Most housewives know how to cook compote from apples, and each has its own recipe. Apple compote is made from fresh or dried fruits. It can be canned - for long-term storage, or you can drink it right away.

How to cook apple compote: fresh and canned

Ordinary compote is cooked with the expectation that it will be drunk quickly, from fresh apples or dried fruits. Fresh compote is prepared from slices or halves of fruit, with or without peel. Apples must be removed from the core.

Apples are washed, cut (small apples can be boiled whole), placed in a saucepan filled with cold water and sugar, and boiled for 15–20 minutes over low heat. Usually, one and a half liters of water is added to 600–700 g of apples, and sugar is added to taste, depending on the variety (more often, half a glass or a little more). Experienced housewives recommend adding one part of the sugar immediately, and the other after boiling. The pan with compote is removed from the heat as soon as the sugar dissolves. Then the compote is infused for about half an hour, filtered - and a wonderful, tasty and inexpensive drink is ready.

Vitamin compote for the winter is prepared in two main ways. First: apples are placed halfway in jars, poured with cold syrup, prepared at the rate of 200 g of sugar per 1 liter of water. After 6-8 hours, the syrup is added to the jars, then pasteurized and rolled up. The second way: apples are placed in sterilized glass jars (to occupy about a quarter of the dishes) and poured with boiling syrup prepared according to the same principle as in the first case, the jars are immediately rolled up. It is better to put blanks upside down.

How to cook apple compote: little secrets

To cook apple compote correctly and not spoil its taste and appearance, there are a few secrets. It is necessary to take only selected fruits, then the taste will be excellent, and the drink will be stored for a long time. Sour apples, sweet and sour and even slightly unripe, but whole, not broken, are best suited for compotes. So that the apple cut into slices does not darken, they can be put in cold acidified or salted water (at the rate of 3 g of citric acid or 0.5 tablespoons of salt per 1 liter of water), and wash them before boiling the compote. You can also dip the slices in hot water for 5–15 minutes (the blanching time depends on the size of the slices, the maturity of the apples and the variety - the more acidic the apples, the less they need to be blanched, otherwise they will boil faster). If compote is cooked from sour apples, then it is enough to bring it to a boil and immediately remove from heat. In general, you should not boil compote from apples for a long time - otherwise you can lose the valuable substances that apples contain.

Unusual additions to apple compote

You can cook apple compote deliciously by adding various ingredients to it. The drink acquires a pleasant taste if you put zest or slices of lemon or orange in it. Cinnamon, cloves, cardamom go well with apples. It turns out delicious if you cook apples with other fruits - for example, pears, garden berries, frozen mountain ash, with shadberry, rhubarb and even zucchini. Apple compote acquires an interesting taste when grapes, sea buckthorn, and rose hips are added to it.

Our correspondent reveals the main secret of the preservation of pear compote. Step-by-step photo recipe for seaming "capricious" pears.

In dachas and in the private sector, many varieties of early ripening pears grow. Their fruits are good for everyone, but under the scorching rays of the summer sun, they quickly lose their commercial qualities. For this reason, it is not worth pulling with homemade sweet pears. It is better to remove them from the tree unripe and preserve.

We carefully remove the pear fruits from the tree, without waiting for the stage of their full ripeness.

For that part of our readers who have already suffered setbacks at the front of winter harvesting or have heard about the tendency of pear compotes to “explode” at the very beginning of the shelf life even in a cold basement, let me remind you that our grandmothers always preserved pears with sour apples. For example, my wife prefers to preserve pears with citric acid.

About the history and chemistry of home canning

For those who are frightened by the very fact of mentioning the storage of ingredients in the kitchen, conventionally called "chemistry", let me remind you that in the textbook for grades 7-11 of the evening secondary school, citric acid is described in the chapter "Carboxylic acids". This concept includes many common in everyday life organic (!) connections. Unlike acetic acid, which was known to man in ancient times, citric acid was isolated by the Swedish pharmacist Karl Scheele only in 1784 from the juice of unripe lemons. The chemical formula of this acid is C6H8O7.

The highest concentration of citric acid is found in berries, citrus fruits, needles, shag stems, especially a lot of it in Chinese magnolia vine and unripe lemons.

Citric acid was previously obtained from lemon juice and shag biomass. At present, the main way of industrial production is biosynthesis from sugar or sugary substances - molasses, waste products of the sugar processing industry. industrial mold strains Aspergillus niger.

Finally, my most deadly argument against the arguments of the opponents of chemistry on the kitchen table. The production of citric acid by chemical methods is not economically feasible: the cost of raw materials is much higher than the cost of molasses. This technology is multi-stage, requires the use of highly toxic reagents, and gives a relatively low yield of the final product. That is why, despite great progress in the field of chemical synthesis of various organic compounds, such relatively simple substances as citric, lactic and some other acids are still produced in the old fashioned way - from sugar-containing raw materials with the help of microorganisms. Thus, the advantages of the microbial method are dictated by its majesty the market - fermentation simplifies the technology, increases the yield of acids and reduces their cost.

Until the early twenties of the last century, this important product was obtained by squeezing the juice from lemons. In this way, about three-quarters of the world's need for citric acid was satisfied (25 kg of citric acid is obtained from one ton of lemons).

The main participants in the citric acid market in our region are manufacturers from China and OJSC Belgorod Citric Acid Plant (Citrobel). The largest producers of citric acid in Ukraine are OAO Smelyansky Sugar Plant.

The geography of its production at the Skidelsky sugar factory also testifies in favor of the organic origin of the 30-gram citric acid bag I use.

In passing, I note: in the USSR, the first deep cultivation of citric acid producers was mastered by a group of researchers led by G. I. Zhuravsky in the 50s. The lack of steel grades resistant to aggressive environments prevented solving this problem earlier.

In the BSSR, in 1961, at the Skidelsky plant, the construction of a workshop for the production of citric acid was completed, the capacity of which then amounted to 140 tons of this product per year.

In my memory, in the late 1970s, a wave of panic came to us from Western Europe, known as the Villejuif list, in which citric acid was irresponsibly called a strong carcinogen.

Nowadays, citric acid is one of the main products of microbial synthesis in terms of production volume. Its total output in various countries reaches about half a million tons per year.

On the technology of preparing pear fruits for conservation

After washing in running water, the collected fruits are laid out on the kitchen table and wiped with a dry towel. Each fruit is separate!

Wiping the fruits with a towel, we examine them for compliance with the standards of beauty and shape.

We put pears that have passed the kitchen control under the knife, removing part of their nose and tail, as my grandmother used to say - “with meat.”

Prepared pear fruits of various varieties are placed in a pre-stylized three-liter glass jar.

The practice of dense filling of glassware testifies in favor of the selection of one specimen of large pear fruits, 2-3 medium in size. The rest are added and carefully laid out from among the smaller brothers of the pear.

Fill the filled bowl with hot water. After 15-20 minutes, you will notice that the water level in the jar has dropped.

Pear fruits absorb water and its level in the jar drops

Now you can drain the water back and boil it again, and then repeat the operation of filling the container with hot water again. After a 15-minute repeated stay of pears in hot water, the most crucial stage begins - the preparation of sugar syrup.

Dissolving sugar is easy

We add sugar (200 g per three liters) to the accumulating water, after which we immediately stop heating, stir the sugar, and dissolve a teaspoon of citric acid in hot water with sugar.

A three-liter jar of pears requires a teaspoon of citric acid. This amount of citric acid is contained in one very large unripe lemon weighing 200 grams.

We remove the hot solution from the stove and finally fill it with a jar of pears.

Sealing a glass jar with a tin lid is the final stage of canning pears

We roll up the jar with a tin lid and leave it in a cool room to cool. After making sure that the sealing is reliable, we send the canned pears to the cellar for storage.

The last chord of the crucial stage in the preparation of pear compote for storage. And an exam for a domestic manufacturer of citric acid.

Bon Appetit!

How to save perishable homework

Workpieces can still be saved

All summer, caring housewives try to make more preparations for the winter. And suddenly, in autumn or winter, they notice with chagrin that home-made canned food no longer tastes the same, the aroma is gone, and they don’t look like that ... Have they deteriorated? How to be?

If help came on time, then in most cases canned food can be saved with home remedies. Therefore, it is necessary to periodically inspect your stocks closely, arranging an exam for quality.

If you notice that the top layer of berry compotes has darkened, then such canned food can be helped. The jars should be opened immediately, the darkened berries should be thrown away, the compote should be sterilized for several minutes and rolled up again. For some time after treatment, the compote will stand idle, but it must be used first. The same should be done if the syrup is cloudy in the jars.

Compotes made from cherries or blackcurrants may acquire a purple hue over time. They are quite edible, just the color has changed from the interaction of tin with the coloring matter of the berries. But henceforth, such canned food should be corked with lids coated with a special compound or a circle of parchment paper should be placed under the lid.

If mold has formed in the jar, then the top layer with mold is removed. If there is no unpleasant taste of mold in the product, then the contents of the jar are boiled well and then used only for culinary purposes.

When the first signs of fermentation and turbidity of canned vegetables, vegetable and fruit marinades are found, the contents should be put in a separate pan, rinsed with a 3-4% salt solution, put back in a clean jar. Then the jar with products is pasteurized and hermetically sealed.

You can do it in a different way as well. It is necessary to put the contents of the jar in a saucepan; boil well, adding 5-6% salt by weight of the product, transfer to clean jars and cork.

And if the opened canned food has an unpleasant putrefactive smell, then they are destroyed. Of course, it's a pity, but this is your mistake, and you have to pay for mistakes. Particular care must be taken with canned food made from subacid fruits and vegetables, as well as from mushrooms.

REANIMATION OF JAM

Properly cooked jam in room conditions is stored for a long time. But if it was prepared with a small amount of sugar, then it can ferment or become moldy.

With such a jam, carefully remove the mold so as to capture part of the untouched mass. Then separate the fruits from the syrup, add a little sugar and boil again. Then it is necessary to pour the fruits with boiling syrup, digest everything together and pour hot into sterilized jars.

Sour jam is corrected in the same way as fermented. In strongly sour jam during digestion, it is advisable to add 0.5 teaspoon of baking soda for each kilogram of jam. Candied jam is a sign that, on the contrary, you overexposed the jam on fire, put an excess amount of sugar in it, or if it is stored in a warm place. Therefore, if your jam is candied, add a quarter cup of water and 1.5 grams of citric acid to 1 kg of jam and, stirring, bring to a boil over low heat and cook for 4-5 minutes. Then pack the jam in jars.

But you can do it differently: put the jars of candied jam in a pot of water and heat until the sugar dissolves again.

If the jam is sour, then add 200-250 g of sugar per liter to it and let it boil for 7-8 minutes, removing the foam. Then pour into jars, cool and cover with lids. This jam should be used in the first place, it can not be stored for a long time.

HOW TO SAVE DRIED FRUITS

Dried fruits and berries may become damp during storage. Get covered with mold, bugs can start in them.

In this case, dried fruits should be scattered in a thin layer on a sheet and dried in the oven for about 30 minutes at a temperature of 55-60 ° C. And in order to get rid of the bugs, they must be exposed to frost for a week, and then, dried in the oven or heated in the oven, stored in tightly closed jars or plastic bags in a dry place.

WHAT IF FRESH APPLES ARE FROZEN?

If the apples in the cellar are a little frozen, this does not mean that they are lost. First of all, check how damaged they are. Slightly frozen apples are not yet lost.

To “soften” the effects of freezing, it is better to leave the apples in place, covering them with some kind of insulating material. This must be done in order to prevent either a too rapid rise in temperature or further cooling.

If the apples are thawed too slowly, they can be stored for several weeks. Strongly frozen fruits are best kept in the same state until consumed, but then used only in boiled form.

If you put unthawed apples in water and immediately boil them, then they will taste little different from unfrozen ones. And if such apples are first thawed and then boiled, they will acquire an extremely unpleasant taste and will not boil well.

There is another old way. Frozen fruits put in water with snow, put in a cool place, drain the water after a quarter of an hour, wipe the fruit with a towel.

Processed in this way, they have a pleasant taste. They are either eaten immediately or put in a place where they will not freeze.

And here is how our great-great-grandmothers did it 120 years ago (from the newspaper "Agriculture and Home Economics" for 1887, No. 2):

“To return frozen fruits and vegetables to their original state, you need to pour fresh water into a deep vessel, add 1-2 tbsp. tablespoons of table salt and, when the salt dissolves, put fruits or vegetables there. After a while, they take on a completely fresh look. In general, you need to watch that frozen foods do not thaw suddenly, but gradually, for this you need to put them in very cold water.

V. A. Loiko

The most common and affordable fruit for canning are apples. They can be bought at any time of the year. They have excellent keeping quality, so the hostess does not have problems with their storage if she cannot harvest fruits in the near future.

In addition to these advantages, they have a lot of useful properties. They are rich in vitamins C, B1, B2, B6, E, as well as trace elements necessary for health: potassium, calcium, sodium, zinc, phosphorus, iodine, iron, manganese, magnesium.

Apples are pickled, dried, frozen. From them cook jam, jam, compote.

Subtleties of cooking

• Apples of almost any variety are suitable for compotes. But it is better to use Aport, Lemon, Antonovka, Pepin saffron, Boyken.
• For compote for the winter, you need to take only ripe apples. Compote from unripe fruits will not have a very pleasant aftertaste. Overripe fruits during sterilization can boil soft, and the compote itself will turn out to be cloudy.
• Also, they should not be wrinkled or soft. Worm apples are not suitable for canning for the winter.
• For compote, they can be used whole, cut in half or wide slices.
• If the peel is not too tough, the apples are not peeled. Otherwise, the skin must be removed. Be sure to cut out the seed chambers.
• Blanch the apples before putting them in jars. So that they are not digested, they should not be processed in boiling water. The liquid should be warmed up only to 85-90 °. Then the apples need to be quickly cooled by immersing in cold water.
• The more acidic the fruits, the less minutes they are sterilized.
• So that the cut apples do not darken, they can be immersed for 15-20 minutes in cold salted water (10 g of salt is put into 1 liter of water).

Apple compote for the winter: a classic recipe

Ingredients for two 1L jars:

• apples - 1 kg;
• sugar - 300 g;
• water - 1 l.

Cooking method

• Select ripe apples with tender skin free of dents and wormholes. Wash thoroughly.
• Prepare banks. Sterilize them in boiling water or roast them in the oven. Wash the lids and boil for 5 minutes.
• Pour water into an enamel saucepan, bring to a boil. Reduce the fire so that the surface of the water only sways slightly.
• Cut the apples in half, remove the core. Cut into wide slices.
• Dip the chopped apples in hot water and blanch for 7 minutes.
• Then transfer them to a colander and cool quickly under running cold water. Do not pour water from under them. You will need it to make syrup.
• Put the apples in jars, filling them up to the shoulders.
• In the water in which the fruits were blanched, put the sugar according to the norm. Boil the syrup.
• Fill jars with prepared apples to the top with boiling syrup. Cover with lids.
• Place in a wide pot of hot water. Sterilize liter jars for 18-20 minutes, half-liter jars for 12-15 minutes.
• Seal tightly with boiled lids. Turn upside down. Cover with a blanket and cool like this.

Compote of apples with lemon

• apples - 3 kg;
• sugar - 500 g;
• citric acid - 1.5 g;
• water - 2.5 l;
• lemon - 1 pc.

Cooking method

• Sort out the apples. Wash well in cold water. Cut them open and remove the core. Cut into slices.
• Put them in acidified water.
• In an enamel pan, boil the syrup from water and sugar.
• Put apples in sterile jars. Add sliced ​​lemon.
• Pour in boiling syrup.
• Put the jars in a wide saucepan, cover with sterile lids. Sterilize liter jars for 25 minutes, half-liter jars for 20 minutes.
• Then seal the jars with sterile lids, turn upside down. Cool down.

Apple compote with lemon and spices for the winter

Ingredients for six 1L jars:

• apples - 3 kg;
• sugar - 600 g;
• cinnamon - to taste;
• cloves - 2 buds;
• water - 2.5 l;
• lemon - 1 pc.

Cooking method

• Peel ripe hard apples. Cut in half, remove the core.
• Cut into slices. Rinse in cold water. Plunge immediately into a pot of boiling water. Blanch 5 minutes.
• Drain the apples in a colander. Place in sterile jars. Add to them washed lemon, cut into circles.
• In the water in which the apples were heated, put sugar according to the norm. Boil the syrup by adding cinnamon and cloves to it. Strain.
• Fill them with jars of apples.
• Cork and sterilize for 20 minutes if the jars are liter. A half-liter container can be sterilized for 10-15 minutes.
• Turn jars with ready-made compote upside down and leave to cool in this form.

Compote of apples with wine

Ingredients (for 10 liter jars):

• apples - 7 kg;
• cinnamon - 3 sticks or to taste;
• cloves - 20 buds;
• lemon peels from 1 lemon;
• sugar - 800 g;
• water - 4 l;
• Riesling wine - 2 tbsp.

Cooking method

• Wash hard ripe apples well. Remove the core. Cut into slices or quarters. Fill with cold water.
• Pour water into the pan according to the norm, put sugar. Boil the syrup.
• Dip apples in it. Put in the cloves and cinnamon. With a barely noticeable boil, blanch for 5-10 minutes.
• Throw apples into a colander. Sort by banks.
• Boil the syrup with lemon peels and wine.
• Fill them with apples.
• Place the jars in a wide pot of water and sterilize for 15-20 minutes. Seal the jars tightly with sterile lids.
• Cool upside down.

Apple compote for the winter without sterilization

Ingredients for two 1L jars:

• apples - 1 kg;
• water - 1 l;
• sugar - 200 g.

Cooking method

• Prepare sterilized jars and lids in advance.
• Wash ripe hard apples. Cut in half, remove the core. Cut into slices.
• Fold into jars, filling them up to the shoulders.
• Fill with boiling water. Cover with lids and leave for 15 minutes. During this time, the apples will warm up, and the liquid, on the contrary, will cool down.
• Close the jar with a perforated lid. Pour the water through it into a saucepan. Add sugar according to the norm. Boil the syrup.
• Pour the hot syrup over the apples so that it overflows a little. Thus, he will push the air out of the can.
• Seal immediately with a lid.
• Turn the jar over, cover with a blanket. Leave in this position until completely cooled.

Assorted compote of apples, apricots and raspberries without sterilization

Ingredients (for 1 three-liter jar):

• apples - 5 pcs.;
• apricots - 8 pcs.;
• raspberries - 200 g;
• sugar - 300 g;
• water - 2 l.

Cooking method

• Wash the apples. Cut in half, remove the core.
• Wash the apricots. Cut into two halves, remove the bones.
• Put the raspberries in a colander and wash, dipping several times in a bowl of water. Remove the sepals.
• Sterilize the jar and lid.
• Put fruits and berries in a jar. Fill with boiling water. Leave for 15 minutes with the lid on.
• Pour the cooled water into the saucepan through the perforated lid. Pour in the amount of sugar. Boil the syrup.
• Pour the fruit with this syrup so that the liquid overflows. Seal with lids immediately.
• Turn the jars upside down. Wrap up with a blanket. In this state, they will be pasteurized for a day. When the compote has cooled, return the jars to their normal position.

Note to the owner

• Cherries, raspberries, currants and other berries are added to compote to add flavor. They are placed in jars at the same time as blanched apples. You can add cloves, cinnamon, lemon and even wine to apple compote.
• If compote is prepared without sterilization, berries and fruits are put together with apples and cooked according to the above recipe.

The most common cause of spoilage of blanks is their insufficient sterilization.

For example, if instead of the required 20 min. jars boiled for 5-10 minutes, and the fruits were not washed enough, then sterilization will not destroy the microorganisms present. After a few days, the activity of bacteria will lead to the release of gases, the lid separates, canned food, as they say, swell.

Also, insufficiently sealed cans can be the cause of damage. If there were defects in the lid or the rubber ring under it turned out to be inelastic, then the contents of the jar will interact with air and the blanks will turn out to be defective. After some time, usually several days, after sterilization, the workpieces may ferment and the liquid will become cloudy.

Remember: you need to check the quality of capping immediately after seaming.

• Banks should be turned upside down: if the liquid seeps out, then the workpiece cannot be stored.
• The jar must be opened, covered with a new lid, sterilized and sealed again.

Also, swelling of the lids may appear due to the reaction between the contents of the can and the surface of the lid (if it is tin and unvarnished). And although the contents remain transparent, it is not recommended to eat such homemade preparations.

• Before putting the blanks into storage, you should observe them for 2-3 weeks.
• If signs of damage during this time do not make themselves felt, the banks can be removed to a more suitable place for them.

If gas bubbles nevertheless appeared, then the reserves need to be urgently "reanimated".

Error correction.

Fermented jam or compote.

Bubbles that appear in the jar indicate the beginning of fermentation. To remedy the situation, you need to pour the liquid into an enamel bowl, bring to a boil, and then pour into prepared sterilized jars and roll up again.

However, this method is suitable if the blanks do not smell like vinegar or alcohol. If there is a smell, then the blanks are completely spoiled.

Abundant foam on compote or juice can mean serious spoilage. Open the jar, pour the contents into the pan, boil for 15 minutes. Use the syrup as a drink or ingredient for making jelly or sauce.

If the top layer of the compote has darkened, you should open the jars, remove the darkened fruits. Sterilize jars and roll up again.