The watermelon season is a great opportunity to enjoy the tastes of this berry, as well as get maximum health benefits. Many housewives make preparations for the winter, freezing, boiling, pickling, pickling watermelons. But few people know that you can cook another wonderful treat - honey from watermelons. It is well stored, and on a cold winter evening it will warm with a wonderful taste and aroma of sunny summer.
What is watermelon honey? And what is this unusual treat called? It is obtained from the juice of this berry, which is cooked until thickened. Surprisingly, no sugar or other additives are needed to make the treat.
Honey or not honey?
As you can see, the bees do not participate in the preparation of this product. Maybe you shouldn't call him honey at all? In fact, the name is given rather because of the color and consistency. Externally, the treat really resembles natural honey collected by bees. Most Russian-speaking people familiar with this product call it watermelon honey.
Other names
Surprisingly, abroad this product is very common. As a rule, there watermelon honey is called pekmez. This word is of Asian origin. Along with it, the terms “backmez” and “backmess” are used, which mean juice of berries or fruits brewed to a jelly-like consistency. The name “Nardek” remains the most common.
The origin of the recipe
Watermelon honey was always cooked in the fall, when there are a lot of watermelons and they are inexpensive. The homeland of this treat is considered Central Asia, in which many peoples prepared it. Later, the Don Cossacks adopted the cooking experience and the recipe. Thanks to them, the dish became widespread; many melon growers began to cook it.
The Cossacks cooked the nardik in late autumn. The main batch was already sold out, and the remaining small but pot-bellied berries were used to make honey. Watermelons were cut in half, spoon pulled out the pulp, passed it through a sieve to get juice. The resulting liquid was poured into a cast-iron pot, boiled over an open fire, without even adding sugar. The juice was boiled until it turned into a thick brown syrup. By consistency, the nardik should have been reminiscent of ordinary young honey. Readiness of goodies was determined by this sign. Ready honey was stored in clay pots or rolled up in jars, as we do.
Adygea serve a naredek for tea, pour pancakes, cakes and casseroles on them, spread on bread.
Today, watermelon honey, the recipe of which continues to be modified, is brewed almost everywhere. Some add additional ingredients to it, adding new tastes and extending shelf life, but someone remains true to the classics.
Benefit
Surely, before you make honey from watermelons, you thought about whether this product is good for your health. Nardek perfectly retains all the benefits of fresh watermelon. When cooking sugar is not used, the product reaches taste only due to the content of natural components.
A delicious treat strengthens the immune system and improves appetite. In addition, nardek has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the kidneys, liver, gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system. Doctors recommend including this product in the menu of those who suffer from tuberculosis and other acute and chronic respiratory diseases. Regular consumption of nardic acid increases hemoglobin, helps to cope with atherosclerosis and even inhibits the growth of tumors.
Preparing Watermelon Honey Products
Juice is boiled very much. In order to get a kilogram of product, you need 15 kg of raw materials.
Choose sweet varieties with juicy pulp. Rinse the watermelons thoroughly and let them dry. Cut in half or in several parts - as you prefer. Separate the flesh.
Getting juice
Sort the pulp, breaking or chopping into pieces and removing the bones. To squeeze juice, you can use a juicer or squeeze it manually through a sieve. Many squeeze the resulting gruel also through cheesecloth. If before you boil honey from a watermelon, you don’t remove all the bones and squeeze the juice with a juicer, particles of seeds can get into the product. This will give it a bitter aftertaste.
Cooking stage
Getting to the most responsible business. Watermelon honey is cooked over medium heat, stirring and removing the froth. After a few hours, the juice will be doubled. Put out the fire and pour the mass into another dish and let cool. Leave it in a cool, dark place for 12 hours. Pass the juice through a sieve again, repeat the step of boiling, settling and filtering three times. Each time, the syrup will thicken more and more.
You should not cook the nardek in one go, because in this case it will turn out to be moderately dark, and it will burn to the bottom. It is better to spend time, make efforts - and the result will be delicious and beautiful honey from watermelons.
How to check readiness?
Transparent amber nardek should be thick enough. Put a few drops on a plate and turn it - honey will not spread. By the way, you can use this technique to determine the readiness of any jam.
Harvesting for future use
Remove the finished watermelon honey from the stove and leave to cool. In the meantime, get ready for the cans: wash, sterilize, wipe dry. When the nardek has cooled to 40 degrees, strain it through a sieve, and then lay it in jars. It remains to be hermetically sealed.
Storage
Cool the cans under a warm blanket, and then transfer to the cellar, garage, barn - where it is cool. If space permits, you can store jars in the refrigerator. If you do not have a basement and a balcony, leave honey from watermelons in a cupboard. Try to limit the amount of light.
The use of watermelon honey
This product can be used even during diets. Add a spoonful of honey to drinks for sweetness. Watermelon honey is very sweet and fragrant, but not at all high-calorie. If you use it in reasonable quantities, it will not harm the figure. A few spoonfuls of nardek, dissolved in a glass of water, will help quench your thirst.
For colds, it is useful to prepare the following mixture: combine in equal parts honey from watermelons, apple cider vinegar and chopped onions. Stir and let it brew a little. A spoonful of the resulting product is recommended to dissolve in the mouth slowly. To improve the gastrointestinal tract, replace sugar with nardek in the diet. In acute conditions during liver diseases, exacerbations can be removed using a decoction of oats with the addition of a small amount of watermelon honey. If you regularly take tea from rosehip sweetened with watermelon honey, you can increase and stabilize the level of hemoglobin in the blood and get rid of heart pain.
You can eat this product just for fun. It can be added to fillings for pies, cheesecakes, pastries, combining with fruits and cottage cheese. Nardek is very tasty in combination with pancakes, crumpets, pancakes.
The nutritional value
Before making honey from watermelon, many will learn about its low calorie content. Only 110 kilocalories are contained in 100 grams of nardek, even though this product contains about 60% sugar. For this reason, doctors are allowed to use it even for those who have diabetes. In addition, the nardek contains 9% fat and not more than 1% protein.
Try making this dessert for family and friends. This useful treat will not leave anyone indifferent.