How to make squash jam: 3 original recipes for delicious preparations for the winter

Preparing and selecting vegetables

To make vegetable jam, it is best to take freshly picked young fruits. Overgrown specimens can also be used, but there will be much more hassle with them. From such squash it is necessary to remove the tough skin and remove the seeds. The more overgrown a vegetable is, the more difficult it is to clean.

Small squash, no more than 10 centimeters in diameter, have delicate skin and there is no need to peel them.

It doesn’t matter whether you plan to clean the squash or not, they must be thoroughly washed with warm soapy water and rinsed with warm running water.

The color of the fruit for making jam does not matter.Bright yellow, pale or dark green squash perform equally well in a sweet dessert dish.

Methods for preparing vegetable jam from squash

Method one - With lemon

Washed and, if necessary, peeled, squash is cut into small cubes or strips. The slices, with a total weight of 1 kilogram, are covered with the same volume of sugar, and time is given for the vegetable to release its juice. You can move the bowl of food into the refrigerator overnight.

After about 10-12 hours, the sugar will draw a fairly large amount of juice from the vegetable cubes, and it will partially dissolve. The squash takes quite a long time to cook, so you can’t do it without adding water. It will take 1 glass.

Place the squash on low heat and begin to boil. After 30 minutes, add lemon zest, finely grated from the fruit, and lemon juice to the jam. For the stated volume of squash slices, only 1 lemon is taken.

Cook the jam for another 10 minutes and turn off the heat. During the entire cooking process, do not leave the stove, removing foam and stirring the food so that the jam does not burn.

As a result, the pieces of squash become soft and are easily pierced with a fork, but at the same time they hold their shape well and do not boil over like zucchini.

Method two - With orange

If the vegetables were picked small and their skin did not have time to harden, then the squash is grated along with it. Large fruits are peeled from hard skin and then also crushed. The bowl of food is weighed. The total amount of cuttings together with the released juice should be 1.5 kilograms.

Separately, boil sugar syrup in a saucepan. To do this, boil water, 500 milliliters, with sugar, 1 kilogram, for 5 minutes.Place chopped squash into the boiling liquid and cook the jam over low heat for half an hour.

At the same time, process 1 large orange. It is washed and cut together with the peel. First, the fruit is cut into four parts, and then each is chopped into thin slices. If you don’t like a slight bitterness in the finished dish, you can first remove the peel from the orange.

Fruit slices are added to the squash jam, and the dish is brought to readiness for another 20 minutes.

Method three – With cherries and zucchini

For such a dessert, take 1 kilogram of squash, half a kilo of zucchini and the same amount of cherries. The berries are washed and the seeds are removed. Vegetables are cleaned and freed from seeds.

All products are passed through a meat grinder. It is best to use the finest grate.

All ingredients are placed in hot syrup made from a liter of water and 1.5 kilograms of granulated sugar. Cook the jam over low heat for an hour, remembering to remove the foam and stir in time. The mass, boiled down by almost a third, is checked for readiness by dropping a small amount onto a plate. If after a few seconds the drop continues to hold its shape and does not spread, it’s time to turn off the jam.

The channel “Tsvetiki u Svetik” shares with you an original recipe for squash jam with pineapple flavor.

How to store squash jam

Jars with blanks are stored in a cool place. The shelf life depends on the pre-treatment of the sealing container. If the containers were sterilized over steam or in the oven, then the squash dessert can easily survive the winter until the new harvest, and if the jars were simply washed and dried, then the risk of mold on the surface may arise within six months.