Jam is a thick, jelly-like product that is obtained by gradually boiling various berries and fruits with the addition of sugar. Scotland is considered the birthplace of an unusual dessert, where, according to legend, this product was first prepared in the 18th century. Lemon jam is the easiest way to preserve for a long time the unique properties of citrus, popular all over the world. There are many different recipes for its preparation, each of which is worthy of attention.
Simplest option
Lemon jam is a delicacy that has a fairly wide scope. It can be served as a dessert for tea, spread on a piece of bread, and also used as a filling for baking rolls and pies. The simplest cooking option for this product requires the presence of enameled dishes and a minimum set of starting components: lemon, water and sugar in a ratio of 1: 2: 3.
Cooking lemon jam is not difficult. The whole process consists of five successive stages:
- First, citruses need to be thoroughly washed, and then gently cut with a sharp knife into small slices. In this case, it is necessary to remove all the bones, otherwise the finished product will have a slightly bitter aftertaste.
- Pour the slices of lemons with water and leave in this position for 1 day.
- The next day, the mass must be put on fire and cook until the peel becomes completely soft.
- After this, add sugar and continue boiling for another 20 minutes.
- Ready jam put in sterilized glass jars.
For a gradual cooling, it is better to immediately put them in a container with hot water. This will prevent the formation of unwanted lumps.
Plastic mixture
Lemon jam can be prepared in the form of a soft aromatic mass, which is easy to spread on bread. In this case, an unusual set of products will be needed: 4 lemons, 100 grams of butter, 4 fresh eggs and 200 grams of powdered sugar.
Such a mixture is prepared in a special way:
- First, as usual, lemons must be washed.
- After that, remove the zest on a fine grater, and simply squeeze the juice from the rest of the pulp.
- Add the whipped eggs to the resulting mass, mix and leave for 30 minutes.
- After this, the mixture needs to be filtered, and then transferred to a saucepan and cook over low heat, adding oil, 10-12 minutes. This time is enough for the contents to thicken well.
- Now, an unusual jam can be laid out in jars and stored in the refrigerator.
The resulting mass has a rich taste and a pleasant refreshing aroma. It can be easily applied with an ordinary knife over a piece of the loaf, and also used to lubricate cakes and other workpieces during baking.
Vitamin Billets
It is difficult to find a person who would never try jam in his life. Today, this popular sweet dessert is cooked from almost any product: fruit, berries, exotic fruits, as well as cucumbers, pine cones and even watermelon peels. Lemon jam can be made in the same way . Each housewife has a recipe for this. For example, it is worth considering a very interesting option, in which only two ingredients are involved: sugar and citruses in a 2: 1 ratio.
How to make such a lemon jam? The recipe provides three stages of this simple process:
- First of all, the fruits should be washed, and then arbitrarily cut them into pieces and, after removing the seeds, grind with a meat grinder.
- Add sugar to the resulting mass and leave it for a day. In this case, one must not forget to stir it periodically. By the end of the day the sugar should completely dissolve.
- Place the container with the aromatic mixture on the stove and warm it up a little over low heat, not bringing to a boil.
After this, the still hot mass must be laid out in jars and sent to the refrigerator for final cooling. In this jam, lemons remain almost fresh and completely retain the vitamin "C" contained in them. Such a dessert will be an excellent preventive measure against colds on cold winter days.
Amber Dessert
How else can you make lemon jam? The recipe in most cases includes only three main ingredients. The difference is only in the technology of preparation of a particular product. One option involves the use of the following ratio of ingredients: for every one and a half kilograms of lemons - 2 kilograms of sugar and 2 liters of water.
After all the products are on the table, you can start cooking lemon jam.
The recipe in this case is a little more complicated than the previous options:
- Fresh ripe fruits must first be washed and then dried thoroughly.
- With a thin thin knife, carefully cut the zest and cut it into strips.
- Divide the remaining pulp into two parts and squeeze out all the juice from it. Do not dispose of product residues.
- Pour the zest into the pan, and pour a measured amount of water and juice. Place the container on the stove and cook over low heat without a lid for one to three hours. Put the remaining pulp together with the seeds in a gauze bag and also place it with the pan. For the entire cooking time, the volume of the contents should be halved.
- At the end of the bag with the pulp, you need to get, cool and squeeze out well. The resulting product must be added to the pan, and the marc - discarded.
- After that, the pan must again be put on the stove and gradually add sugar to the mixture. After boiling, let the product cook for 15 minutes. The resulting mass must be checked for ductility. A drop of such a mixture should not spread on a plate.
Now the finished jam can be laid out in jars and sent to a cool place for storage.
Lemon sugar
Realizing the benefits of famous citrus, caring housewives try to make this product in the house always at hand. Therefore, they adapted to simply store sliced lemon and sugar in glass jars. But this method did not justify itself. Fragrant syrup was usually drunk first, and the lobules wilted over time, and they had to be thrown away. In fact, the most valuable product was sent to the trash. To prevent this from happening, it is better to cook lemon with sugar in another way. To do this, you need a regular glass jar with a screw cap and a hand blender. This recipe provides for the presence of the main components in the following amounts: fruits of lemons and sugar in a ratio of 1: 1.5 (for those who love sweets, you can take a ratio of 1: 2).
Such a product is popularly called "lemon sugar." Cooking it is very simple:
- First, the fruits should be thoroughly washed with a brush under hot water.
- After cutting back and front end parts, with a sharp knife, divide each lemon into slices.
- Fill blanks in a jar and grind with a blender.
- Pour sugar in the resulting puree and mix until a homogeneous mass is obtained.
Ready-made composition is a good alternative to jam. It can be added to tea, summer cocktails, rolls and cakes. In addition, they are good at watering ice cream or cottage cheese casseroles.
With apple flavor
For the preparation of jams any berries are used, as well as fruits from the garden or from the garden. In some cases, mixtures are used whose composition depends on the availability of specific products or individual taste preferences. Take, for example, apple-lemon jam. Its preparation has its own characteristics. Firstly, it is better not to use overripe products for work, as they have weak gelling properties. Secondly, it is better to use acidic varieties of apples, as they contain more pectin substances. For work you will need: 1.4 kilograms of apples, 3 cups of water, 4 lemons, one and a half kilograms of sugar and 6 sprigs of fresh mint.
The cooking process must be carried out in stages:
- Cut the washed lemons into thin slices, put them in a saucepan, add water and leave in this condition overnight.
- In the morning they need to be transferred to a basin, brought to a boil and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes, until the skin becomes soft.
- At this time, apples must be peeled, cut into slices and added to the boiling mass with sugar. With constant stirring, the products should be cooked for at least half an hour.
- 5 minutes before the end, drop the mint branches into the mixture. They will give the jam a special piquancy.
The finished product will only be transferred to banks and, having closed them tightly with lids, send for storage to a cool place.
Lemon with ginger
Now in shops many various desserts are on sale. But most housewives prefer to do them on their own. Therefore, they need to know, for example, how to make lemon jam at home. To give the finished dessert a refined aroma, you can add a little vanilla, cinnamon or ginger to the recipe. This is easy to see if you try to make jam using the following basic ingredients: 6 large lemons, a bag of pectin, 400 milliliters of water, half a cup of grated peeled ginger root and 6.5 cups of sugar.
The process technology is relatively simple:
- First, whole washed lemons need to be poured with hot water for 10 minutes. This will make it possible to remove excess bitterness from the zest.
- After this, the fruits must be arbitrarily cut into pieces, and then, after removing the seeds, chopped in a food processor or blender.
- Peel the ginger root and grate it.
- Transfer the lemon puree to an enameled pan. Add water and grated ginger here and cook for 6-8 minutes after boiling.
- Introduce the remaining components, mix and hold on the fire for another 5 minutes.
After that, the finished flavorful jam must first be cooled, and then distributed in clean containers, cork tightly and stored in a cool place.