Bird cherry jam

Bird cherry is a unique plant, the healing properties of which have been known to people since ancient times. The taste of fresh berries is not quite ordinary, sweetish, slightly tart. But in many blanks for the winter, it looks much more attractive. The variety of bird cherry recipes for the winter makes it possible to choose something most suitable for your taste. And all year round to enjoy the healing properties of a delicious and at the same time very useful berry.

What can be cooked from bird cherry for the winter

Those who, since childhood, are not used to feasting on bird cherry and its preparations, sometimes cannot even imagine how much tasty and healthy can be made from this berry.

The easiest way is to cook compote from fruits. Moreover, you can do this from only one bird cherry, or you can use additives in the form of a variety of berries: sea buckthorn, viburnum, currant, raspberry, mountain ash.

There are various recipes and techniques for making bird cherry jam for the winter. After all, it can be cooked with or without seeds, with whole or pureed berries. And you can even create bird cherry jam without cooking.

You can also make jam and delicious jelly from berries. An interesting recipe for preserving bird cherry in the form of juice. After all, in winter you can make a variety of drinks from it, use it as a gravy.

The benefits and harms of bird cherry jam

Bird cherry jam is more likely not a culinary dish, but a medicinal remedy. At the very least, bird cherry preparations containing seeds should not be consumed in unlimited quantities. Since they contain a certain amount of a substance that, when stored for a long time, begins to release hydrocyanic acid. And this acid will not bring any benefit to the human body.

And the rest of the bird cherry berries contain too many biologically active substances, which determines their healing properties. Therefore, like any medicine, it is advisable to use bird cherry jam in moderation.

So, the benefit of bird cherry jam is that it:

• Contains a lot of tannins - tannins and pectin, which makes it possible to provide significant assistance in diarrhea and intestinal infections.
• Due to the large amount of antioxidants, it is able to normalize digestion and establish other life support functions in the body.
• It has a diuretic effect, which means it can alleviate the condition in case of kidney or liver diseases.
• Helps strengthen blood vessel walls through its rutin content.
• Jam will help to reduce the temperature and alleviate the general condition in any inflammatory conditions and infectious diseases.
• It is an antidepressant and aphrodisiac due to the content of endorphins in berries.

But jam and other desserts made from bird cherry also have tangible contraindications to use. They are strictly not recommended for pregnant and lactating women, as well as children under 6 years of age. Also, given the property of bird cherry to fix the chair, you should not get carried away with this jam for constipation.

How to make bird cherry jam

The most ripe bird cherry fruits are suitable for jam, they have a minimal astringency. They can be purchased in the markets or collected in nature or on the plots of your friends. The fruits of wild varieties of bird cherry are not so large, but they are more saturated with useful substances.

To prepare bird cherry for the winter, it is usually harvested along with twigs. Therefore, first of all, the berries must be carefully sorted out, removing all leaves, cuttings and other plant debris. Crumpled, damaged, wrinkled and painful-looking fruits should also be discarded. Healthy berries should be shiny, fairly large, and intensely black.

Then the fruits are washed. It is best to do this in a deep container of a suitable size, changing the water to clean water several times. You can put the bird cherry in a colander and rinse it by dropping it several times in a bucket of water.

The washed fruits must be thoroughly dried. This is usually done by placing them in a single layer on a paper or cloth towel. The less moisture remains on them, the better the finished jam will be stored. Good drying is especially relevant for a recipe for jam from whole bird cherry berries.

For making bird cherry jam for the winter, it is best to use stainless steel cookware. Enamelled is also fine, but bird cherry contains highly coloring pigments that can leave dark marks on the inside of the pot. But aluminum and copper dishes should be discarded, since these metals can come into contact with substances contained in berries. And the result will be completely unhealthy.

Jam cooked using traditional methods usually does not need additional sterilization. But the jars and lids themselves must be boiled before use.

The classic recipe for bird cherry jam for the winter

According to the classic recipe, jam is made from whole bird cherry berries, and at first it may seem liquid, but over time it will necessarily thicken.

You will need:

• 1 kg of black bird cherry;
• 1.25 kg of granulated sugar;
• 0.75 l of water.

From the described amount of ingredients, about 2.5 liters of ready-made jam is obtained.

Manufacturing:

1. The bird cherry is washed and dried.
2. The water is heated to a boil and 500 g of sugar is dissolved in it.
3. The fruits are transferred to a colander and dipped in boiling syrup for 3-5 minutes.
4. Then the colander is removed and left for a while over the pan so that the syrup can drain as much as possible from the berries.
5. The bird cherry is transferred to a separate container and temporarily set aside.
6. And gradually add all the remaining sugar to the syrup and boil until it is completely dissolved.
7. Fruits are poured with boiling syrup and set aside for several hours to soak them.
8. Then they move the future jam to a very low fire.
9. After boiling, remove the foam and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure that the jam does not stick to the bottom.
10. Place bird cherry jam in sterile jars, close with metal or plastic lids.

A very simple recipe for bird cherry jam through a meat grinder

The simplest recipe for making bird cherry jam for the winter does not even require heat treatment of the product. At the same time, the jam retains all the beneficial properties of the berry unchanged. It is only important that the bird cherry is in a fully ripe state.

You will need:

• 500 g of picked and washed ripe berries;
• 1000 g of granulated sugar.

Manufacturing:

1. Prepared bird cherry berries are twisted through a meat grinder two to three times. Each time the mixture becomes more and more homogeneous.
   
   Attention! It is not recommended to use a blender for chopping bird cherry berries - you can damage the device.
2. Weigh the resulting berry puree.
3. Gradually add 1 kg of granulated sugar for every 500 g. Mix thoroughly after each addition of sugar.
4. They wait about half an hour. If the sugar crystals do not dissolve, let the workpiece stand in a warm place for another 30 minutes.
5. After that, the jam is packaged in sterilized jars, and put away and stored in the refrigerator.

The resulting delicacy is used mainly for medicinal purposes. As an immunomodulator, you can eat 2 teaspoons at the beginning of the day. Also, bird cherry jam, prepared according to this recipe, will serve as a good cough medicine.

But it is advisable to use it within the first 6 months.

Bird cherry jam with seeds

The jam according to the following recipe is prepared in a similar way, but it is already necessarily heat-treated. This allows it to be stored in a regular pantry or in a closed kitchen cabinet.

You will need:

• 1 kg of bird cherry;
• 1 kg of granulated sugar.

Manufacturing:

1. The collected bird cherry is sorted out, washed thoroughly and dried on a towel to remove excess moisture.
2. Pass the berries several times through a meat grinder.
3. The resulting berry mass is moved into a cooking utensil, sugar is added, mixed and sent to moderate heating.
4. After boiling, the jam is heated for another 3-5 minutes, removed from the heat and allowed to cool to room temperature.
5. Then they are put back on heating.
6. A similar procedure is repeated 2-3 times.
7. Finally, the bird cherry is boiled for the last time for about 10 minutes, distributed among the jars and, wrapped, left to cool.

Recipe for tender red bird cherry jam

The same technology can be used to make red bird cherry jam. Few people know about the existence of another bird cherry - red, or, as botanists call it, Virginia. She came to Russia from North America and for a long time was used exclusively as an ornamental shrub. Her berries are slightly larger and, when unripe, are bright red. When ripe, they darken, and their color becomes dark red, almost brown. They are slightly more pleasant to the taste than the berries of ordinary black bird cherry, since they have less astringency. Red bird cherry jam also has beneficial properties, although its composition is not as rich as that of its black-fruited sister.

You will need:

• 1500 g of red bird cherry;
• 1500 g granulated sugar.

Manufacturing:

1. Ripe red cherry berries are also thoroughly washed and lightly dried on a towel.
2. Then twisted three times through a meat grinder. If you want to get a particularly delicate texture of the jam, you can turn the berry mass 4 and 5 times.
3. Then they act according to the same scheme as with black fruits, boil the jam for 4-5 minutes with pauses between cooking periods.
4. It is enough to do this procedure 2-3 times and lay out the jam on sterile dishes.

How to make bird cherry jam with lemon juice

The sweetness of the bird cherry will favorably set off the acidity of the lemon juice, and the resulting jam will amaze not only with its taste, but also with its amazing aroma.

You will need:

• 1500 g bird cherry;
• 50-60 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 medium lemons);
• 1.5 kg of granulated sugar.

Manufacturing:

1. The fruits are carefully washed so as not to damage their integrity, dried.
2. In a wide saucepan with low sides, sprinkle them with sugar, pour in freshly squeezed lemon juice.
3. Leave the bird cherry in a cool place for 10-12 hours (overnight).
4. The resulting juice is poured into a separate small container the next day and boiled for at least 5 minutes so that the sugar can completely dissolve.
5. Fruits are again poured with boiling syrup and left for several hours to soak.
6. Then put the jam on a small fire and boil for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring constantly.
7. Ready jam is poured into sterile jars, hermetically closed.

How to cook bird cherry with cinnamon

According to this simple recipe, bird cherry jam turns out to be no less fragrant, although its smell is more spicy, cinnamon.

You will need:

• 1 kg of cherry fruits;
• 0.75 l of water;
• 5 g cinnamon;
• 1 kg of sugar.

Manufacturing:

1. The fruits are washed, then placed in a colander in boiling water for 5 minutes.
2. Take them out and dry them on a paper towel.
3. Pour 750 ml of water from the one where the bird cherry fruits were blanched.
4. Heat water to a boil, pour sugar and cinnamon and cook for about 10 minutes until a homogeneous composition is obtained.
5. Then the bird cherry is placed in the syrup, heated to a boil and, reducing the heat, simmer with periodic stirring for about half an hour. Be sure to remove the foam at the same time.
6. Hot jam is packaged in jars, sealed.

Pitted bird cherry jelly

Cooking seedless bird cherry jam is more laborious, but the result is worth the effort. Since such a workpiece can be stored for a much longer period. But, most importantly, getting rid of seeds, you can significantly reduce the possibility of food poisoning caused by hydrocyanic acid, which begins to form in seeds during long-term storage. And it is much more pleasant to feast on such a dessert - nothing creaks, does not get stuck on the teeth.

So, you will need:

• about 1.3 kg of bird cherry;
• 1 kg of granulated sugar.

Manufacturing:

1. The fruits of the bird cherry are sorted as usual, washed thoroughly in a colander and slightly dried.
2. Place the prepared bird cherry in a suitable sized saucepan and fill it with water so that the berries are completely hidden in it.
3. Heat everything to a boil and cook for about 12-15 minutes.
4. Then the water is drained from the berries using a colander.
5. The bottom of the metal sieve is covered with gauze and boiled bird cherry fruits are poured into it in small portions.
6. Using a wooden pusher, grind each portion through a sieve, finally squeezing the accumulated cake with seeds through cheesecloth.
7. A rather thick berry mass should remain in the pan.
8. Sugar is added to it, stirred and allowed to stand for half an hour at room temperature for impregnation.
9. Then put on fire and boil for at least 5-10 minutes.
10. You can transfer the resulting puree to sterile jars already in this form and, tightly twisting, store it in a cool place.
11. And you can add 50 g of gelatin, pre-soaked for 40 minutes in a little cool water. In this case, the jelly will acquire a very thick consistency and will resemble marmalade.
12. However, in any case, it is advisable to store it in a cool place with a temperature not exceeding + 18 ° C.

How to make jam from bird cherry

You can make bird cherry jam at home using a similar technology, only the water after cooking is not drained.

You will need:

• 500 g bird cherry;
• 500 g sugar;
• about 500 ml of water.

Manufacturing:

1. The prepared bird cherry is poured with water so that it completely covers the berries by 1-2 cm.
2. Boil for 10 minutes.
3. The colander is covered with gauze, set over another container and gradually pour the entire contents of the pan into it. It is better to do this in small portions in order to have time to grind the boiled berries every time and remove the pressed cake with seeds.
4. The resulting puree is weighed and the same amount of granulated sugar is added to it.
5. Place the jam on low heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
6. When hot, bird cherry jam is laid out in sterile jars, tightly twisted and, after cooling, put away for storage.

Bird cherry juice recipe for the winter

The principle of making juice from bird cherry is very similar to that described in previous recipes. Only more liquid is used.

You will need:

• 500 g of prepared bird cherry;
• 1000 ml of purified water;
• 500 g sugar.

Manufacturing:

1. The bird cherry is poured with purified cold water and heated to the boiling point, while crushing the berries with a wooden spoon or crush.
   Advice! It is not recommended to use metal and plastic spoons.
2. After the water with berries boils, everything is poured into a colander, the bottom of which is covered with gauze.
3. The berries are still slightly rubbed and the juice is left to drain in this form for about an hour.
4. A cloudy liquid with a large amount of sediment is obtained.
5. It is defended for another hour, after which the relatively transparent part is carefully drained, trying not to touch the sediment at the bottom.
6. Sugar is added to the resulting juice, heated to a boil and boiled for just a few minutes.
7. Ready juice is poured into boiled bottles and sealed for the winter.

How to store bird cherry jam

Any bird cherry jam prepared according to a recipe with seeds should be consumed within 6 months from the date of manufacture. Further, the accumulation of hydrocyanic acid is possible in it.

Jam and other desserts made from pitted bird cherry can be stored in a cool place without light for a year.

Conclusion

Bird cherry recipes for the winter can be especially useful for those who prefer to take care of their health using natural natural remedies. After all, preparations from these berries help to cope with many ailments and leave a pleasant memory of the treatment process.

Recommended entries

16 recipes for honeysuckle jam

Sunberry jam: recipes with apples and oranges

Pumpkin honey: homemade

Lemon jam: 11 recipes

Kumquat jam: 8 recipes

Peach puree for the winter

Melon Peel Jam

Watermelon and melon jam

Lingonberry, mashed with sugar