Cowberry berries are valued not only for their taste qualities, but also for medicinal properties. The presence of a large number of useful vitamins and trace elements makes berries a good preventive tool for fighting colds and diabetes. That is why it is important to consume a useful berry all year round.
Blanks from cranberries for the winter are distinguished by the fact that they are treated using gentle methods of processing, which allow you to save the maximum amount of useful substances. Harvested berries for winter can be used to make toppings in baking, compotes, sauces, jelly, jelly and various desserts.
Contents:
- How to harvest lingonberries for the winter
- Drying
- Freezing
- Waxed cranberries
- Cowberry compote
- Lingon cranberries
- Jam, jam
Ways to prepare
There are many ways and recipes with which you can prepare lingonberries for the winter. More sparing of them are those that do not imply heat treatment of berries. It's freezing, drying, soaking. Also cranberries are grinded with honey or sugar, they make juice from it. All these methods allow to preserve the maximum of the curative properties of the berries.
But this does not mean that the other ways in which cranberries undergoes heat treatment are completely unhelpful. Jam, sauces to fish and meat, compotes, jams, fruit drinks, marinades - all these billets are very tasty and useful, only when cooking a small percentage of vitamins is lost.
In any case, before you start to prepare a particular piece, you need to choose and prepare berries correctly. They should be ripe, juicy, strong, rich red. The unripe fruit can not be used, and the overripe fruit is suitable only for the preparation of jam or cranberry juice.
From spices to billet, cloves, citrus peel, cinnamon are often added.
All methods of harvesting cranberries for the winter deserve attention, we will focus on the most popular of them.
Drying
Dried cowberries are easy to prepare, cooking takes quite a bit of time. From dried fruits you can prepare compotes, decoctions, sauces.
The sequence of actions is as follows:
- Berries are picked, washed and dried.
- Spread on a baking sheet in one layer and sent to the oven. The temperature is set at a minimum, not more than 50 degrees.
- Drying is carried out in several stages, the duration of every 10 minutes.
- The stock is considered ready when the berries stop sticking to each other.
- Dried cowberries are transferred to ceramic or glassware and stored in a dark dry place.
In addition, dried berries can be passed through a meat grinder and stored in a tightly rolled can, such a powder is added to the compote or tea to give the berry flavor and rich color.
Freezing
The easiest way to preserve the greatest amount of vitamins and nutritional value of cranberries. Frozen berries are used as an additive to cottage cheese, cereal, stuffing for pancakes, pies, decorating dishes, preparing various desserts and jellies.
Freezing is a convenient and affordable method of harvesting cranberries for the winter, but in spite of its simplicity, you need to know some important freezing rules:
- berries must necessarily be dry, this is the basic requirement of quality freezing;
- freezing is carried out in two stages: on the first berry is laid out on the tray and sent to the freezer in the mode of quick freezing. In the second stage, the frozen berries are laid out on small dense bags for half the volume, air is released from the bags and sealed. Send it to the freezer for storage.
You can freeze cranberries immediately with sugar, 900 grams of berries are taken 1.5 kg of sugar. The berries are spread out in a wide bowl, covered with sugar and kneaded with tolstalk, you can process cranberries with sugar with a blender. Distribute in bags with a flexible fastener and store in a freezer.
Waxed cranberries
In principle, this is the same jam, only cooked without cooking. Such a preparation can also be stored for a long time, eating with a cup of tea, making sweet sandwiches and stuffing for pies. It is very important to sort out the berries before cooking, leaving only whole ripe fruits without damages and dents.
For 1 kilogram fresh cowberry you need to take a liter of boiled chilled water, 550 grams of sugar and a whisper of salt.
The cooking process itself consists of the following steps:
- Cowberry washed and laid on a towel so that it absorbs all the water.
- Make syrup: dissolve sugar in the water with a pinch of salt and wait until it boils.
- Cowberry to fall asleep in a sterilized jar, pour boiling syrup.
- Cover the neck of the jar with gauze, close the lid, which must make a few holes, and leave in a dark place at room temperature( kitchen cupboard) for 7-10 days.
You can store the baked berries in the refrigerator or in the pantry for up to 1 year.
The sugar in the recipe can be replaced with honey and add cinnamon and asterisks of cloves, it will be an excellent remedy for the prevention of respiratory diseases.
Compote
In order to enjoy a tasty vitamin drink in winter, it is enough to prepare compote from cranberries for the winter. In order to close 3 liters of compote, you need 4 glasses of fruit and a glass of sugar.
- Berries pour into the jar, pour boiling water over the hangers, insist 20 minutes.
- Then pour the liquid into a saucepan, bring to a boil, add sugar, boil for another couple of minutes and return the syrup to a jar of berries.
- Cover the jar with a lid and store it in the pantry or cellar.
Crushed bassberry
Another simple way to prepare lingonberries for the winter. Berries with sugar in the same amount grinded through a sieve or with the help of kitchen appliances - combine or blender, the mixture is transferred to jars and covered with nylon lids. Store in a cool place.
Jam, jam
These billets can be prepared only from berries cranberries, or in combination with other berries and fruits. The most successful additions to lingonberries are apples, strawberries, plums, apricots, blueberries, pears.
For the preparation of jam berries and sugar are taken in equal proportions.
- Berries are covered with sugar and left for a couple of hours until they are allowed to juice.
- Then bring to a boil on the stove and boil on a quiet fire for 5-10 minutes. Add lemon juice and a cinnamon stick.
- The workpiece is cooled, again brought to a boil and rolled into jars.
Tasty billet from the cowberry all winter will supply your body with vitamins and brighten up the cold evenings!