Lingonberry ripen in August-September, they grow in clusters of 3-9 berries in each. Most often, it is found on dried peatlands, as well as in dry coniferous or mixed forests.
If you managed to collect immature lingonberries, then you can use the old method to "make" the berries turn red. To do this, unripe fruits are laid out in an even layer, and ripe tomatoes or fragrant red apples are laid next to them. Under the influence of ethylene, which these ripe gifts of nature emit, lingonberries will very soon turn red.
This berry is used both for food and for medicinal purposes. Lingonberry fruits and juice are an excellent remedy for vitamin deficiency, and a decoction of leaves is healing in kidney diseases.
If there is a desire to prepare this berry for the future, then, most often, jam from cranberries is boiled.
First you need to sort out the raw materials, discarding the rotten, crushed and blackened berries. Then rinse them in a colander and blanch, dropping directly in a colander for two minutes in boiling water.
Now we’ll tell you how to cook lingonberry jam according to the classic recipe. Take a kilogram of berries and a kilo of three hundred granulated sugar. First, boil the syrup from three hundred milliliters of water and seven hundred grams of sugar. Then let the berries in the syrup and cook until tender over low heat. Shortly before the end of cooking, you need to add the rest of the sugar to the jam, pouring in small portions and stirring actively. If you want to diversify the taste of jam, then you can add cinnamon or honey to the list of ingredients. Lingonberry jam is packaged in clean half-liter or liter jars and sterilized in boiling water for 15 minutes (liter for five minutes more).
You can cook with sweet apples. For a kilogram of lingonberry berries, you need to take a kilogram of apples, sliced in slices and from two to two and a half kilograms of granulated sugar. From a liter of water and a kilogram of sugar we boil the syrup, fill it with a mixture of berries and apple slices. We stand the fruits in syrup for 12 hours, then lingonberry jam with apples must be put on fire and boiled until ready. Hot pour into pre-sterilized banks and roll up.
You can get a good dessert if you cook together lingonberries and pears. For a kilogram of pear, cut into slices, you will need a pound of sorted lingonberries and one kilogram of two hundred grams of sugar. The berries for this jam do not need to be blanched. They are poured into enameled or simply thick-walled dishes and put in the oven, which is heated to a temperature of about 70 degrees. Keep lingonberries in the oven until such time as it starts up juice. Meanwhile, pears need to be cut into slices and dipped in boiling water for 15 minutes, then put in a colander and pour a pan of cold water on the fruit. Drain four hundred milliliters of juice from the dishes with berries and, pouring a kilogram of granulated sugar into it, boil the syrup. Pour in hot syrup pears and leave for 12 hours. Stewed lingonberries are sprinkled with the remaining sugar. Now pear in syrup and lingonberry in sugar separately boil for ten minutes and leave again for 12 hours. Now we combine both mixtures and cook the jam until cooked.
Many people like sauces, which include lingonberries. The jam, cooked according to the classic recipe, can be used to prepare such a delicious gravy.
Pour one hundred grams of port wine (best “Massandra”) into the stewpan, add a tablespoon of brown sugar and a teaspoon of wine vinegar, then put two tablespoons of cranberry jam and boil for thickening. This sauce is good for poultry, especially chicken liver.
You can make such a blank as lingonberry soaked. Preparing the fill. For one liter of water you need to take two tablespoons of sugar and one salt, bring to a boil, then let cool. If desired, you can add spices such as cinnamon and allspice. Additionally, you can put some apples cut into slices.
Fill the lingonberry with the finished brine, cover with a piece of clean linen cloth, and put a wooden circle on top and crush it with oppression. We stand for a week in the room, then we take it out to the cellar. The berry will be ready in a month. This product is an excellent side dish for fried poultry or meat.