In the fruit and vegetable season, housewives enthusiastically fill the shelves of the pantries and basements with all kinds of jars. Proven recipes and experimental samples are used for years. It is very interesting for home cooks to preserve plums. This fruit has a very diverse application. Jam, jams, jam, compotes are cooked from it, and from it a very original savory snack is obtained, which is also used as a side dish for meat. In a word, the recipes for preserving plums are so diverse that everyone can find something of their own, suitable for the purposes, methods of preparation and taste.
Plum compote
Let's start with the traditional methods of harvesting fruits. The most popular of these is, of course, compote. Methods of its preparation can not be counted; among them we have chosen the most laborious.
Sorted and washed fruits are laid out in clean jars, which must be filled in a third, filled with boiling water under the neck, covered with lids and set aside for a quarter of an hour. Then the water from the dishes is drained, boiled with sugar (a glass in a three-liter container; if the plum is very sweet, the amount can be reduced) and comes back. Banks are immediately corked, rolled over and wrapped up. If white plums are preserved, you can add a little blackcurrant or cherry to the dishes - for beauty. Yes, and the taste of the berries have a positive effect.
Compote without water
The recipe for those who prefer canned plums halves. For him, black, fleshy varieties are more suitable, in which the bones are easily taken out. Fruits are cut along, the seeds are removed. Halves are laid out on a baking sheet with slices up, sprinkled with sugar in the proportion of a pound per three kilograms of fruit and placed in the oven for ten minutes. Then the oven turns off, but the sheet does not come out, and the door does not open. An hour later, when the plums give juice, they are laid out in jars, poured into them and sterilized for a third of an hour, after which they are sealed.
Fruit and juice
Preserving plums in their own juice is rightfully considered one of the best ways to harvest them for the winter. Very ripe and sweet fruits are suitable for the recipe. They are cut in half, the bones are thrown out, and the plums are poured with a very small amount of water (just so as not to burn), and the pan is placed on the stove. When the juice covers the halves, they are packed in cans, filled with their own liquid and pasteurized. Temperature - 85 degrees, time - a quarter of an hour for half-liter containers, a third - for liter.
Classic plum jam
The most famous plum canning in syrup is, of course, the final jam. You can cook it in different ways.
Option one: for fruits in which the bones are taken out without difficulty. Syrup is brewed at the rate of a kilogram with an additional glass of sugar in two glasses of water. Plums are divided into halves, lowered into a boiling, but removed from the fire base and left for four hours. Then the pelvis is put back on the stove, boiled and cooled again. Such approaches will require 3-4. During the last cooking, drain is carried out until ready, the jam is bottled in containers and rolled up.
Option two: canning plums with pits. Fruits are pricked, plunged into hot water for five minutes (but not boiling water). Syrup is prepared on the same water, this time the same amount of sugar should be diluted with four glasses of water. In syrup, the plum is aged for the first time for four hours, the second for half a day, and then it is boiled until the end.
Baked plum for the winter
Not everyone likes and uses traditional jam. But the preservation of whole plums, in which the fruit resembles prunes, but at the same time floats in a sweet environment, can be a pleasant surprise for picky ones.
A kilogram of washed plums is filled with half the sugar and left overnight. The next morning, two glasses of water plus a spoon of ordinary vinegar are poured into a bowl, a piece of cinnamon and a few buds of cloves are put in, and the dish is put in the oven. Plums are baked until the juice thickens and the fruit is wrinkled; sometimes the bowl needs to be shaken so as not to fry the top layer. Baked plums are laid out in jars, filled with strained jelly juice, closed with ordinary plastic lids and placed in the cold.
Marmalade
If there are a lot of fruits, but containers and storage space are not very good, then such conservation of plums will be the best way out. For greater palatability, you can combine them, for example, with apples.
A kilogram of drain is cut in half and languishes in a pan until completely softened. Hot mass is rubbed and combined with similarly prepared mashed half-kilogram apples. In the future marmalade pour 800 grams of sugar, lemon zest and a pinch of vanilla. It is cooked until it thickens well - it should be very reluctant to drip from a spoon. The mass is evened out on parchment; after cooling, it is beautifully cut, folded into a container and stored in a dry, not necessarily cool, room.
Candied fruit
Another successful preservation of plums in syrup, the result of which can be eaten as an independent sweet, or can be used for cake decorating or filling for pies. Candied fruits are usually made from "Hungarian".
A kilogram of plum is freed from the seeds and dipped in syrup, brewed from a kilogram of sugar in two glasses of water. Five minutes boiling and infusion overnight. You will have to do this 2-3 times. Then the fruit is filtered and dried in a not too hot oven (no more than 75 degrees) for six hours, and the syrup goes to jams, preserves and marmalades. Candied candied fruit can be sprinkled with powdered sugar. They are stored in a closed container.
Sterilized plum
Those who are interested in canning plums without sugar will like this recipe: whole fruits, which are difficult to pick out, are blanched for a couple of minutes, laid out tightly in jars and sterilized for half an hour. At the same time, they completely retain both taste and usefulness; and in the winter they are eaten as fresh or go to the fillings of pies and pancakes.
Soaked plums
So far, we have been considering recipes for canning plums that give sweet results. However, wonderful pickles can also be made from these fruits. It is better to wet them, of course, in barrels, however, ordinary kitchen utensils (except aluminum) give good results.
Leaves of blackcurrant, cherry, mint are placed at the bottom, whole plum, without damage, are located on top. The brine is made as follows: per liter of water - three tablespoons of sugar, one and a half salt and two - live fermentation. The taste will be even better if you pour a spoonful of powdered mustard. Plums filled with brine are pressed down by oppression and kept in a room for a first digestion for a week. After you need to put in the basement, and you can start tasting in a month.
Pickled hot plum
Preservation of plums intended for appetizers, side dishes and salads has no less recipe variety than preserves and compotes. Fans of spicy foods can pickle fruits this way: a hard variety, cut in halves and pitted, is poured with cold water and vinegar in equal proportions. After a day, the marinade is merged, boiled and again poured into jars. Next time, the liquid is supplemented with cloves. After another 24 hours, the plum is well drained, it is laid out tightly in a bowl with a sprinkle of sugar (a kilogram of fruit will take half a kilogram of sugar). The blank is closed with plastic lids and placed in a cool place.
Plum Olives
These canned foods do not always satisfy our wishes. And sometimes it’s a pity the money for "pampering". In both cases, the unusual conservation of plums will help. Like olives, they are made according to this recipe. Naturally, for credibility it is better to take greenish and small fruits. At the bottom of a liter jar are placed cloves, pieces 5-6, a couple of bay leaves and a few peas of pepper. Following are rammed (but without injury) plums, washed, but already dried. The containers are poured with boiling water, after five minutes it is drained, supplemented with sugar (four tablespoons), salt (two and a half) and vinegar (two). After boiling, the marinade is poured into a jar, a spoonful of olive oil goes there, and the container is sealed. Incidentally, in the winter in brine with "olives" wonderful pickled meat of any kind and onions.
Currant plum
A completely unexpected taste effect can be achieved by canning plums with the addition of other fruits. For example, this. A kilogram of ripe, but not soft plums is punctured with a needle (so that the hole is not very wide and the fruit does not tear) and is laid out on banks of any volume. Juice is squeezed out of red currant and filtered, it should turn out to be half a liter. Juice is combined with a glass of sugar and a glass of water, flavored with three to four buds of cloves, a few peas of pepper and a slice of cinnamon. The marinade is boiled, removed from the fire, a spoon of wine or apple vinegar is poured into it, and the pouring is poured into banks. The dishes are sterilized for ten minutes, and after cooling are stored on a shelf in the pantry.
Pickled Sweet Plums
This time, the spin will take a lot of time. But the tinned plums will turn out to be strong, elastic and perfectly in harmony with wine and barbecue. You will need a deep large pot. Fruits are laid out in it in one layer and are poured (generously) with laurel and cloves. There are many such layers - to the very top. In another pan, wine vinegar (50 milliliters) with a third kilogram of sugar is heated. This fill volume is enough for a kilogram of drain. You need to cook it until thickened, but not completely dissolving the sugar. Syrup is poured into a pan, it is closed by a lid. In the morning and evening, for five days, the marinade merges, boils and is poured into the plums again. Due to the gradually released juice, its volume will grow. On the last day, pouring is decanted, fruits and spices are packed in jars (half-liter are most convenient), which are then filled with boiled marinade. The vessels are rolled up, placed under the blanket upside down, and after cooling, they are stored in normal conditions - neither a refrigerator, nor a basement are required.