There are few sweets as legendary as apricot jam with pits.
Children tell scary stories about how to die with bones overtaking.
Adults read Persian stories about feasts of the eastern shahs, at which this delicacy was considered almost divine.
Why guess, let's cook and try it ourselves!
Apricot jam with nucleoli - general principles of preparation
• Apricots for jam it is best to take well-matured or slightly immature with greenish "cheeks". The ripened fruits will boil during the cooking process, and the result is not jam with pieces of fruit, but jam. The fruits must be thoroughly washed with cold water, dried and the bones are removed. The pulp of fruit is cut in half or cut into medium sized slices. If whole apricots are required, they are slightly broken from one side, and the bone is removed with a small spoon.
• Bones are not thrown away. They are gently chopped with a hammer or crushed with a nut cracker. Then remove the nucleoli, which are subsequently added to the jam, during cooking or before. When pouring fruit with sugar, the skin located on the surface of the nucleoli is removed or left, it all depends on the recipe. Often before removing the nucleoli, the bones are baked in the oven. Quite often kernels are added not from fruit seeds, but from kernels (walnuts or almonds). They give the delicacy a peculiar rich taste.
• Cooking methods There are a lot of delicious apricot jam with nucleoli and the difference in them is not only in the degree of maturity of the fruit, but also in what result you want to get. If you want an amber-colored treat with dense pieces of pulp, take note of cooking recipes with one-time short cooking or multiple of slightly unripe apricots soaked in a weak soda solution.
Daily apricot jam with nucleoli
Ingredients:
• two kilograms of ripe apricots;
• white sugar - 2.6 kg.
Cooking method:
1. Break the clean, well ripened apricots into two halves. Remove the bones and gently chop them with a hammer. Remove the nucleoli.
2. Take a large container (basin or pan) that can be placed in the refrigerator. Put the apricot halves in it, layering them with granulated sugar and nucleoli. Then cover the container with a lid and refrigerate.
3. After 24 hours, remove the container and place on a very small fire. Without stirring, bring apricot jam to a boil. Then reduce the heating to a minimum, remove the resulting foam from the surface and continue cooking for about forty minutes.
4. Pour the still boiling mass into sterile glass jars and roll it up.
Apricot jam with nucleoli - "Royal"
Ingredients:
• one kilogram of granulated sugar;
• 200 ml of water;
• a kilogram of ripe apricots.
Cooking method:
1. Sort the apricots. Soft and damaged remove. Leave smooth, ripened fruits with firm flesh.
2. Rinse the fruit thoroughly under running water. Gently break them in half, but do not tear. They should open like “shells”.
3. Carefully remove the seeds and arrange them in the fryer. Put in a hot oven (150 degrees) and bake for five minutes, cool. Chop the bones, get the nucleoli. Place one inside the opened fruit, then cover the fruit.
4. Pour water into the granulated sugar and place on a slight heat. When the sugar has completely dissolved, add heat and boil quickly.
5. Pour apricots in boiling syrup and leave to cool, covering the container with a linen towel or a large sheet of paper (you can use a newspaper).
6. When the mass has completely cooled, put the container on the stove again and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat several times during cooking and swing the pan slightly from side to side. This is done in order to stir the jam. If mixed with a spoon, the fruit can be damaged and the nucleoli will drop out of them.
7. After the boiled mass cools well again, reheat it and, with a slight boil, bring to full readiness.
Apricot jam with nucleoli - "Five-minute" (with alcohol)
Ingredients:
• ripe dense apricots - 1.3 kg;
• 800 gr. refined sugar;
• alcohol - 130 ml;
• one large lemon.
Cooking method:
1. For ten minutes, immerse the apricots in water. Then remove, rinse a few times and dry in a colander. Break into halves, carefully remove the seeds, put them in a separate bowl and leave for now.
2. Put the halves of the fruits in a large saucepan, pour in alcohol, pour sugar in and place in the refrigerator for two days. Be sure to gently mix once a day, trying to raise all the sugar that has settled on the bottom.
3. On the third day, remove the pan from the refrigerator, stir and set to the slowest heat.
4. Carefully chop the previously deposited bones, remove the nucleoli and peel the skin.
5. After the jam boils, pour the peeled kernels into it, a little cinnamon and put the lemon. Citrus can be cut into small pieces or rings. If you do not want to leave the lemon in the jam, cut it into rings, so it will be easier to extract it after cooking. Cook on low heat for low boiling for no more than 5 minutes.
6. Remove the mass from the heat and set aside.
7. After ten hours, bring to the boil again in the same mode, boil for 5 minutes and set aside again for ten hours.
8. After this, boil the jam again, but cook until tender.
"Amber" - apricot jam with nucleoli
Ingredients:
• one kilogram of ripened apricot;
• kilo of granulated sugar;
• a teaspoon of baking soda.
Cooking method:
1. Pour one and a half liters of cold drinking water into an enameled pan. Pour soda into it and mix well.
2. Divide the washed apricots into two halves, each of which cut into large slices.
3. For five minutes, dip the fruit slices in a soda solution. This will allow them to maintain their shape and not fall apart during further heat treatment.
4. Crush with a nut cracker or hammer the extracted bones with a hammer and remove the kernels.
5. Slices of apricots in a colander, rinse thoroughly and wait until the remaining water comes off.
6. In a separate bowl of sugar mixed with a quarter cup of water, boil a thick syrup. Pour apricot slices, mixed with nucleoli, boiling syrup and leave to stand until completely cooled.
7. Then strain the syrup, boil again and pour them fruit. So you need to repeat at least four times.
8. After pouring the pulp for the last fourth time, boil it over low heat for two minutes and roll it into sterile jars.
Apricot jam with almond kernels
Ingredients:
• not overripe apricots - 1.5 kg;
• one and a half teaspoons of baking soda;
• one and a half kilograms of sugar;
• one and a half glasses of filtered drinking water;
• A handful of peeled almond kernels.
Cooking method:
1. Sort and wash freshly picked, slightly unripe fruits, remove seeds. You can cut them into two halves or just break them, but not completely.
2. Dilute soda in one and a half liters of cold water. Pour the fruit with the resulting solution and leave it in it for three hours. After which, drain the solution, and thoroughly rinse the pulp and dry in a colander.
3. Mix sugar with water and place on the weakest heat. When the sugar grains completely dissolve, and the syrup boils, dip the fruits into it.
4. Bring to a boil and lay the almond kernels. Cook with a small boil for about 20 minutes, then remove from the stove and leave overnight. Do not forget to cover the bowl with cloth or a sheet of paper.
5. The next day, boil again and boil again for 20 minutes.
6. Pack boiling jam in sterile jars and roll up metal lids for preservation.
Apricot Jam with Walnuts
Ingredients:
• seedless apricots - one kilogram;
• 300 gr. walnut kernels;
• 600 gr. white sugar.
Cooking method:
1. Sprinkle the washed, well-dried halves of the fruit with the whole volume of sugar, mix and leave it warm for several hours (3-4).
2. When the fruit starts to juice, mix them again and place the container on moderate heat. After boiling, boil for a small boil for a quarter of an hour and remove from heat.
3. After the mass has cooled, put the container on the fire again. Boil quickly, then, reducing the heat to a minimum, let stand on it for 15 minutes and set aside again until completely cooled.
4. Repeat the process one more time.
5. Break the walnut kernels in half and dip in apricot jam after boiling it for the fourth time. Then boil with nuts for 25 minutes and roll hot.
Apricot jam with nucleoli - useful tips and tricks of cooking
• Apricot jam is cooked, ideally, in a copper basin, or in an enamel bowl. Such containers do not oxidize in contact with fruit acid.
• To rinse the fruits thoroughly, dip them in cold water for ten minutes and then rinse under the tap.
• Do not leave fruit sprinkled with granulated sugar in hot weather for a long time indoors, it is better to put it in the refrigerator. Otherwise, they may ferment.
• Before laying kernels extracted from seeds, be sure to taste them. Sometimes they can be bitter.
• Do not add bitter kernels; jam will also be bitter. Better choose a different recipe and take the core of walnuts or almonds.
• Roll apricot jam with nucleoli only in carefully sterilized jars to seal boiled metal lids. So the jam will last longer, and it will not need to be cleaned in the refrigerator.
• After cooking, be sure to let the sweets brew for a while. The kernels of the seeds and nuts should absorb the syrup well.
