Mulberry, or the fruit of a mulberry tree, is a wonderful berry. When fully ripe, it is honey-sweet, slightly greenish - with a slight sourness. Dark, pink or white - equally, it can serve as an excellent fresh dessert and a wonderful treat in the form of jam, jams, jelly, stewed fruit. And in winter - the housewives know this very well - any spin goes off with a bang, especially sweets.
Mulberry Jam
First, let's try to cook the most ordinary
mulberry jam. The recipe contains only three ingredients: berries, sugar and lemon juice. Proportions: mulberry and sugar - 1: 1, juice from half a large lemon (per pound of berries). First you need to process the mulberry itself: iterate over, remove debris, nip off the roots, rinse under the tap or lower the colander with berries in a bowl of water. It’s better to do it with gloves. dark berry can stain your hands for a long time. Now you can start making mulberry jam. The recipe is this: mulberry fruits are poured into a wide enameled, or rather a copper basin or pan, and put on medium heat. Under the influence of heat, they begin to secrete juice. At this time, mix the berry mass regularly so as not to burn. Liquid can boil, a lot of foam is released - be sure to remove it. Cook until the berries float up and distribute throughout the entire pelvis. At this point, you can make the fire a little bigger and bring our mulberry jam to a boil. The recipe prescribes now to introduce sugar (gradually, not forgetting to stir) and lemon juice. Reduce the heat a little and mix the contents until the sugar has dissolved. Then bring to a boil again and cook in this way for about 10-15 minutes. After that, pour boiling mulberry jam on pre-prepared sterilized jars. The recipe recommends immediately rolling them up, putting them upside down for a day, wrapping them up so that the covers better “seize”, and then send them to the shelves in the pantry or basement.
Jam prepared in this way can be stored in a cool place inaccessible to dampness for at least 2 years. Although, believe me, it will go away within a couple of months - it is very tasty!
Mulberry Pectin Jam
To some, mulberry jam in its pure form may seem liquid. For its thickening, pectin or gelatin is usually used. When applying pectin, a small amount of berries is taken - not more than 0.8 - 1 kg. To make the mass homogeneous, you need to grind the berries with a blender. With this preliminary preparation, the natural pectin contained in the mulberry itself is also released, then the factory will have to be added in smaller quantities. Usually the dosage is written on the packages, so follow the instructions. Take sugar as much as berries, or 200 g less. So, add pectin to half the right amount of sugar, mulberry is mixed with them. Recipes with this composition of ingredients suggest boiling the workpiece for 10 minutes over medium heat. Remember to mix and remove foam. When the jam is boiling, add sugar and simmer for another 5 minutes over high heat. Remove the foam in a separate container - this is a tasty treat. Then check the dish for the degree of thickening. If the mass collected in a spoon, cooling, does not spread, then you can continue the process of harvesting. Liquid - pour more pectin and boil again. After that, let the jam stand for 5 minutes. Berries will settle - then pour it into banks, clog them and put them in storage. If you hold the pan with the brew a little longer on the fire, your jam will turn into jam.
What else can be added to the mulberry jam recipe? Often, to improve the taste and aroma, a pinch or two of grated nutmeg is put in it, and instead of one lemon juice, the pulp and lemon zest, cut into small pieces, are added. It turns out great!