The most delicious recipes for apricot jam with different additives. Apricot and peach jam Pitted apricot jam lavender

Quite recently, I once again said that the combination of orange and purple is beautiful (see; link opens in a new window). Nice ... delicious, unfortunately. Rather, he has his own taste, but not one that he would admire and lose his head on.

The photo shows my last experiment on the theme of "apricot-lavender". The latter is in the truest sense: I will not experiment with this combination anymore. I worked with him for more than five years and finally decided that it was enough: everything that I wanted to understand for myself, I understood.

In terms of taste and aroma, apricot and lavender are not suitable for each other. If you combine these two plants, their tastes and aromas remain, as they say, with their own and sound separately. Sometimes the distance between them is small (especially if you take fresh lavender flowers), but it happens that they are very far apart from each other (especially if dried lavender is used).

First of all I mean jam (jam) where these plants are combined in their pure form and there are no other ingredients that can seriously affect this combination. Bakery products where these ingredients can be present at the same time (for example, lavender in the dough, apricot in the filling) - this is somewhat different: firstly, baked goods with lavender can be even more for an amateur than jam, and secondly, it has its own processes that can affect aroma, taste and color.

Apricot jam with lavender is usually tried by those chefs who like both of these plants. At the same time, the properties of these plants are either forgotten or not known at all. Professional chefs or owners of lavender plantations and apricot orchards have a better situation with this, and everyone else ... just make jam after watching foreign pictures or reading Russian-language recipes on the Internet. But those who lay out such recipes - not only with lavender, but also with other herbs - always talk only about the tip of the iceberg and almost never tell or, again, simply do not know what this jam is in reality, how best to cook it, how it is stored, how its taste changes over time, and most importantly - whether it makes sense to harvest it for future use.

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Exist 5 subspecies of common apricot (the so-called section Armeniaca) and many of their varieties, incl. zoned. Types and subspecies of lavender - about 50, and they also have a lot of varieties. For making jams and in general in cooking, several types of lavender can be used, but the most popular, which, moreover, has the most pleasant aroma - medicinal lavender (English lavender; Lavandula officinalis)... It is this type that some culinary experts consider the only existing type of lavender, knowing nothing about its relatives. And they also think that in different parts of the world lavender manifests its properties in the same way, and that if they like it, then everyone else should like it. And, interestingly, they think the same about other plants, only sometimes attributing everything to a certain "variety", which can be "different".

I love lavender very much, I grow several of its types and observe it in other gardens and parks, but I also know very well the properties of this plant. Therefore, I never insist on its universal use and always emphasize that the quality of 1 teaspoon of lavender flowers in one chef's kitchen may not be equal to the quality of the same amount of lavender flowers from another chef's kitchen.

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Earlier, "at the dawn of its foggy youth", lavender was not only a flavoring additive in cooking. By the way, lavender is generally rarely used for culinary purposes and even now it is not the most popular culinary ingredient, even in its homeland. Some modern culinary experts do not think about it and turn to lavender only for aroma. The scent of lavender is not exactly the same as its taste!

About the use of lavender in cooking see my articles (all links open in a new window).

A little about lavender-apricot jam:.

O different types lavender and everything about this plant in general, incl. other drinks and dishes with lavender, see: which I had in 2015.

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Apricot tastes sweet and sour, lavender is bitter-astringent and slightly pungent. The flowers of some lavender species have a pleasant aroma, but almost no sweet taste. Of the listed tastes, by nature, only sweet and spicy combine well with each other, but they are not in the first place in apricot and lavender, so they agree with each other somewhere, in the background. Moreover, apricot has even more sweetness than lavender.

Let's think about how and where such a jam could have arisen and for what reason? You can answer this question by knowing the geography of apricot and lavender growth, understanding a little the history of cooking, but most importantly, knowing the properties of these plants.

If you look at the same Internet, then the area of ​​the greatest popularity of jams with lavender is in the south of Europe: France-Italy-Spain, i.e. where lavender comes from. Apricot is the main summer fruit for many southern residents. There is always a lot of it and it ripens just when you can harvest lavender (remember, this is important!)

We look at the pictures.

Is it medicinal lavender?

Photo: www.countryliving.com-apricotlavjam

No, this is not medicinal lavender. Above, I have already noted that other types of lavender are also used to make jams and in general in cooking in different world regions. Domestic culinary experts hardly pay attention to this fact.

Is that lavender jam? Is the lavender here just for the photo? The answer to both questions is: it seems yes, but it seems not (I will talk about this below).

Photo: www.lavenderandlovage.com

Let's remember the history of cooking. Any workpieces in different culinary traditions used to be made for what:
1) so that they are
2) and so that everyone is healthy with them, and not because of their pleasant taste or even more so aroma.

What then remains? Why mix lavender and apricot together?

And the preservative properties of lavender remain. Hence the idea of ​​southern apricot jam with lavender becomes clear:

1) because the harvest of these plants can be harvested at the same time;
2) the safety of this crop.

A sprig of lavender in each jar home preparation(or a bunch of lavender in each barrel) is a kind of preservative that can prolong the shelf life of the product and protect against some microorganisms, incl. so that no one gets in from the side. I already talked about this in my articles about lavender (see links above). This is still remembered in the homeland of lavender, you can figure it out by looking at some recipes and photos of apricot-lavender jams from French, Spanish or Italian chefs.

Let's not forget about national perception of ingredients, i.e. about metal, because someone may be familiar with lavender from birth. Of course, there are those who met her later and who really like her. There are those who do not notice any dissonances in the "lavender-apricot" combination, I do not exclude such a moment at all, but no matter how much I study the same foreign-language sites, I have not yet been able to find frank enthusiastic reviews about such a jam. Culinary specialists simply show how they prepare it - and that's it, they don't talk about this topic too much. It is impossible to understand whether they really like this kind of jam or whether they are simply making it because it is so due to local tradition.

Of course, now many people prepare such a jam only because of the aroma and taste, so they prefer not to leave lavender in it either after cooking, or even during it, knowing that this plant gives bitterness:

1) some culinary specialists insist apricots with lavender, and before cooking they take them out - either by laying the spikelets on top of the apricots, or by wrapping the flowers in a cloth;
2) a part hides lavender flowers in a fabric bag, cooks jam with it, and then also extracts;
3) and another part of the culinary specialists prepares either lavender water or lavender syrup, and then cook jam on it.

For me, these are still not options, but I also prepared drinks and syrups with lavender: firstly, in each of the listed cases, you need to calculate the proportions of a particular lavender very well, otherwise you can either not get the flavor of the desired strength from it, or overdo it with its bitterness ... Secondly, for me, lavender does not go well with apricot at all - neither when there is little of it with him, nor when even more so, neither in jam, nor in baked goods. In my opinion, these plants, as natural phenomena, do not combine either in aroma or taste, so I will no longer transfer lavender to apricot.

Another option for making jam is just presented on last photo and it is described by the author of the specified site: some modern foreign chefs recommend putting a sprig of lavender under the lid of the finished apricot (or other) jam. In my experience, this technology is a direct road to mold, especially if the lavender is fresh and the jam is still hot. This applies to any herbs, not only lavender. Sometimes I leave only the star anise under the lid.

I talked about the preparation and preservation of jam (jam) with herbs and spices in the corresponding article: (link opens in a new window).

And the last option is to insist and cook apricots with lavender, and then leave its flowers for storage in jam. This is the oldest option, explaining why, in fact, they began to combine lavender with apricot (see above about the preservative properties of lavender).

Well-cooked apricot jam (jam), in which lavender flowers remained, taken in an appropriate amount, can really be stored well, but its taste and partly color (especially in places where lavender is localized) suffer. Jam acquires a bitter taste, and if the apricots were cooked with the peel, then this bitterness can increase. The scent becomes "earthy" or goes into a "heavy masculine perfume", i.e. does not at all remind of the romance that some ladies admire lavender. Lavender does go well with some fruits or berries, but that's another story.

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People's tastes, habits and traditions change over time. Sometimes we continue to do something the way our ancestors did, but we no longer know why and why. We need to look for new explanations, but we need to look for them there, which over time does not change as much and quickly as everything else: in Nature itself. We need to study the natural properties of substances in order not only to understand the essence of ancient (traditional) culinary dishes but also create something new. Although it is not for nothing that there is a saying that everything new is well forgotten old.

That's the whole big secret. I tested it in practice for a very long time with different varieties apricots and other fruits, as well as with various varieties of medicinal lavender - both with its fresh flowers and dried, both grown in their own garden, and with plants from other gardens. I do not use other popular types and subspecies of lavender in cooking, because I know their properties, taste, aroma, as well as their indications and contraindications for use.

This is my personal opinion based on the study of theory and on numerous practical experiments. Believe it or not, check it out for yourself :)

Wash the apricots well. Pour boiling water over and leave in it for about 1 minute (this is necessary to peel the apricots, if the apricots are very ripe, then do not leave in boiling water for a long time). Drain the water, peel the apricots, divide them into halves and remove the pits.

If you have very good ripe apricots without spots, with a smooth skin, then you can not peel them from it.

In a large saucepan, combine the apricots, lemon zest and juice and sugar. Cook over low heat, removing the foam for about 15-20 minutes.

Grind the apricots with a blender (I usually grind so that there are still palpable pieces of fruit).

If you have very ripe apricots, then you do not need to grind, they will gradually boil on their own. But with a blender, a more uniform consistency of jam is obtained, and after grinding it cooks faster.

Put the jam again over low heat, stirring occasionally. Cook until tender (check this way: drop a drop of jam on a cold saucer - it should not spread, and if you tilt the saucer, the drop will drain off it very slowly) or until the desired thickness.
Remove the ready-made jam from the heat and add lavender flowers to it, mix.

Immediately after cooking fill sterilized jars with hot confiture, close the lids, turn upside down and wrap until they cool completely. Before use, it is advisable to let the marmalade brew for a week, it will become more fragrant.

Option with the addition of pectin.

For this recipe for confiture, the ratio of the amount of sugar and apricots will depend on the pectin (Pectin, Zhelfix, Quittin, Confiture and the like ...) Usually on the pectin package they write how many ingredients it is designed for.
For example:
pectin 1: 1- 1 package of pectin is designed for 1 kg of fruit and 1 kg of sugar,
pectin 1: 2- 1 package of pectin for 1 kg of fruit and 500 g of sugar,
pectin 1: 3- 1 package of pectin for 1 kg of fruit and 350 g of sugar.
When cooking jelly with pectin, you can use less lemon zest and juice(especially if it is 1: 3), because pectin is made from apples and from citrus fruits.

I used 1: 3 pectin. The method and time of cooking jelly with pectin is usually also written on its packaging.

Wash the apricots (as in the first option - you can peel or not peel them), remove the seeds and cut the fruit into small pieces. Then follow the directions on the packaging of your pectin.

I did this: mixed chopped apricots, sugar, pectin, lemon zest and some lemon juice. She brought to a boil over high heat and cooked the confiture for only 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Turned off, added lavender flowers, filled sterilized jars with hot confiture as in the first version of the recipe.

The jam with pectin turned out to be very thick - similar to marmalade with pieces of apricots. And a little different to taste.

Jam made from apricots has a strong taste in itself, but if you add a couple more secret ingredients to it, then amber jam or jam, will turn into perfection of taste and smell.

Try to cook such jam according to our recipes and you will feel an exotic Mediterranean touch and every spoon of this delicacy, the most cold winter will bring you back to the warm summer. It is difficult to give preference to any recipe - all are good.

Apricot jam with pineapple pieces

The recipe I offer uses canned pineapples, but you can also take fresh ones. The jam will acquire a special taste and indescribable aroma.The apricots should be ripe but firm enough. Instead of canned pineapples, you can use fresh ones, which need to be peeled and cut into cubes. Such jam can not only be served with tea, but also used for making pastries and various desserts and drinks.

Ingredients:

• apricots 1200g
• canned pineapple -400g
• lemon -1 pc
• sugar -1200gr

Preparation:

To make jam, you need to take ripe, but strong enough apricots, canned pineapple pieces, lemon and sugar.Wash the apricots thoroughly, cut into halves and remove the seeds.Combine apricots with canned pineapple(together with the filling) and cover with sugar.

Stir the mixture gently and leave for 4 hours.Bring the mass to a boil and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, removing the foam, and then remove the cooking container from the stove and let it cool.

Squeeze the juice out of the lemon.Bring the jam to a boil again, remove the foam, pour in lemon juice and cook for 15 minutes.

Put the jam in sterilized jars, seal tightly with boiled lids, turn upside down and leave to cool completely. Store in dark dry place.

Apricot jam with orange and lemon juice

Ingredients:

• mashed apricots - 1 liter;
• sugar - 1 liter;
• lemon - 1 pc.;
• orange - 1 pc.

Preparation

To prepare this jam, the ratio of apricot puree to sugar must be strictly 1: 1. In order to get the apricot puree, we remove the seeds from the fruits, and grind the pulp in a blender. Add sugar, lemon juice and orange juice to the puree. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally and removing the resulting foam. Cook until the jam begins to thicken. We check the readiness in this way - put a drop of jam on a dry saucer, and if it does not spread, then it’s time to turn off the mass. Pour the jam into jars while hot and close with lids. Such blanks can be safely stored at room temperature.

Apricot jam for the winter with orange

Ingredients:

• apricots - 1 kg;
• sugar - 0.5 kg;
• oranges -1 pc .;
• water - 200 ml;
• zhelfix - 1 sachet.

Preparation

Wash the apricots, dry them and mince them with the orange.

We place fruit puree in the dishes where we will cook the jam, pour in the water and add the gelatin mixed with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Mix it all well, put it on fire and bring to a boil.

Add the rest of the sugar, stir and bring the mixture to a boil again. Boil for about 3 minutes, periodically skimming off the foam. Pour hot jam into clean dry jars and close with lids.

Apricot jam with oranges

The recipe is not just proven over the years, but improved and not at all complicated. The jam turns out to be quite thick, or rather - thick syrup and there are apricots in it - uncooked slices. And just awesomely delicious, with a bright orange flavor.

Ingredients

• 2 kg apricot
• 1.5 kg sugar
• 2 small oranges
• output - 2.5 liters (5 half liter jars)

Preparation:

Apricots should be dense, intact for jam, if there is minor damage - cut with a knife.

Wash the apricots, separate them from the seeds, put them in a shallow bowl in layers, slices up, sprinkling each layer with sugar.

Then shake the bowl at the end so that each apricot is in sugar. We leave the hours for 6-8.
Then, when the apricots give a lot of juice, we start preparing the oranges:
Grate the zest with an orange, cut the orange pulp into small pieces.
Add oranges and zest to apricots, put on fire, bring to a boil, remove foam, cook for 5 minutes, and so on 3 times in total.

With this technology, apricots will retain their shape and will not be like porridge. During the second and third boiling, stir the jam very carefully, often along the bottom, because thick jam tends to burn quickly.
After the third time, we immediately roll the jam into sterilized jars with sterilized lids. Turn it upside down, wrap it up until it cools completely.

Apricot and peach jam

As you know, peaches and apricots are cousins ​​to each other. If you simply have nowhere to do with peaches and apricots, try to cook aromatic jam from this cheerful company.


At the same time, everything that you have in an overripe form can be thrown into the common "furnace": peaches, nectarines, apricots. Take about the same sugar as fruit by volume. Divide the apricots into halves. Of course, this is not always easy to do, because the apricots are overripe. It's okay - in the jam itself, all this will look great.
Cut peaches and nectarines into random sized pieces.So, you put all the sliced ​​fruits in a large saucepan and cover with sugar. Put the saucepan on low heat. As the temperature rises, moisture will begin to release from the apricots and the sugar will dissolve. If you are afraid that at some point the jam will burn, add a little water to it, no more than a glass. While stirring occasionally, bring the fruit mass to a boil, but do not boil it. After boiling, the pan with peaches and apricots is removed from the heat, covered with a towel and left to cool for a day. This procedure is repeated the next day. Bring to a boil and remove immediately, and so on for two days. On the third day, pour the jam hot into sterilized jars.

You can also add apricot pits at the end if you like. They need to be split with a hammer and all the nucleoli must be removed. The peeled apricot pits are sent to the jam pot and brought to a boil for the last time.

"Raw jam" of apricots, lemons and oranges

To cook delicious jam from apricots you can quickly and easily without cooking, by grinding the fruit with sugar.

Ingredients:

• pitted apricots - 2 kg
• orange - 2 pieces
• lemon - 1 piece
• sugar - 3 kg

Preparation

We wash the apricots thoroughly in cold water and select the bones. Rinse the lemon and oranges well and put them in boiling water and cook for a minute to remove the bitterness we don't need. Cut oranges and lemons into small pieces and take out the seeds.Put apricots and citrus fruits together in a blender and grind well at highest speed.

Grind it several times so that there are no large pieces left. Stop the blender and stir with a spoon from the edges to the center, then grind again.

Pour the puree into a convenient bowl and add the sugar. Then mix well with a spoon.We put the jam in jars and put it in the refrigerator or freezer. Everything!

Apricot jam with lemon

To add a unique aroma and rich taste to the dessert, you can make apricot jam with lemon.

Ingredients:

• sugar - 1.5 kg;
• apricots - 1 kg;
• lemon - 1 pc.;
• water - 200 ml.

Preparation

We sort out the apricots, take out the seeds, put them in a saucepan and cover them with a small amount of granulated sugar. We remove the dishes for about 8 hours in a cool place, and then carefully drain the released juice into a separate bowl. Add water to it and pour out the remaining sugar. Mix everything well and heat. Cook at low boil for 5 minutes, and then infuse the treat for 15 minutes. After that, we filter the mass. Fill the apricot halves with hot syrup and remove for 6 hours in a cool place. Then we heat and cook, removing the foam for 5 minutes. Now let the apricot jam cool in slices, add the lemon, cut into small pieces, and heat again to a boil. After 20 minutes, put the mass in dry jars and roll it up. Turn over, wrap and leave to cool.

Apricot jam with lemon and cinnamon

Ingredients:

• apricots - 1 kg;
• lemon - 1 pc.;
• sugar - 500 g;
• ground cinnamon - to taste.

Preparation

We wash the apricots, wipe dry and remove the seeds. Put the fruit in a saucepan, add sugar, put it on the fire and after boiling, reduce the flame. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring and skimming. At the end we add ground cinnamon and lemon, finely chopped with zest. We boil for another 5 minutes, and then we cool the apricot jam with lemon and serve with tea or roll it up for the winter, spreading it out in clean jars.

Apricot jam with almonds and lemon

Ingredients:

• apricots - 1 kg;
• lemon - 1 pc.;
• sugar - 800 g;
• almonds - 4 tbsp spoons.

Preparation

We take out the seeds from the apricots, add sugar to the fruit and pour it with lemon juice. Mix thoroughly and remove the pan overnight in a cool place. The next day, we send the dishes to the fire and cook until all the crystals dissolve. Then we reduce the temperature and simmer the jam for about an hour, stirring occasionally. After that, remove the pan from the stove, cool the contents and boil again. We repeat the procedure several times and at the very end we throw almond petals... We lay out the hot delicacy in jars, close the lids and leave to cool.

Apricot jam with lavender

Apricots go very well with lavender, and since a truck with this herb turned over on my street even earlier, the first jam that I made this year was just that.

Ingredients

• 1100 g apricots (weight with seeds, without seeds 1000 g)
• 650 g sugar
• 1 tbsp. l. dried lavender flowers
• 1 tsp citric acid or 1 tablespoon juice

Preparation

Cut the fruit in half, remove the seeds. Cover with sugar, put in the refrigerator for 1.5-2 days. Stir gently in the morning and evening. Add lavender a day after the start of the process.

Boil for 20 minutes, leave for 10-12 hours. Boil for another 15 minutes, leave for 10-12 hours. Boil for another 15 minutes for the third time, add at the end citric acid, pour into sterilized jars, seal.

Apricot jam with thyme

Ingredients:

• 750 g apricots (pitted weight)
• 350 g sugar
• a few sprigs of fresh thyme

Preparation:

Cut the apricots into pieces, cover with sugar, leave for a couple of hours.
Add thyme leaves, cook after boiling for 40 minutes, at the end remove the foam. Pour into sterilized jars.It turned out wonderful jam, apricot with thyme is also a wonderful pair, very aromatic and tasty!

Today is the end of the fourth day as I make apricot and peach jam. Science is not difficult, but you need to have patience.

Last year I made apricot jam with thyme and lemon.

And the second option was with lavender, zest and lemon juice.

Lavender gives a very original taste.

Last year I cooked apricots from six kilograms.

This year has limited itself to two.

This year I tried to cook with pectin (3 to 1), so for 1 kg of apricots I took sugar not 650 g (as it should be according to the recipe), but only 350 g and 1 bag of pectin. Pectin, in addition to reducing sugar, gells the liquid, so I should get a very dense jam, more likely even a jam.
If you cook with pectin, then do not add lemon juice, otherwise it turns out very sour. With such a small amount of sugar, the jam turns out to be bad, the liquid is completely absorbed into the berries and the jam burns. Therefore, for 1 kg of apricots, you need to take at least 650 g of sugar.

Here is the basic recipe for cooking:
For 1, 1 kg of apricots with seeds (1 kg without seeds)
650 g sugar
1 tsp dried lavender flowers
juice of half a lemon (or half of 1 tsp citric acid)

I cut the apricots in half, took out the seeds and covered them with sugar. I put it in the refrigerator for two days. A day later I added lavender. Shake gently from time to time.
The first time I cooked in the morning for 20 minutes. I left it for 12 hours. In the evening, cooked for 15 minutes. I left it before the morning. In the morning, after 12 hours, cooked for another 15 minutes. At the end of cooking, I added citric acid, and poured hot into sterilized jars. I screwed on the lids. I turned the cans over onto the lids, covered them with a blanket and let them cool slowly.

Last year's pectin-free jam. It is already thick enough.

Peach jam with lemon and lavender turns out to be no less delicious.

I buy peaches that are not large, ripe (the stone should separate well), but not yet soft.

Peach jam with lavender
1 kg of peaches (pitted)
560 g sugar
juice of 1 lemon
1/2 lemon zest
1 tsp lavender

I covered the halves of the peaches with sugar and left them overnight. By morning there was a pot of juice full.

Cooked with the addition of zest and lemon juice in three steps. The first time is 20 minutes.

The second time after 12 hours 15 minutes, the third time after 12 hours for another 15 minutes.

I poured them into dry sterilized jars and screwed them up with lids. I turned the cans over onto the lids, covered them with a blanket and let them cool slowly.

P. S. During the first and second boiling I do not skim the foam, only during the third boil I skim the foam (but usually there is already very little of it).
The post uses my photos from different years.