Summer is a harvest season for berries and fruits, which will later turn into delicious jams and jams, with which it is so nice to drink tea in the autumn or winter. Fruit and berry mixtures, cooked in syrup from sugar, have so thoroughly entered our life that they are already perceived as something ordinary. About cones, boiled in the same sugar mass, this can not be said.
When to collect cones for jam
A cone is a modified shoot of a tree, being neither a flower nor a fruit. Unusual raw materials for a delicious jam to collect in the forest. Jam is made from pine cones of fir, pine and cedar. It is important to know that not every one of them is suitable for cooking. There are kidney cones, called masculine, and there are feminine - sticky, like resin. Collect, as a rule, raw material of female type at that moment when the cone still has a green color and has not hardened. The best option is to go for cones, which will make a delicious jam, in May and early June.
How useful is a cone jam
What could be better than a summer walk on a pine forest? Pleasant aroma of pine needles relaxes and gives peace, and the tree itself can relieve the diseases. For the treatment of ailments of varying degrees, shoots, tar and kidneys are used. Young cones in the form of jam are no exception to this treasure of medicinal components of the tree. Sweet mass enriches the body with a lot of vitamins, allowing you to enjoy an interesting taste.
In the winter, this jam will become a godsend at the expense of the vitamin C content, which we miss so much during the cold season. It suppresses the growth of the number of bacteria, prevents them from harming the body and is a good way to fight against viruses. Together with this, cone jelly beneficial effect on immunity, strengthens it, preventing frequent diseases.
Long ago, cones welded in sugar syrup were the first aid for severe cough and respiratory problems. When used together with hot tea, the jam has an expectorant effect, which is especially valuable with a dry cough. In addition, along with honey, the sweet potato jam causes increased sweating, which helps to cure a cold as soon as possible.
How to prepare jam from cones
The city of Kolomna is famous for its jish jam, sold at low prices, but it can be cooked at home. Useful jam is prepared from young cones from different trees, but it must always be taken into account that a tree that has any stains or inclusions hinting at its unhealthy state is not suitable for collection. The modified shoots should not be dirty, uneven and damaged. There are many recipes for the preparation of therapeutic sweetness, they differ depending on the tree from which the raw material was collected.
Pine cone jam
A sweet product is cooked for a long time, and sugar syrup is always taken as a basis for goodies. Jam from pine cones is easy to prepare, because it consists of a small number of ingredients. Their list is as follows:
- green young cones - 1 kg;
- drinking water - 400 ml;
- sugar - 1,5 kg.
Cooking should be as follows:
- Pine cones are well washed under running water and thrown to a colander, waiting for the water to drain.
- Cut the pine ingredient into four pieces, then lay it in a cooking pot.
- In a separate saucepan, dilute the water with sugar, boil on low heat until the mixture is clear and clear.
- With the syrup removed from the fire, pour the chopped buds and let it brew under the towel for 4 hours.
- Cooking takes place in three stages. On the first of them, when stirring on medium heat, you need to bring the jam to a boil and, before the very moment of boiling, remove it from the plate, leaving it for 2 hours. The same actions are repeated twice more.
- After the third boil, do not remove the pan from the fire, and reduce it to a minimum. Cook for another hour.
Another recipe with a simpler preparation contains such components:
- small pine cones or larch;
- sugar;
- water.
Preparation consists of the following steps:
- Wash the cones as best as possible, drain the liquid. In this form, put them in a saucepan.
- Filter the water, pour it into a saucepan so that the cones are covered by 2 cm.
- Boil the future jam, pour the sugar. Proportion of sugar to water at the rate of 1: 1.
- On low heat, stirring, cook the sweet, healthy product for 2 hours. Do not forget to remove the foam.
- Ready thick jam should be spread over sterilized jars.
From spruce
Spruce and pine, belonging to the same family of plants, the trees are still different. This explains the fact that the appearance of their cones is different. Fir cones are oval in shape, longer than pine. They have thin scales that are useful in making a delicious jam. List of ingredients for treats:
- young cones of spruce - 1 kg;
- sugar - 1 kg;
- water - 2 l;
- vanilla.
Stages of preparation:
- Preparation of raw materials starts a day before cooking. The spruce cones washed from the needles are soaked in 1 liter of cold water for 24 hours.
- With the remaining liter of water, dilute the sugar, boil until the syrup is clear and thick.
- Soaked cones add to syrup and cook until they become soft.
- For a more interesting bouquet of flavors, you can add vanilla seeds to the sweet mass.
Cedar
Small pine nuts, rich in vitamins, are known to many since childhood. Apply to food, as it turned out, you can not only them, but also small oval cones of this tree in the form of jam. Components of vitamin sweetness are:
- immature pine cones - 1 kg;
- drinking water - 400 ml;
- granulated sugar - 1 kg;
- lemon.
Cedar jam jam is brewed as follows:
- Rinse thoroughly dried cones with water, so that the ingredients are completely closed and cook for 20 minutes.
- Syrup is prepared very simply: on low heat sugar is dissolved in water until the composition is transparent.
- Remove the boiled cones from the water, wait for the water to drain and place in a container with syrup.
- The sweet mass is brewed for half an hour on medium heat, then the fire decreases and the cooking continues until the cones are soft.
- In the finished product for taste, you can add a few spoons of lemon juice.
How to use
The use of jam from such unusual ingredients is aimed not only at getting pleasure from its taste, but, above all, for treatment. To get rid of cough and other respiratory problems, take the medicine on a teaspoon three times a day. The number of days can vary depending on the state of health. According to the adherents of traditional medicine, the drug is suitable for the prevention of viral diseases.
Contraindications
As from any other medicine, from bush jam can be good and bad. Useful properties, which possess an antiviral drug, will have an effect on the body, but here you can not use this product for healing. Refuse to eat pine, fir or cedar jam during pregnancy. Do not get involved with people who have problems with kidneys and who suffer from acute hepatitis.
Regarding the treatment of children in this way, it is important not to overdo it. Children who have not reached the age of 7 may well be allergic to an unusual product. If you decide to give the child a jam try, then start with very small doses. As a rule, allergic reactions make themselves felt the next day, so if they are not observed, the dose can be increased.