10 recipes for non-trivial spring jam

After all, if you understand, jam is really good for everything that grows, blooms and smells. In the Crimea and the Caucasus, it is boiled from cones of mountain pine, from sage, lavender, linden flowers, lilacs, horse chestnut, white acacia and black elderberry. The Turks make it from jasmine flowers, the Romanians from water lilies, the Egyptians from hibiscus, the Armenians from rose petals and white irise flowers, and the French from violets.



Jam of greens and herbs

Hardly anyone doubts the healing properties of herbs, which are called medicinal. As in the fact that every plant has substances that make it useful. Therefore, we can say that any “herbal” jam has a therapeutic effect. So, from the category of delicacies goes into the category of drugs. So it is better to use it without fanaticism and carefully studying the contraindications.

But the cooking process is pleasant and exciting. And if you connect children to it, you get a whole workshop on "potion making."

However, not all the jam that is brewed with sugar: more often the words “jam”, “syrup”, “honey” or even “nectar” are more appropriate here. So the name is conventional – tradition is tradition.


1. For 500 g of young sorrel we will need the same amount of sugar. We wash the leaves in cold water (it is better to prune the stems, but some leave them) and dry. Then we crumple down and fill it with sugar. Stirring, boil on low heat until ready (how to check it, any hostess knows: if the drop does not spread on the plate, it is time to turn off the jam). We put it in jars and roll it.

Important: sorrel can not be cooked in copper dishes! It is better to take aluminum, cast iron or enameled.




2. Jam and mint syrup Long looked for a suitable recipe for mint jam. One has too much sugar and too little mint, the other needs vinegar for some reason, the third adds melissa, and this is a separate conversation. Relatively acceptable to me was the version of Dr. Agapkin.

You'll need:

• 250g fresh mint
• 1kg sugar
• 2 medium lemons
• 500 ml of water

We then cut mint and lemons (together with the skin), pour water and bring it to a boil. After 10 minutes we remove and leave for the night. In the morning, strain, add sugar and torment 2 hours on a slow heat. That's it.

According to another version (which I prefer), you need half the sugar:

• 250g fresh mint
• 500g sugar
• 1-2 lemons
• 500 ml of water

The sequence is the same. And yet it tastes lemon-mint, and I like it clean, without impurities. So I cooked a ten-minute syrup.

Mint syrup recipe

We take 1 part of water and 2 parts of sugar and mint leaves (my fragrant beauty has already stretched up to 25 cm and has grown rather thick stems, but they are still very young and tender, so we went to syrup together with the leaves). In numbers, it looks like this:

• 500g fresh mint
• 500g sugar
• 250 ml of water

My mint, we throw it on the coop and cut it small. Put water with sugar on a medium fire, add sliced greens there and, stirring, boil all this together for 10 minutes. Turn off, let the syrup completely cool (at the same time and infuse), filter, pour into a bottle and clean in the refrigerator. It turns out a wonderful fragrant "sauce" for cottage cheese casserole, cheesecake or ice cream.

And more: in reality, the result is not as bright as in the photos. For a rich color, a few drops of food coloring are usually added to it.


3. Jam and thyme syrup Timyan has also moved away from winter hibernation and overgrown with young leaves.

You'll need:

• 0.5 liters of water
• 0.5 kg of sugar
• lemon juice
• 2 tsp gelatin
• 300g thyme green

In the syrup of sugar, water and freshly squeezed lemon juice, put washed and dried thyme and boil about half an hour on a slow heat. Then we remove it from the stove and filter it. Separately dilute gelatin in a glass of water. Return the syrup to the fire, bring to a boil and carefully pour gelatin. Another 4-5 minutes boil, turn off, pour on banks and roll.

If three hundred grams of thyme in your pharmacy garden is not yet collected, you can prepare an excellent antibronchitis syrup: it will take only 50 grams of this fragrant miracle.

Thyme syrup recipe
You'll need:

• 50g thyme green
• 1 tbsp water
• 4 tbsp honey
• lemon juice

Pour thyme with a glass of boiling water and insist for 15-20 minutes. Then filter, add lemon juice with honey and put on a slow fire. 15 minutes boil, cool and pour into a bottle.


And yet the most spring jam - floral. Whatever it is, herbs and greens will grow all summer, and flowering in different trees and shrubs lasts only 2-3 weeks. So the southerners today should hurry with the "procurements", and the residents of the middle lane still have time to meet the "harvest" fully armed.


4. "Honey" from acacia But first they will have to break and remove the flower bed, pedicles and stamens. The remaining white flowers - they will need about 250 g - is washed in cold water with 0.5 tsp of lemon juice or citric acid, so as not to darken, and recline on the cord.

Meanwhile, we cook syrup from sugar and water in a ratio of 1: 1 (for our 250 g of flowers you need to take 1 kg of sugar and 1 liter of water). Then we put flowers in it and languish on a slow heat for 10-15 minutes. We remove from the fire, pour into jars and close.




5. For the aroma of black elderberry in spring, everyone has one epithet - "intoxicating". And it really is. But you need to be especially careful with it: all parts of the plant are moderately poisonous, except for flowers. Inflorescences and berries of black elderberry serve as raw materials for medicines, as well as the basis for various decoctions and infusions in folk medicine.

And also from them it turns out useful and with its taste "butterfly" jam for which we will need:

• 2 tbsp. (with a slide) flowers of black elderberry
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp water

Clusters of flowering elderberry should be washed, dried and cut off flowers from them. After finishing this dizzying activity, pour everything with hot sugar syrup with water. Leave for 12 hours (or better for a day). Then put on the fire again and let it boil for 20 minutes. The jam is ready, we can close!





6. In our region, the violets almost blossomed. I hope you are more lucky and have time to cook and try this gentle delicacy.



Only petals of wild violets are suitable for it, large-flowered varieties and hybrids are not suitable.
You'll need:

• 250g violet petals
• 500g sugar
• water

We rinse the petals, dry and push in the mortar. Separately, boil the syrup: pour sugar into a pan and pour water - just enough so that it barely covers the sugar. Stir and boil over a slow heat. As soon as the syrup begins to thicken, we add petals to it. Continuing to stir, bring the jam to the desired consistency and remove from the fire.

Violet syrup recipe
This simple and refined product will take a worthy place in all kinds of desserts. And to try it in its pure form will be interesting for many.

You'll need:

• 1 tbsp violet petals
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1.5 tables of water

Pour the violets with boiling water, cool and put in the refrigerator for 4-5 days. Then filter, sprinkle sugar and boil the syrup on a slow heat until it thickens.


7. "Honey" from chestnut flowers

However, it cannot boast as strong aroma as acacia or lilac. Therefore, flower-chestnut honey is prepared on the principle of triple ear, laying in the "broth" several portions of flowers one after another.

To do this, first pour 1 liter of water into the cooking dishes and bring it to a boil. Then we take 300 grams of flowers, divide them into 3 parts and alternately lower them into boiling water (each batch is removed only after it is boiled before softening). Strain, fill the sugar and boil on low heat for about 30 minutes.


8. If lilacs make even ice cream, how not to boil a thick and fragrant delicacy from it?




You'll need:
250g lilac flowers (not white!)
250 ml of water
250g sugar

First we carefully cut off all the flowers:

We pour them with water and put them on fire. After boiling, we boil for 10 minutes, constantly stirring, then remove from the stove, cool and filter. Now you need to pour the flower mass with sugar, pour the syrup again and boil another 20 minutes.


9. The hit of the season is a sweet and viscous dandelion honey. For its preparation, almost all the authors of recipes, as if conspiring, demand to collect 300-400 suns. Don’t ask me why: I just have to.



So we're going to need:

• 350 dandelion inflorescences
• 1kg sugar
• 2 lemons
• water

Flowers are cleaned of all excess, leaving only the yellow part. Carefully wash, fold into dishes and pour a little water: it should only cover the dandelions. And leave it for 24 hours. After that, drain the infusion, add another 500 ml of water to the flowers, bring to a boil, put sugar, sliced lemons and cook over a slow heat for 20-25 minutes. When the jam thickens and becomes like honey, remove it from the fire, filter and return to the stove to boil for literally a minute. Here we go.




10. Another type of spring delicacy is “bumpy” jam. This is the most amazing and delicious thing I’ve tried this spring. Prepare it in May-June, while the cones are still small. published


P.S. And remember, just changing our consumption – together we change the world!

Source: www.7dach.ru