Probably, everyone already knows about the beneficial properties and benefits of pine for the human body. It is no coincidence that many health facilities are based in pine forests, where the atmosphere seems to be saturated with this pleasant smell. And the reason is the essential oils, which have a beneficial effect on many organs. Jam from pine shoots or honey based on them is no exception. All the healing substances contained in the tree are transferred to them. About how to cook jam from pine shoots, we will tell in our article. And it will be especially useful to regularly use this product to people who suffer from chronic diseases of the respiratory organs. As a preventive measure, pine honey and jam can also be used for influenza, acute respiratory infections, sore throats, and colds.
Pine shoot jam
What are these shoots? They grow in spring from the central buds of a tree and slightly resemble sticking out candles. As a rule, shoots are a concentrate of all the young forces of a tree, its sprouts. And they, like any seedlings, contain the energy power of vitamins, trace elements, amino acids and essential oils. In this health cocktail, the juices of a tree awakened after a winter are concentrated. Like young cones, this is one of the most useful parts of the pine for humans. Therefore, probably, pine shoot jam is recommended by doctors. Yes, and it’s just delicious, after all: with tea and a bun - just an overeating!
Preparation for the process
Before you make this dish (even rather - not a dish, but a medicine, since it is used mainly for medicinal prevention purposes), you need to know some features that will help make it as useful as possible. Firstly, these shoots must be harvested away from industrial zones, roads, megacities. The same rule applies here as with mushrooms: trees can absorb various non-useful substances, for example, heavy metals as regular emissions from factory enterprises. And accordingly, such jam can cause even irreparable harm to the body. Secondly, having prepared pine shoots, you need to give them a little maturity. And then rinse thoroughly in running water. Thirdly, if the sprouts are covered with a husk of light brown color, then you need to peel it off, as it can give bitterness to your jam (no, of course, it does not do much harm - just not everyone likes bitter jam).
Jam from pine shoots. Recipe
- We wash and cleaned raw materials into small pieces.
- At night in a special bowl for jam, a rather large size, we sprinkle with sugar shoots. Ratio: 2 parts of shoots, 3 parts of sugar (that is, it is one and a half times more).
- After we add natural purified water to the dishes. For every kilogram of shoots - a liter.
- Next - cook, as an ordinary jam, for example, from berries. Bring to a boil - cook for five minutes on the smallest fire. Turn off and insist 6 hours. Then repeat the procedure (preferably three times).
- For the third time, we bring the jam from the pine shoots to a boil and add lemon juice (1 spoon) into the container, stirring (you can replace it with citric acid in the appropriate proportion). We turn off and pour into sterilized jars according to the traditional rules for rolling up preservation.
- You can store jam in a kitchen cabinet at room temperature, or you can, without rolling up (especially if the mass of the obtained food-medicine is small), in the lower part of the refrigerator, closing it with a plastic lid.
Healing honey
From tender and fresh pine shoots it is good to cook healing honey. To do this, first prepare a decoction: shoots and water - 1x2. Cook for a short time on low heat. Then - set aside for a day. After - strain, achieving transparency. Add sugar (decoction and sugar - 1x2). Dissolve it completely in the broth and cook after boiling - 20 minutes more, until our syrup is thick. After that, immediately pour into sterilized jars and roll up.