Contents
There will be no limit to the disappointment of any decent housewife if you have to throw away the old candied jam or jam, only to make room in the cellar or pantry for new fresh preparations. Many still do not know that it is possible to make delicious homemade wine from it, and not just the famous moonshine, which not everyone likes.
Such wine can be made from absolutely any variety of jam, the main thing is that there are no signs of mold on it. Only the mold should force you to send such a blank to the trash can, because even if you remove the top part with it, then nothing decent can come out of the remnants of the jam.
All fruits and berries are good in their own way, but homemade plum jam wine is distinguished not only by its noble color shade, but also by its exquisite, slightly tart taste and enchanting aroma.
In addition, the recipes for its preparation are quite simple and even a beginner who has not yet had to try his hand at winemaking can cope with them.
The simplest method
The easiest option for making homemade plum wine from candied jam is that you mix warm boiled water (about + 25 ° + 30 ° С) and jam in equal proportions and, putting a rubber glove or a balloon with a small hole on the container, put for fermentation in a dark warm place. With a standard recipe, the process is usually completed within 30-50 days when the glove or balloon is deflated. Wine can be tasted.
Ingredients to Improve Fermentation
Unfortunately, not always wine prepared according to the above method can claim a delicious taste. Much depends on the amount of sugars it contains, and sometimes the fermentation process does not start at all, because the future wine lacks certain yeast microorganisms and the drink turns sour.
Therefore, various auxiliary additives are used much more often to improve the fermentation process. It can be:
- Wine yeast, and in the absence of such, even ordinary baker’s;
- Any fresh berries or fresh grapes;
- Raisins;
- Fig.
Live yeast per liter of jam should be taken 20 grams. Usually they are dissolved in one liter of warm water and mixed with plum jam.
In this case, you first need to prepare a yeast starter. To do this, 8-10 g of dry yeast is mixed with 100 g of warm water and infused for several hours in a warm place. In the future, this amount of sourdough can be used to make homemade wine from one liter of plum jam.
The easiest way is to use fresh berries or even grapes as a fermentation accelerator in the summer. It is enough to add 200 grams of berries per 1 liter of old jam. It is not recommended to wash the berries before use, but their thorough grinding will contribute to good fermentation.
Raisins are most often used to make wine from plum jam at home. Indeed, when using a recipe with raisins, wine can be prepared even in a season when there are no fresh grapes or other fresh berries. It is also impossible to wash raisins, because on its surface, as in the case of fresh berries, wild natural yeast microorganisms remain, which will contribute to the full passage of the fermentation process.
Finally, an interesting fermenting ingredient that came to us from oriental cuisine is rice. It also should not be washed before adding to future wine for the same reasons above. For one liter of plum jam, one glass of rice is enough.
Technology for making homemade wine from jam
As in the original recipe, plum jam and boiled warm water are first mixed in equal proportions. Then the necessary auxiliary ingredient from the above of your choice is added to them. Of course, the taste of the finished wine will differ depending on what exactly you use to improve fermentation, but for the first time it is worth trying to add what you have on hand.
The resulting mixture is poured into a clean container (preferably glass), a rubber glove is put on top and the future wine is placed in a warm place without light for 12-14 days. After this period, all the pulp (pulp) should rise to the surface. It will need to be carefully removed and strain the remaining liquid into a clean and dry vessel. A glove is again put on the neck of the vessel, and the fermentation process continues for about 30-40 days under the same conditions. When the glove finally falls, the main process of making homemade wine can be considered complete. The resulting wine is carefully filtered through gauze or drained from the sediment, using special thin transparent tubes.
For storage, it is poured into sterile and dry glass vessels and hermetically sealed.
Wine made from fermented plum jam
Strange as it may sound, but it is from the already fermented jam that the most delicious wine is obtained, because in this case fermentation has been going on for a long time, albeit at a slow pace. And each fruit manages to fill the future wine with its taste and unique aroma.
For example, if you take a liter of fermented jam, then you need to add a liter of warm boiled water, 1 tablespoon of raisins and 180 grams of sugar to it. At the first stage of making wine according to this recipe, it is necessary to add to the rest of the ingredients only half of the prescribed amount of sugar – 90 grams. Fill jars where fermentation will take place, fill no more than half, as fermentation can be very violent. For the rest, follow the already familiar scenario.
After two weeks of intensive fermentation, the future wine is separated from the pulp, the rest of the granulated sugar is added, poured into a clean jar and again put with a glove to ferment in a warm place in the dark. In this form, a jar of wine can stand from one to three months. Only after complete fermentation can the wine be considered ready. It is carefully separated from the sediment at the bottom, poured into dry bottles and stored hermetically sealed.
Features of making homemade wine
For beginners, it will be useful to learn a few basic features that should be considered when making wine at home from plum jam.
- All containers that you use for winemaking should be sterilized and thoroughly dried with a hair dryer. This will destroy all the harmful microflora that can disrupt the fermentation process or spoil the taste of the finished wine.
- The temperature of the water that you use to dilute the jam should not exceed + 40 ° C, and it is better to use cooled boiled water.
- When choosing ingredients to improve the quality of fermentation, keep in mind that rice goes best with light-colored drinks, while raisins and grapes are ideal for dark-colored wines.
- It is not recommended to use plastic containers for fermentation and storage of finished homemade wine, since the alcohol formed during the fermentation process can react with plastic and release toxic substances. It is best to store wine in a glass or wooden container.
It seems that such an excellent disposal of a seemingly hopelessly outdated or spoiled product, as the preparation of a tasty and healthy drink from old jam, should please any thrifty housewife. In addition, this process requires a minimum investment of effort, time and additional resources.
