Serviceberry compote: the best cooking recipes - how to cook serviceberry compote in a saucepan and preserve it for the winter
Irga is a tree whose height can reach 5-6 meters. Its fruits are dark purple with a pink tint. The taste of the berries is sweet, but due to the lack of some sourness it seems bland. From an adult tree you can collect from 10 to 30 kilograms of useful fruits. And what to do with such a harvest? There are many options, but today we would like to dwell in more detail on the preparation of compotes.
Time to bookmark: Summer
Content
When to collect irgu
Fruit harvesting begins in mid-July. They are quite pliable and fall into the hand on their own, so there will be no problems with the speed of harvesting. The only minus, and perhaps in some cases a plus, is that the serviceberry does not ripen evenly. The fruiting period extends for 2-3 weeks.
Compote of serviceberry with orange in a saucepan
4 liters of clean water are boiled in a deep saucepan, and at the moment of boiling, 1 kilogram of serviceberry berries and an orange, cut into rings 0.5-0.7 centimeters thick, are placed in it. It is advisable to remove the seeds from the fruit immediately. For a given volume of food, take 400 grams of sugar and add it to the drink.As soon as the compote boils, reduce the heat and do not open the lid from that moment on. The drink should simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.
Wrap the pan with the finished compote in a warm towel and let it brew for 6 hours. Before serving, the drink is filtered and served with ice cubes in glasses.
Recipes for compote from serviceberry for the winter
Since the berry does not contain acids, compote from only one serviceberry may seem tasteless and bland. A berry-fruit mix will help correct this situation. You can add any berries and fruits that have a distinct taste to the shadberry. Let's look at the most popular recipes.
Without sterilization
With citric acid
This option involves using irgi as the main ingredient. Citric acid powder is used as an acidulant.
For 1 three-liter jar take a kilogram of freshly picked and thoroughly washed berries. In advance sterilized containers lay irgu.
At the same time, 2.7 liters of water are boiled over the fire. As soon as the liquid begins to bubble, pour it over the game in the jar. Cover the top of the container with a clean lid and allow it to “rest” for 7-10 minutes. During this time, some of the berries will burst and give off their color to the infusion.
Next, the water is poured back into the pan, using a special device for this manipulation that holds the berries inside the jar.
Sugar (700 grams) and citric acid (2 teaspoons) are added to the infusion. The pan is sent for reheating. Boiling liquid with completely dissolved sugar crystals is poured over the steamed serviceberry berries again.
The preparation is almost ready, all that remains is to cover the jars with sterile lids and roll up the preservation.In order for the compote to cool gradually, place it in a warm place for several days, for example, under a blanket.
If the jars are screwed on with screw caps, then there is no need to turn the workpiece upside down.
With cherry
300 grams of cherries and 500 grams of serviceberry are placed in clean jars, scalded with boiling water or sterilized in another way. There is no need to pit cherries. Pour boiling water over the compote mixture and leave it for 10 minutes.
The infused aromatic liquid is poured into a saucepan. For a three-liter jar, take half a kilo of granulated sugar. Sugar is dissolved in the infusion, allowing the syrup to boil for 1-2 minutes. The cherries and irga are poured a second time with the already prepared syrup.
The jars with the blank are closed with a special key or seal. Nylon covers are not used.
Another option for preparing a wonderful drink from serviceberry is presented by Natalya Musikhina. Since gooseberries and shadberry are quite sweet berries, much less sugar is required in this recipe
With sterilization
Sterilization of workpieces allows you to put less sugar into the workpiece and keeps the fruits with delicate skin intact, but it also creates a number of inconveniences:
- it is very inconvenient to sterilize preparations in three-liter jars due to their height;
- there is increased humidity in the room due to steam evaporation;
- It takes a lot of time to sterilize a large number of jars with seaming.
From serviceberry and currant
Black (or red) currants and serviceberries are placed in the jar in a 1:2 ratio. The jar should be filled to 1/3 of its volume. Next, the products are poured with cold water and immediately poured through a sieve into a saucepan for boiling syrup. Thus, the required amount of liquid is measured. Mix water with sugar (1.5 cups) and boil it for 5 minutes.
Pour the berry mixture into a jar with a transparent compote base so that the syrup reaches almost to the very edge of the jar. The top of the container is covered with sterilized lids, but under no circumstances are they screwed on.
Next comes the process of sterilizing the workpieces in a water bath. Read more about this process Here.
With apples
Sweet and sour apples are best suited for this recipe. The total quantity is 3-4 medium-sized pieces per three-liter jar. They are washed, freed from the stalk and seeds. You can cut the fruit into 2 or 4 parts.
Sliced apples along with shadberry (600 grams) are placed in a jar, and then poured with hot syrup made from 2.5 liters of water and 2 cups of sugar.
Next, the procedure is the same as in the previous recipe: the workpiece, covered with a clean lid, is heated for 20-25 minutes in a pan with water, and then twisted and insulated for a day.
Storing compote
It is believed that all preserves should be stored in the basement, but if all preparation conditions are met, serviceberry compote can be perfectly stored at room temperature.
Compote cooked in a pan for one-time use is stored in the refrigerator for no more than 2-3 days.
In addition to compote from shadberry, you can prepare jam, jam or a replacement for sweets - marshmallow.