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One of the most delicious winter desserts that you can please your family and friends is cedar cone jam. This exquisite Siberian dish of cedar buds contains a rich set of all kinds of vitamins necessary for a person who is used to wintering in the most severe cold conditions. How to choose the right ingredients and follow the recipe from pine cones and nuts is worth considering in detail.
What is useful jam from pine cones and nuts
A cedar cone is filled with tree seeds. Among the northern peoples of Our Country, it has long become synonymous with all the most useful that nature has given to man. To produce a living tree, a small cone contains the entire set of necessary elements.
The composition of cedar jam contains the following elements:
- vitamin C, B, PP, K;
- ascorbic acid;
- lipids;
- phytoncides;
- essential oils;
- linoleic acid;
- bioflavonoid.
Using a natural preservative – sugar, cooks retain all the beneficial properties of coniferous wood. The recipe of the product does not contain starch or thickener. All that is needed to preserve pine nuts and cones is the fruit itself, sugar and citric acid.
The benefits of jam from cedar cones
It is difficult to overestimate the benefits and effects of taking jam from cedar cones. It is not only a sweet and sour dessert for tea, but also a cure for many diseases. This product has long been used in the treatment of:
- catarrhal diseases;
- gastrointestinal disorders;
- of cardio-vascular system;
- interseasonal hypochondria;
- viral diseases;
- low hemoglobin;
- hypertension.
In addition, it is used as a preventive composition against cancer and as a diuretic and expectorant. Jam has no contraindications, except that a person may be allergic to individual components.
The benefits of pine nut jam
Pine nuts can not only be fried and dried for the winter, they can also be used to make jam. In terms of benefits, it is not inferior to cone jam and has a unique taste of nuts in pine syrup. Pine nut jam is also popular in medicine among taiga healers and local people. Pine nuts are known even abroad as a powerful source of energy, both physical and spiritual.
Nut jam is used as a medicine in the following cases:
- as an immunostimulant;
- to improve the work of the stomach and restore the mucosa in peptic ulcers;
- with a lack of iron in the blood;
- in the treatment of tuberculosis of the lungs;
- for skin rejuvenation and renewal of the epithelial layer;
- in inflammatory processes of various origins;
- as a cancer prevention.
They even make cosmetic products for hair and nails, and nut oil can treat skin diseases. A few tablespoons of pine nut jam will provide strong immunity for the whole winter and spring.
Which pine cones are suitable for cooking
The collection of cedar cones begins in July-August. To choose the right cone, you need to pay attention to its color and density. The younger and softer the fruit, the more suitable it is. A cone ripened for jam should not be overripe and hard. Unsuitable is already beginning to open up and stale. We need to pluck the bud at the stage between ripening and opening. It should be small and green, soft to the touch. Only during this period is it edible and healthy – before it releases seeds and becomes stiff.
How to make jam
There are many recipes for making jam from pine cones and nuts. Some housewives boil cones, others just make syrup. Someone rubs fruit with sugar. The ingredients include various spices, such as cinnamon, vanilla, ginger. When cooked, cone jam becomes bright red to dark brown in color. Regardless of the recipe chosen, it should be borne in mind that cones and nuts are rolled whole, without crushing or breaking the structure. For jam, you need to choose whole fruits plucked from a healthy tree.
Cone jam with pine nuts
A festive assortment of pine cones and nuts in the form of jam is prepared in compliance with some recommendations regarding the ingredients themselves. You need to choose the right nuts. They should be fresh, not dry, slightly soft. Only such fruits contain still fresh essential oil, which will appear if you lightly press on a fresh nut.
Ingredients:
- water – 1 l;
- pine nuts – 800 g;
- cedar cones – 1 kg;
- sugar – 1 kg.
Method of preparation:
- First prepare the nuts. Homogeneous fruits are chosen, washed, dried and fried until the smell appears. Do not allow darkening.
- Prepare syrup. Mix sugar with water and cook until completely dissolved.
- Pour nuts and cones and cook for 2 hours, removing the foam.
- Pour hot jam into jars so that there is more liquid than fruits and roll up.
- Wrap jars with a blanket to cool slowly.
Instead of sugar, you can add honey, in the amount of 500 g. Boiled honey will not have the same beneficial properties as regular honey, but it is an alternative for people with diabetes.
Pine nut jam
Making jam with pine nuts is as easy as making jam from cones. It is worth considering a recipe with honey, which will replace sugar. It is also necessary to choose nuts carefully, but this time without roasting.
The ingredients are as follows:
- 500 g of honey;
- 100 ml of water;
- 400 g of nuts.
You need to cook like this:
- Wash the chopped nuts and let dry.
- In a deep bowl, you need to crush the nuts a little, but do not break them, you need to do this so that the fruits begin to release essential oil.
- Mix honey with water and bring to a homogeneous mass, then throw in the nuts.
- Boil everything for 5 minutes.
- After that, let the jam cool down and repeat the cooking process 3 more times.
- After finishing the third cooking, pour hot jam into sterile jars and roll up.
This delicacy is used mainly for colds. Honey with nuts has always been distinguished by a high vitamin content, and the absence of sugar made the jam natural for a long time.
How to use
If you use cone jam as a medicine, then taking it should be rational. It is better to take on an empty stomach, because on an empty stomach absorption into the blood increases, and the desired effect is achieved sooner. With sore throat or flu, jam is taken 1 teaspoon three times a day, do not drink it, so that the healing syrup envelops the throat, soaking into its walls. After taking it, you should refrain from drinking for an hour.
Cone jam should not be consumed too much as a sweet. Due to the presence of essential oils in it, it can cause allergies, accumulating in the tissues, especially if a person has problems with the kidneys, which do not have time to remove substances.
Противопоказания
Despite the rich benefits, cedar jam also has contraindications. People who have had food allergies, especially to nuts, should not take cedar jam or try very low doses. Pregnant and lactating mothers should refrain from this delicacy, and it is also not recommended to give to children under 12 years old.
Other contraindications are:
- kidney disease;
- exacerbation of gastric and duodenal ulcers;
- hypertension;
- hepatitis of various forms.
Otherwise, cedar dessert is healthy and nutritious. Even if it is used by a person with the above diseases in small doses, it will have a calming effect on the nervous system.
Terms and conditions of storage
Any jam is nutritious and healthy, if stored in a dark place, protected from direct sunlight and not left to be stored uncorked in the refrigerator for a long time. Open jam may become moldy.
It is also important to monitor the correct closure of the product. The dessert will be stored for two years without losing vitamins. It is believed that after the expiration of this period, the jam must be thrown away, but there are recipes for making wine from expired jam. This will give him a second life.
Conclusion
Jam from cedar cones – the ability to save the product for the future. Choosing this option, the hostess will provide her family with a home remedy for almost all diseases for a whole year. And if the jar is beautifully decorated, then it can become a pleasant and exquisite gift.