the berries.
Stirring with sugar
Purified berries must be poured with sugar in layers and left for 3-4 hours, you can even leave it overnight for juice to appear.
Cooking process
Many hostesses ask: "How to cook strawberry jam, so that the berry does not squander its beneficial properties?". Everything is quite simple: the less cooking, the more useful the delicacy will turn out.
In our case, put the infused mixture on the fire and bring to a boil. Cooking time - 5 minutes, actually from here and the name of the recipe - "five minutes". True and this is not the finish. In the process of cooking, it is necessary to remove the foam, which is undoubtedly formed, and the procedure itself must be repeated two more times after the winter delicacy has completely cooled.
Did you know? Citric acid will not allow any jam or jam to be sugared.
Nuances and Tricks
Even more unique taste characteristics your taste will acquire, if you add to it a pinch of citric acid, or fresh lemon juice at the end of cooking.
Experienced hostesses are advised to use the following procedure to check the readiness of the product: drip the jam on a plate and stretch the spoon in the middle. If the strips do not stick together and do not spread - it is ready.
Many are also interested in why boil the jam several times. Here the fact is that the strawberries have a bitterness, to get rid of which, additional cooking processes help. Currant can also help to remove bitterness, which is sometimes added to such a jam. Its quantity should be 6 times less than the main berry.
Another way to eliminate bitterness is to use a carrot. Peeled and well-washed vegetable is boiled in a container of jam, and removed only at the end of cooking.
Jam storage
Ready-made jam should be collected in jars, pre-sterilized, or scalded with boiling water and rolled up, or tightly closed with lids. Rolled up product is advised to keep in a dark cool place, and for a tightly closed treat, the best storage would be a refrigerator.
Did you know? Fresh strawberries can cause allergic reactions, but strawberry jam has anti-allergic properties.There are many recipes for making wild strawberry jam for the winter. But the classic version of the "five minutes" is always at the peak of popularity. Such a method of making jam is not just a great opportunity to please relatives in the winter season, gathering them for fragrant tea drinking, but also tasty treatment in order to enhance immunity.