Our ancestors considered viburnum to be almost a mystical plant, capable of protecting the house from evil spirits by its presence. Its symbolism for the Slavic peoples is very interesting, ambiguous and worthy of careful study. But according to all beliefs, viburnum does not have negative qualities, but mainly brings protection or consolation.
This is a delicious and very healthy berry. Most often, viburnum is simply harvested, tied into bunches of umbrellas, and then hung out to dry. Meanwhile, you can make excellent jams, preserves, sweets, compotes, jellies and many more sweet goodies from it. The berries are frozen, used as a filling for pies, raw materials for wine or liqueurs. Today we will tell you how viburnum with sugar is prepared for the winter.
Properties of viburnum
Useful properties of viburnum are well known for a long time. It is able to help us out, acting as an aid in the treatment of many diseases.
Healing properties
Kalina is rich in organic acids, contains many minerals, including chromium, iodine, selenium, vitamins A, E, P, K, C (70% more than in lemons). It contains tannins and essential substances, pectins, coumarins, tannin, viburnin.
Viburnum berries have many useful properties, they are used:
- with cardiovascular disorders, hypertension, atherosclerosis;
- with gastrointestinal diseases;
- with colds and coughs;
- with uterine bleeding, menopause;
- to normalize the level of sugar, cholesterol;
- with nervous disorders, insomnia;
- to remove excess fluid from the body, relieve swelling.
They have a pronounced antiseptic, antispasmodic, expectorant, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, sedative and diaphoretic action.
When viburnum is harmful
Kalina contains so many useful substances that it is simply impossible to eat it in exorbitant quantities. An overdose of vitamin C, for example, will cause itching and rashes. There are direct contraindications that require it to be completely excluded from the diet:
- pregnancy;
- hypotension (low blood pressure);
- increased blood clotting;
- gout.
Naturally, viburnum with sugar is contraindicated for diabetics.
Preparations from viburnum with sugar
When we harvest viburnum for the winter, we try to keep it as healthy as possible and tasty. Usually the berries ripen in September, but the bitterness makes them not a very pleasant delicacy. When harvesting, it is better to wait until the first frost, and then carefully cut the umbrellas with scissors.
Preparations from fresh viburnum
If you cook viburnum without heat treatment, it will retain more useful properties.
Grated with honey
Take a kilogram of viburnum berries, wash under running water, pour over with boiling water. Then, using a wooden pusher, rub the berries through a fine sieve. Measure the volume of the resulting fruit puree, add the same amount of honey to it. Mix thoroughly, arrange in clean jars, hide in the refrigerator.
After 10 days, viburnum grated with honey is ready. It’s hard to say what you’ve made – a medicine or a treat. Probably, if you have a lot of honey and you have prepared several jars, this is jam. One, forlornly lurking in the corner of the refrigerator, turns into a magic potion for a cold or a bad mood.
Grated with sugar
Just like with honey, you can cook viburnum mashed with sugar. But if bitterness does not bother you, it is better to kill the berries along with the peel and seeds with a blender. Then combine viburnum with sugar 1: 1, mix well, place in jars, cork with nylon or screw caps. Leave for 2-3 days in a warm place to melt the sugar a little, put in the refrigerator.
This cooking method has several advantages:
- raw jam will turn out more;
- it will be much more useful, since most of the nutrients are in the peel, which usually remains on the bones or sieve;
- due to the bitterness contained in the seeds, you will not eat all the jam at once.
covered in sugar
This method is designed specifically for big lazy people. Take equal volumes of viburnum and sugar. Wash the berries, dry with a paper towel. At the bottom of the jar, pour a layer of sugar about 1-1,5 cm, on top – the same volume of viburnum. Gently tap the bottom of the container on the table. Then again pour layers of sugar and viburnum. Repeat this algorithm until you fill the entire jar. The last layer should be sugar.
Put the jar in the refrigerator. When you want tea with viburnum, pour 2-3 tablespoons into a cup, pour boiling water over it. Even if the sugar hardens, it doesn’t matter, it will not affect the taste or beneficial properties. It’s just that it will be difficult for you to extract viburnum from a can.
candied berries
For 1 kg of berries you need 200 g of powdered sugar, 5 g of starch.
Wash Kalina. Mix starch with powdered sugar in a dry bowl or saucepan, add berries there, shake the dishes well.
Cover the baking sheet with parchment paper.
Lay the viburnum berries covered with powdered sugar and starch on a baking sheet with a layer no thicker than 1 cm.
Dry at room temperature for 15 hours, then pour into clean dry jars, close with nylon lids, store in a cool place.
Blanks with heat treatment
Of course, some of the vitamins are lost during pasteurization or boiling. But what about those who do not have a basement or cellar, a refrigerator is already full, and then happiness came down – a large amount of viburnum was formed from somewhere? Of course, you can dry everything. But why? So many goodies can be prepared from viburnum!
A simple recipe with minimal heat treatment
For 1 kg of viburnum berries, take the same amount of sugar if the jam is from one pulp, or 1,5 kg for harvesting with seeds.
Rinse the berries, pour boiling water and leave for 5 minutes.
Completely drain the water, pour viburnum into a container for cooking jam and sprinkle with sugar. Using a wooden pusher, grind the mixture well and put on a slow fire.
Constantly stir the jam, when it boils, all the sugar should dissolve.
If you are not going to remove the viburnum seeds, boil the mixture for 5 minutes, put it in sterile jars and seal tightly.
If you are making jam from one pulp, immediately after boiling, remove the container from the heat and wipe its contents through a sieve. Return the puree to the fire, let it boil, put it in sterile jars, roll it up.
Viburnum jelly
For 1 kg of viburnum, take 1 kg of sugar and 0,5 liters of water.
Wash the berries, put in a saucepan and pour boiling water for 5 minutes. Throw the viburnum on a sieve, drain the water and use a wooden pestle to wipe it, separating the pulp from the seeds.
Pour the berry puree into a jam pot, add water and sugar, stir well. Put on a small fire.
When the viburnum, grated with sugar, boils, cook, stirring constantly for another 40 minutes.
Pour the jelly into sterile jars and roll up.
Strawberry pastila
Oddly enough, this recipe is very close to real marshmallow, the recipe for which was given in Domostroy. For 1 kg of berries, take the same amount of sugar and 250 ml of water.
Pour the washed viburnum with boiling water for 5 minutes, drain.
Pour the berries into a saucepan, add water, cook over low heat until they soften.
Together with the liquid, wipe viburnum through a sieve.
Enter sugar and simmer over low heat. When the pureed viburnum reaches the density of homemade sour cream, pour it onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
Put in the oven and dry at a temperature of 40 to 60 degrees.
Pastila is ready when it easily moves away from the paper. Sprinkle both sides with powdered sugar, roll up and cut into spirals 0,5-1,5 cm thick. Fold in a cardboard or wooden box and store in a cool place.
In sugar syrup
For 1 kg of viburnum, take 400 g of sugar and 600 ml of water.
Spread clean berries in sterile jars, pour syrup made from water and sugar. Pasteurize at a temperature of 80 degrees half-liter containers for 15 minutes, liter – 30. Seal tightly.
Conclusion
These are just some of the blanks that can be made from viburnum berries. We hope you enjoyed them. Enjoy your meal!
