In English, the word “jam” is a fruit dessert made from whole and ground fruits with sugar.
But there is also the word “Varenye” in this language, which immediately indicates two facts - the ancient Russian dessert recipes were not only prepared using a special technology, but were very “respected”, in their own way, unique sweets at the court of the English monarchs, the word “jam” was included in English as borrowed.
Fruit desserts like jam are common in world cooking.
This is jam, kandir, confiture, chutney, fig, kaem.
If you meet these words on the Internet - we are talking about a variety of jam.
But only in the Russian version this dessert is prepared according to a special technology that is not characteristic of other national cuisines. Consider it on the example of apple jam with orange for the winter, the most common tropical citrus fruit and truly “popular” fruit of temperate latitudes.
In terms of nutritional value, orange and apple are not inferior to each other in the content of vitamins, organic acids and minerals.
The combination of juicy pulp of “Chinese apple” (German “Apfelsine”) and apple, with dense pulp, looks a bit unusual, but interesting - such a contrast is very harmonious: the pronounced aroma of orange peel does not contradict the completely neutral apple flavor.
Apple jam with orange for the winter - basic technological principles
The peculiarity of Russian jam is in the method of cooking, in which the pieces of fruit retain their integrity, and the syrup, in any method of cooking, must certainly retain a transparent and stretching, thick consistency.
The ratio of fruit and syrup to jam should be equal.
With fruits such as apples, to achieve a thick consistency is not difficult, because they contain natural pectin - thickener. Pectin is also present in oranges, but in smaller quantities. In fruits of technical ripeness of pectin it is more, than in overripe fruits. This substance helps to preserve the integrity of the fruit during the cooking process; however, with prolonged heating, the pectin is destroyed. In this regard, the cooking of jam should occur in several stages, alternating by heating to 100 ° C for 5-10 minutes and complete cooling. If it is necessary to make jam of their ripe fruits, then add 2 g of pectin per kilogram of prepared (peeled) fruits; It is sold, as a rule, in the departments of spices.
Jam thickening also occurs due to the mass fraction of sugar, which in the syrup should be up to 60-65%. With this sugar content, the jam is perfectly preserved without pasteurization. When adding sugar, you should take into account the natural sugars contained in the fruit, because its oversupply can lead to sugary sugar. But to determine the exact amount of sugar in those or other fruits at home is possible only approximately, in an organoleptic way.
To avoid sugar candies, add citric acid when cooking syrup: when interacting with sugar in syrup, it partially (up to 40%) decomposes it into fructose and sucrose, helping to avoid not only sugar and over consumption of carbohydrates. But it should also be borne in mind that the invert syrup formed by the addition of acid has the ability to evaporate moisture, which, accumulating under the lid, during storage causes fermentation of the product. Therefore, jam on the basis of invert syrups or with the addition of molasses must be pasteurized and hermetically sealed jars.
In home canning there are several ways to make jam, but, frankly, some of the techniques have no rational explanation from a scientific point of view. In order to get high-quality jam, in which the fruits are not wrinkled, and the syrup is transparent, and all quality requirements are met 100%, it must be understood that cooking the jam is the diffusion of liquids with different densities.
That is, it happens as follows: a dense and thick syrup when heated displaces the cell sap of the fruit. But we must bear in mind that at the boiling point of juice (100 ° C), the juice prevents the syrup from penetrating into the cells of the fruit. This means that it is necessary that the syrup is hotter, and the juice boil later, after the syrup has replaced it in the cells, so that the fruits retain their shape. At the same time, the juice flows into the extracellular space and then into the syrup, to the outside, where it can be easily combined with the syrup by mixing jam with a spatula. In order for the juice to boil after the syrup, the fruit must be dipped in a hot syrup. Then, due to the difference in temperature of the syrup and fruit, diffusion will pass faster, which, in turn, will allow to save more vitamins due to the reduction of the heat treatment time, at which the maximum losses of the most valuable substances occur. In order to successfully replace the juice in the fruit with sugar syrup, it is important to fully comply with the technology, especially when it comes to apple jam with orange slices, in which the fruits initially have different densities. So, at least, first we need to achieve a leveling of the density of oranges and apples.
This can be done in several ways:
Preliminarily, before immersion in boiling syrup, blanch the apples to reduce their density;
Start cooking jam with dipping apples, and after a while add orange slices to them;
Increase the density of oranges by boiling them with pectin, and then combine with apples.
There are many options, just need a good idea of the process of cooking the jam from the inside, to understand that each action leads to a certain result.
Recipe 1. Apple jam with orange for the winter
Composition:
- Oranges 2.6 kg
- Sugar 2 kg
- Ranetki 3.0 kg
- Vanilla
Cooking:
Cut off the rough parts of the stalks of the “heavenly” apples and remove the stalks. Blanch them in boiling water for 7-10 minutes, put in a container with cold water, then dip into a colander and dry.
With oranges, remove the zest, cut it into strips and temporarily set aside. Fruits peel off and membrane film, fold the peeled pulp of oranges in a bowl for boiling jam. Pour sugar into orange pulp and bring to a boil.
Put the apples in the orange jam and cook for 5-10 minutes, 2-3 times. Jam should be brought to a boil, but do not let it boil. At the last cooking add vanilla and zest, immediately mix, remove from heat and pack the jam in sterile and hot jars.
Recipe 2. Apple jam with orange slices without sugar
Composition:
- Water 300 ml
- Linden honey 700 g
- Apples 1.5 kg
- Oranges 1.2 kg
Cooking: Fruit wash and peel. Oranges divide (medium size) into slices. Remove the core from the apples, do not cut off the skin, so that the sliced lobules retain their shape during cooking.
Melt the honey in boiling water, remove the foam. Boil down the syrup to 1/3 volume reduction, then cool it to 80 ° C, submerge the slices of apples and cook, not allowing to boil for 40 minutes. Add orange slices, and after 5-7 minutes, remove the jam from the heat.
When it is cold, lay it in dry jars, tie it with parchment paper and cover it with a plastic cap on top. Keep in a cool place.
Recipe 3. Apple jam with orange for the winter, from dried apples and figs
Composition:
- Apple drying 1 kg
- Fig 700 g
- Orange juice 500 ml
- Water 0.5 l
- Sugar 1 kg
- Pectin 1 sachet
Cooking:
Dried apples (slices) wash and boil together with dried figs in 500 ml of water to double the volume. Flip the fruit through a colander set on the cooking pot. Fruits dry a little, and in the meantime in the water in which they are boiled, pour out the sugar, stir it until dissolved, add orange juice and cook the syrup. Add pectin to the finished syrup, and after 2-3 minutes, immerse the dried fruits. Bring them to a boil, remove the foam and turn off the heat. After cooling, warm to a boil again and proceed to the packaging of jam.
Recipe 4. Apple jam with orange for the winter (quick way)
Composition:
- Apples 1.0 kg (net)
- Candied orange (slices) 0.5 kg
- Sugar 800 g
- Water 300 ml
- Citric acid 50g
Cooking:
Sorted, washed and peeled apples cut into slices of 8-10 parts (0.5-0.7 cm thick). In boiling water, dissolve sugar and citric acid, pour apple slices and let cool. Apple slices should make juice. Then add candied fruits and cook for 10-15 minutes. Pack the jam in hot form, and cork a read after cooling.
Recipe 5. Apple jam with orange for the winter (with orange peel)
Composition:
- Sugar 1.7 kg
- Peel oranges 500 g
- Apples 1.5 kg
- Water 500 ml
- Vanilla
Cooking:
Peel apples and seeds, cut into sticks, just cut the peel of oranges. Immerse the prepared fruit mixture in citric acid solution. Boil thick syrup out of water and sugar. Remove the fruit from the water and transfer to a hot syrup. Boil in the syrup 3-4 times, bringing to a boil and cooling. During the fourth boil add vanilla, turn off the stove and fold into hot and dry jars. When the jam is cool, sprinkle the surface with sugar and close.
Recipe 6. Apple jam with slices with orange and cranberries
Composition:
- Cranberries 300 g
- Sugar 1.3 kg
- Candied orange (slices with peel) 500 g
- Apples (with peel), winter 1 kg (net)
- Water 400 ml
Cooking:
Pick the apples. It is better to use the variety “Renet Simirenko”, with dense and sweet pulp and green peel, which will look beautiful in syrup with orange pulp of oranges and scarlet cranberries. Apples cut into slices with peel. Sort cranberries, wash them, combine with apples and pour hot and thick syrup out of sugar and water. Put the pot on the fire and boil until boiling. Turn off the fire. After cooling, put candied orange jam in a jam, mix. Again, bring the jam to a boil and pour into 0.5 l cans. Pasteurize hot jars for a couple of 10 minutes from the moment of boiling water in a saucepan. Roll up the covers and flip.
Apple jam with orange for the winter - tips and tricks
- Jam can be considered ready when the foam is collected in the middle of the pelvis.
- To prevent the formation of mold on the surface of the jam, sprinkle it with a layer of sugar when the jam hardens. For the same purpose, cut circles from parchment, according to the diameter of the jar, soak them in a strong saline solution and dry before packaging.
- To save more vitamins in jam, try to cook it for a short time and immediately stop. You can reduce the cooking time by reducing the volume of the fruit - the more fruit is boiled in the pelvis, the longer you have to wait for the boiling point, and the more vitamins will evaporate.
