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The Isabella grape is traditionally considered a quintessential wine variety and indeed, homemade wine from it produces excellent quality with an aroma that cannot be confused with any other grape variety. But for some people, wine is contraindicated for health reasons, others do not drink it for fundamental reasons, and they want to prepare grapes of this variety for the winter, since its yield is quite high. And in the fall, Isabella grapes are offered everywhere on the market, often for a symbolic price. But this grape variety is very valuable, because it has amazing healing properties: it relieves fever and the condition of patients with colds and viral diseases, improves metabolism, helps with anemia, diseases of the liver and pancreas, and is also used as a diuretic and cleanser.
Compote from Isabella grapes for the winter will be the best way out, since the berries in it are preserved quite well, it is prepared simply and quickly, and the taste of the drink itself can be additionally diversified with spices, as well as other berries and fruits.
Homemade compote from Isabella
As mentioned above, Isabella grapes at the time of their ripening can be offered on every corner, and in more southern regions it grows in almost every yard. Therefore, many caring mothers and grandmothers try to please their family by making all kinds of desserts from it. If you are thinking about how to cook Isabella grape compote so as to diversify its taste, then below are some useful tips:
- Try adding a few slices of lemon or orange to the compote when making it, right along with the peel, which contains the main flavor of citrus fruits. Just do not forget to remove all the seeds from citrus fruits before this – they can give bitter notes to the finished drink.
- To spice up the grape compote, add a few grains of cardamom, cloves or star anise, a pinch of cinnamon or vanilla, or a handful of mint or lemon balm.
- Grapes go well with other fruits and berries. It is very good to add thinly sliced uXNUMXbuXNUMXbpieces of apples, plums, nectarine, pears or quince to the compote. Of the berries that ripen at this time, dogwood, mountain ash, viburnum, blueberries, lingonberries and remontant raspberries will be appropriate.
The most delicious recipe
According to this recipe, Isabella grape compote was prepared for the winter by your grandmothers and, maybe, great-grandmothers. Nowadays, only some devices have been invented that greatly facilitate the work of the hostess, which will be discussed later.
The preparation of grapes consists in the fact that at first the clusters are thoroughly washed in running cold water. Then strong, whole, intact and dense berries are taken from the brushes into a separate bowl, everything else can theoretically be used for wine or grape jam, but are set aside for the time being. Selected berries are best dried in a colander or on a towel.
According to the recipe for two two-liter jars, 1 kg of washed and peeled grapes is used. Sugar should be taken depending on your taste from one to two glasses. But it should be remembered that if there is too little sugar, then the compote runs the risk of turning sour in the first months of storage. Conversely, too much sugar can cause an inadequate fermentation response. The best option for making syrup is to use 150-200 grams of sugar per 2 liters of water.
Fill sterilized jars with prepared grapes. If you need the compote to be intended only to quench your thirst and have only a grape aroma, then cover the bottom with grapes and this will be enough. But in order for the grape compote to resemble real juice, one two-liter jar will need at least 500 grams of grapes.
If you have a shortage of glass jars, and you urgently need to close the compote of grapes, you can even fill the jars with grapes almost completely, up to the shoulders. In the future, the compote will turn out to be just very concentrated, and when you open the jar, it will need to be diluted with boiled water.
Boil sugar syrup by boiling it for 5-6 minutes. After preparing the syrup, while hot, carefully pour it into jars of grapes. After that, leave them for 15-20 minutes.
This is where the fun begins.
In ancient times, when the recipe for multiple pouring was just being invented, this process was rather complicated and laborious. Witty housewives invented everything to make their lives easier – they used a colander and made holes in the lids with a nail.
Nowadays, any interesting idea is picked up very quickly, and some time ago, amazing devices appeared – plastic lids for traditional-sized glass jars with many holes and with a special drain. They became known as drain caps.
Now you just need to take such a lid, put it on top of the jar and pour all the liquid contents of the jar into a separate pan without any problems. Then remove it, put it on the next jar and repeat the process in the same sequence. Thus, one lid can be used on an unlimited number of jars as many times as desired.
After you have drained all the syrup back into the pan, bring it back to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Again, fill the grapes in jars with syrup, keep the prescribed time and again drain the syrup through the lid back into the pan. For the third time after pouring the grapes with syrup, the jars can be rolled up and, turning them upside down, wrap them in warm blankets until they cool completely.
Grapes with scallops
Many novice housewives may have a question: “How to close Isabella grape compote with twigs for the winter and is it possible to do this?” Of course, you can – such a blank will not only look very elegant and original, but even after opening the jar you will be able to surprise your guests and relatives by gradually pulling out a long bunch of grapes folded many times from the jar. If, of course, you can find one and carefully put it in a jar.
Making grape compote with twigs or scallops, as they are sometimes called, will take you even less time, since there is no need to inspect each berry and remove all the twigs.
But still, the grapes must be washed very thoroughly, preferably under a running stream of water and inspected for the removal of soft, overripe or rotten berries.
Twist without sterilization
Arrange the washed and dried bunches in sterilized jars so that they occupy about half the jar in volume. According to the recipe for 1 kg of prepared grapes, it is necessary to use 250-300 grams of granulated sugar. Pour the required amount of sugar into jars, based on how many grapes you have left.
Boil water separately and carefully and gradually pour it into the jars of grapes and sugar. Close jars immediately after filling with boiling water using sterilized lids. Banks must be left to cool in a wrapped state so that the process of additional self-sterilization occurs.
Preparation of compote with sterilization
Since the grapes according to this recipe will be sterilized, it is enough to wash the jars thoroughly with soda and rinse well with water. There is no need to pre-sterilize them. As in the first case, grape branches are neatly laid out in jars and poured with hot syrup. The syrup is prepared at the rate of 250 grams of sugar per 1 liter of water used.
Then the jars with grapes are covered with lids.
Then they are placed in a wide pot of water, which is put on fire. After boiling water in a saucepan, liter jars are sterilized for 15 minutes, two-liter jars – 25 minutes, three-liter jars – 35 minutes. At the end of the sterilization process, the jars are carefully removed from the water and immediately closed with tin lids using a seamer.
Conclusion
Compote from Isabella grapes is equally good in the ripening season, when it is able to perfectly quench thirst, and in the form of blanks for the winter. Moreover, in winter you can not only drink it, but also make a variety of fruit drinks, crucons, sbitni and jelly out of it. Often, even a cream for cakes and fruit desserts is prepared on its basis.
