Due to its sweet taste with a slight sourness, blueberries are one of the most delicious and popular forest berries. In addition, its solid set of healing properties will not leave any housewife indifferent. If you eat blueberries regularly, you can prevent the development of heart and vascular diseases, strengthen your eyesight and memory, and prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases. It is also good for colds and fever.

Unfortunately, harvested blueberries do not retain their freshness for long, so they must either be eaten quickly or prepared. To the delight of sweet tooth lovers, there are many ways to store blueberries for the winter: freezing, drying, and making preserves, marmalade, marshmallows, compote and other preparations.

Blueberry preparation process

Regardless of the recipe you choose, it is important to choose the right berries and prepare them before you start preparing blueberries. First of all, you need to discard all spoiled fruits, since they can not only worsen the taste, but also reduce the storage time of the product. Broken, wrinkled, watery and moldy berries are not suitable for canning for the winter.

Since blueberries do not ripen after picking, you need to choose only blue fruits. After this, the blueberries must be washed, placed in a sieve to drain, and dried with a towel.

The least troublesome ways to prepare blueberries are drying and freezing.

These types of preparations are excellent for blueberries, since the berries are very elastic and retain their shape well. You can dry blueberries for the winter quickly and at no extra cost. To do this, you only need berries, an oven and storage containers. By the way, it is best to store dry blueberries in bags or boxes directly in the kitchen cabinet. Before using, the berries need to be soaked in water. Dried blueberries are used as a filling for pies and dumplings or as a component of compote.

It is better not to wash berries intended for freezing, as their skin may become tough. This can be done later, immediately before use. Blueberries are frozen in plastic bags or food containers. Such berries can be stored for a year and a half. Like dry, frozen fruits can be used for various purposes: filling a pie, making compote, making sauces and other dishes.

Preparing blueberries for those with a sweet tooth: preserves, marmalade, marshmallows and marmalade

In general, all these preparation methods require heat treatment and the addition of sugar. But you can also simply grind the berries with sugar and store them that way. At the same time, the fruits retain their beneficial properties as much as possible.

You can make five-minute jam from blueberries. In this case, many useful substances are also preserved, but the guarantee that it will not spoil will be higher.

Since the blueberry harvest is usually small, you can increase the volume of harvests by combining these berries with others, for example, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and others. It also goes well with apples, oranges and cranberries. To give the dove jam additional flavor, you can add a little lemon zest, cinnamon, vanillin or cloves to the preparation.

You can make blueberry twists on the stove, in the oven, or in the slow cooker. The main rule: you need to cook well-dried berries and put them in sterilized but dry jars so that the preparation does not become moldy. Jam, jam, marmalade and other similar recipes can be used both as a filling for baked goods and as a sweet for tea.

Blueberry drinks for the winter

From blueberries you can make not only delicious jam and other sweet preparations, but also various drinks, including alcoholic ones, such as liqueur or wine. Blueberry compotes are very easy to cook and they also retain many of the vitamins of this berry. In winter, compote can be used to make jelly, fruit juice or jelly.

Since blueberries themselves do not have a pronounced odor, you can preserve the compote by mixing it with cherries. Blueberry wine also retains many beneficial substances, so it is often considered not so much an alcoholic drink as a medicinal tincture. Moreover, if all stages of preparation are followed, such wine can be stored for up to four years.

A simple recipe: five-minute blueberry jam in a slow cooker

This jam will turn out very tasty, but you won’t spend a lot of time preparing it. In addition, the berries will retain all vitamins. Any multicooker is suitable for making this jam. Mode - “Cooking” or similar.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 180 g honey;
• 1 packet of pectin;
• 2 tbsp. Roma

Cooking process:

1. Cook the prepared (washed and dried) berries until juice appears (about 3 minutes).
2. Add honey and pectin.
3. Cook the jam at low temperature for 5 minutes after boiling.
4. A few minutes before turning off the heat, pour in the rum.
5. When the jam has cooled, you need to pour it into jars.
6. We store it in the refrigerator or cellar.

An unusual blueberry dessert for the winter - pastila

On cold winter evenings, this dish will be a great addition to hot tea.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 0.5 kg sugar.

Cooking process:

1. Pour the prepared blueberries into 250 g of water (one glass), bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes.
2. After this, let the mixture cool slightly and rub through a sieve.
3. Add sugar to the ground berries, mix well and boil them.
4. After this, place the finished marshmallow on trays and dry it in the oven.

Recipe for adults: blueberry wine

You will have to spend a lot of time preparing blueberry wine, but the result will definitely please you and will decorate any holiday table.

Ingredients:

• 4 kg blueberries;
• 1.9 kg sugar;
• 5 liters of water.

Cooking process:

1. Mash the prepared blueberries into a paste and squeeze out the juice using a sieve or gauze.
2. Pour the resulting mixture with water and leave for a day.
3. Pour the resulting infusion into another bowl and mix with the remaining juice.
4. Add sugar, stir well until it dissolves.
5. Pour the workpiece into a large bottle (up to the “shoulders” of the container) and cover it with latex, in which you need to make a hole for the release of carbon dioxide.
6. Place the bottle in a dark place for fermentation.
7. We monitor the release of bubbles: when there are few of them, this means that the wine is almost ready (the fermentation process will take from one to two months).
8. We pour the wine into a new container using a small diameter hose.
9. We cork the wine and put it in a cold room for at least two months.
10. Pour the finished wine into a storage container and leave it in a dark place.

Flavor palette: blueberry and cherry compote

To add flavor to blueberry compote, you can combine these berries with cherries. Moreover, you will be able to prepare more drink.

Ingredients:

• 0.3 kg blueberries;
• 0.3 kg cherries;
• 0.4 kg sugar;
• 1 liter of water.

Cooking process:

1. Place the washed berries in sterilized jars, alternating layers of blueberries and cherries (about 3 cm high). It's better to put the cherries in first. We fill the jars up to the shoulders.
2. Then we prepare syrup from sugar and water.
3. Pour hot syrup over the berries.
4. Cover the jars with metal lids and place in hot water to sterilize (about 20 minutes).
5. After sterilization, roll up the compote, turn it over and wrap it in something warm.
6. In winter, by diluting with water and adding sugar, you can make an even larger volume of compote from this preparation.

Blueberries can be frozen for the winter and made into jam, jelly, compote or jam. Baking with blueberries will turn out fragrant, tasty and beautiful.

Since blueberries no longer ripen after picking, like, for example, bananas that ripen during transportation, you should not take reddish, unripe berries. Blueberries should be blue, ripe, strong and not spoiled. It is not recommended to buy berries that are watery, wrinkled, covered in mold or have released juice - they have little benefit.

Freezing blueberries for the winter

Frozen berries retain all the beneficial substances. Blueberries should not be washed before freezing, otherwise the skin will be too tough. You can rinse them with water after defrosting.

Sort through the berries, removing any “spread” and stale ones. Place them in a plastic container in an even layer, close the lid and place in the freezer.

Blueberry jam

Ingredients: one kilogram of fresh blueberries, four glasses of sugar.

Preparation: Sort the berries, removing the stems, unripe or spoiled berries. Place them in a colander and rinse well under running water. Leave the excess water to drain and prepare the syrup: pour one glass of clean water into the container where the jam will be cooked, pour sugar into it, mix thoroughly and, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula, bring to a boil. Remove the finished syrup from the stove and let it cool.

Dip the blueberries into the syrup, place on the stove and heat to a boil over low heat. Cook for 20-30 minutes, stirring constantly. Next, pour hot into sterilized jars and roll up.

Purated blueberries with sugar

Ingredients: one kilogram of blueberries, four or five glasses of granulated sugar.

Preparation: you need to wash the berries, grind them in a blender, put them in a bowl and add sugar, mix. Then leave in a warm place for several hours to release the juice. At this time, rinse and boil the jars. Place the pureed berries into still hot jars and roll up. Cool and store in the refrigerator in warm weather, and in cold weather you can store in the basement or cellar.

Blueberries in sugar

Blueberries prepared this way remain practically fresh.

Ingredients: one kilogram of berries, four glasses of granulated sugar.

Preparation: Sort, wash and dry the berries. Place in an enamel bowl and crush lightly with a wooden masher to break the integrity of the skin. Stirring constantly, heat until hot (about 65-70 degrees), add sugar and, stirring, bring to a boil, but do not boil. When hot, place in sterilized jars, boil for 15-20 minutes and roll up.

Dried blueberries

Dried blueberries will not take up space in the refrigerator; they can be stored in glass jars in a kitchen cabinet. The berries retain all the beneficial substances, and if you fill them with water for a while to swell, you can get an almost fresh product.

Preparation: sort the berries, spread on a large sieve, place on a baking sheet and dry in the oven for 5-6 hours at a temperature of 40-60 degrees. From time to time, carefully shake the berries so as not to damage them. The oven door should be slightly open.

Dried blueberries can be used to make pie fillings or simply added to tea.

Blueberry jelly

Ingredients: 140 grams of sugar, one liter of water, 30 grams of gelatin, 300 grams of blueberry juice.

Preparation: let the gelatin swell in water, prepare sugar syrup and add the swollen gelatin to it, bring to a boil, add blueberry juice, strain, pour into molds, let cool and cool.

Charlotte with blueberries

Ingredients: 300 grams of flour, 3-4 eggs, 370 grams of sugar, 300 grams of blueberries.

Preparation: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Sort the blueberries, remove the stems, rinse and drain in a colander. Grind the eggs with sugar and add flour, continuing to beat. Knead the dough to a uniform consistency. Sprinkle the berries with flour. Grease a mold (preferably with a diameter of 24 centimeters) and dust with flour. Pour half the dough into the mold, place the berries on top, pour the remaining dough onto them and smooth them out. Place the pan on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for one hour, then leave in the pan until completely cool.

Blueberry kvass

Ingredients: 10 liters of water, 2 kilograms of blueberries, 2 cups of honey, 30 grams of yeast.

Preparation: soak the blueberries for 12 hours after picking, rinse, crush with a wooden pestle, cover with cold water, bring to a boil, cool, strain, add honey and yeast. Leave for 8-12 hours. Kvass is ready to eat.

Due to its sweet taste with a slight sourness, blueberries are one of the most delicious and popular forest berries. In addition, its solid set of healing properties will not leave any housewife indifferent. If you eat blueberries regularly, you can prevent the development of heart and vascular diseases, strengthen your eyesight and memory, and prevent the occurrence of infectious diseases. It is also good for colds and fever.

Unfortunately, harvested blueberries do not retain their freshness for long, so they must either be eaten quickly or prepared. To the delight of sweet tooth lovers, there are many ways to store blueberries for the winter: freezing, drying, and making preserves, marmalade, marshmallows, compote and other preparations.

Blueberry preparation process

Regardless of the recipe you choose, it is important to choose the right berries and prepare them before you start preparing blueberries. First of all, you need to discard all spoiled fruits, since they can not only worsen the taste, but also reduce the storage time of the product. Broken, wrinkled, watery and moldy berries are not suitable for canning for the winter.

Since blueberries do not ripen after picking, you need to choose only blue fruits. After this, the blueberries must be washed, placed in a sieve to drain, and dried with a towel.

The least troublesome ways to prepare blueberries are drying and freezing.

These types of preparations are excellent for blueberries, since the berries are very elastic and retain their shape well. You can dry blueberries for the winter quickly and at no extra cost. To do this, you only need berries, an oven and storage containers. By the way, it is best to store dry blueberries in bags or boxes directly in the kitchen cabinet. Before using, the berries need to be soaked in water. Dried blueberries are used as a filling for pies and dumplings or as a component of compote.

It is better not to wash berries intended for freezing, as their skin may become tough. This can be done later, immediately before use. Blueberries are frozen in plastic bags or food containers. Such berries can be stored for a year and a half. Like dry, frozen fruits can be used for various purposes: filling a pie, making compote, making sauces and other dishes.

Preparing blueberries for those with a sweet tooth: preserves, marmalade, marshmallows and marmalade

In general, all these preparation methods require heat treatment and the addition of sugar. But you can also simply grind the berries with sugar and store them that way. At the same time, the fruits retain their beneficial properties as much as possible.

You can make five-minute jam from blueberries. In this case, many useful substances are also preserved, but the guarantee that it will not spoil will be higher.

Since the blueberry harvest is usually small, you can increase the volume of harvests by combining these berries with others, for example, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and others. It also goes well with apples, oranges and cranberries. To give the dove jam additional flavor, you can add a little lemon zest, cinnamon, vanillin or cloves to the preparation.

You can make blueberry twists on the stove, in the oven, or in the slow cooker. The main rule: you need to cook well-dried berries and put them in sterilized but dry jars so that the preparation does not become moldy. Jam, jam, marmalade and other similar recipes can be used both as a filling for baked goods and as a sweet for tea.

Blueberry drinks for the winter

From blueberries you can make not only delicious jam and other sweet preparations, but also various drinks, including alcoholic ones, such as liqueur or wine. Blueberry compotes are very easy to cook and they also retain many of the vitamins of this berry. In winter, compote can be used to make jelly, fruit juice or jelly.

Since blueberries themselves do not have a pronounced odor, you can preserve the compote by mixing it with cherries. Blueberry wine also retains many beneficial substances, so it is often considered not so much an alcoholic drink as a medicinal tincture. Moreover, if all stages of preparation are followed, such wine can be stored for up to four years.

A simple recipe: five-minute blueberry jam in a slow cooker

This jam will turn out very tasty, but you won’t spend a lot of time preparing it. In addition, the berries will retain all vitamins. Any multicooker is suitable for making this jam. Mode - “Cooking” or similar.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 180 g honey;
• 1 packet of pectin;
• 2 tbsp. Roma

Cooking process:

1. Cook the prepared (washed and dried) berries until juice appears (about 3 minutes).
2. Add honey and pectin.
3. Cook the jam at low temperature for 5 minutes after boiling.
4. A few minutes before turning off the heat, pour in the rum.
5. When the jam has cooled, you need to pour it into jars.
6. We store it in the refrigerator or cellar.

An unusual blueberry dessert for the winter - pastila

On cold winter evenings, this dish will be a great addition to hot tea.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg blueberries;
• 0.5 kg sugar.

Cooking process:

1. Pour the prepared blueberries into 250 g of water (one glass), bring to a boil and cook for 10-15 minutes.
2. After this, let the mixture cool slightly and rub through a sieve.
3. Add sugar to the ground berries, mix well and boil them.
4. After this, place the finished marshmallow on trays and dry it in the oven.

Recipe for adults: blueberry wine

You will have to spend a lot of time preparing blueberry wine, but the result will definitely please you and will decorate any holiday table.

Ingredients:

• 4 kg blueberries;
• 1.9 kg sugar;
• 5 liters of water.

Cooking process:

1. Mash the prepared blueberries into a paste and squeeze out the juice using a sieve or gauze.
2. Pour the resulting mixture with water and leave for a day.
3. Pour the resulting infusion into another bowl and mix with the remaining juice.
4. Add sugar, stir well until it dissolves.
5. Pour the workpiece into a large bottle (up to the “shoulders” of the container) and cover it with latex, in which you need to make a hole for the release of carbon dioxide.
6. Place the bottle in a dark place for fermentation.
7. We monitor the release of bubbles: when there are few of them, this means that the wine is almost ready (the fermentation process will take from one to two months).
8. We pour the wine into a new container using a small diameter hose.
9. We cork the wine and put it in a cold room for at least two months.
10. Pour the finished wine into a storage container and leave it in a dark place.

Flavor palette: blueberry and cherry compote

To add flavor to blueberry compote, you can combine these berries with cherries. Moreover, you will be able to prepare more drink.

Ingredients:

• 0.3 kg blueberries;
• 0.3 kg cherries;
• 0.4 kg sugar;
• 1 liter of water.

Cooking process:

1. Place the washed berries in sterilized jars, alternating layers of blueberries and cherries (about 3 cm high). It's better to put the cherries in first. We fill the jars up to the shoulders.
2. Then we prepare syrup from sugar and water.
3. Pour hot syrup over the berries.
4. Cover the jars with metal lids and place in hot water to sterilize (about 20 minutes).
5. After sterilization, roll up the compote, turn it over and wrap it in something warm.
6. In winter, by diluting with water and adding sugar, you can make an even larger volume of compote from this preparation.

In the summer, everyone actively begins to prepare for winter and stock up on berries, fruits and vegetables. The blanks are made in various types. Berries, for example, are frozen fresh, compotes, preserves, jams and various sweets are made. It is especially useful to stock up on blueberries for the winter. This tasty and healthy berry contains a large amount of useful vitamins and microelements. But besides this, blueberries make delicious jellies and jams that replace sweets.

Before you start cooking pigeon or freezing it for the winter, you need to select and prepare it correctly. Preference should be given to ripe and large berries, without signs of damage. They should not have stains, traces of insects or other damage that contribute to the rapid deterioration of blueberries. The fruits should be firm and elastic to the touch, not soft. When lightly pressed, the berries do not wrinkle or burst, but remain intact.

It is also important to properly prepare the berries so that during freezing they retain their taste, aroma and beneficial properties. First, blueberries are selected and only good fruits are left. Damaged ones are immediately thrown away. The sooner the blueberries are picked, the lower the likelihood that they will begin to mold.

After this procedure, the berries are washed under cool water (the water should never be hot) and laid out on a flat surface in a thin layer. During this time, the blueberries will dry out and will not mold. When the berries are dry, they are packaged in bags and sent to the freezer. These berries are used to make teas or simply eaten fresh.

What can you make from blueberries for the winter?

There are many blueberry recipes. It is used for making preserves, jams, jellies, marshmallows and other sweets. To preserve maximum beneficial properties, the fruits are dried or frozen. In addition to sweets, homemade wine and liqueurs are made from blueberries. After heat treatment, it is important to properly store the resulting blueberry dishes in order to preserve their taste for as long as possible.

Dried blueberries

To prepare dried berries, you need to have an oven at home and that’s it. It's enough.

Blueberry drying process:

• Fresh berries are spread in a thin layer on the surface of a baking sheet. The oven is preheated to 40 degrees. Place a baking sheet and leave the berries to dry.
• Gradually increase the temperature for drying to 60 degrees.
• During drying, the blueberries are stirred 2-3 times so that the fruits dry evenly.

Frozen blueberries

The easiest way to keep fruits fresh even in winter is to store them in the freezer. To preserve the beneficial properties of berries during storage in the refrigerator, the fruits are pre-prepared. It is advisable to freeze only ripe and strong berries, without signs of damage. Before freezing, they are sorted and the spoiled ones are thrown away.

The easiest way to freeze is in plastic bags. Before freezing, the fruits are washed and then dried. In order for the berries to retain all their beneficial properties and not turn into porridge when frozen, they need to be dried well. Blueberries should not be washed under running water, but in a deep container, so as not to damage the thin skin.

Jam

Making jam is quite simple:

• Sort the berries and rinse them in water, place them on the bottom of the pan in which the jam will be cooked.
• Place 250 ml of water on the fire and gradually add 850 g of sugar to it to prepare a thick syrup.
• When the syrup is ready, pour it over the berries and let it cook, stirring the mixture regularly.
• Cook the jam over low heat for at least 20 minutes.
• After this, it is poured into jars, rolled up and placed upside down to cool.

When the jars have cooled to room temperature, they are put into the cellar or refrigerator.

Blueberries in their own juice

To prepare blueberries in their own juice, you only need the fruits and the same amount of sugar. The fruits are washed in water and the excess liquid is allowed to drain. After this, add sugar so that it covers the berries and leave for a day in a cool place.

Within a day, the blueberries will give juice and become saturated with sugar. You can use less sweetener so as not to make the blueberries too sugary. It is added to taste. The next day, the blueberries are poured into jars and covered with lids.

Compote

Dove compote will be an excellent preparation for the winter. The fruits, again, are washed in a large container of water. Sugar is added to the compote according to taste, but it is better to add more of it, otherwise the too sugary compote is diluted with plain water.

The berries are transferred to a deep pan and filled with water. Then add sugar. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the compote acquires a beautiful rich color. When the compote is ready, it is poured into jars and rolled up. And when the jars have cooled, they are lowered into the cellar and left there until winter.

Paste

To prepare pastila you need to take:

• 1 kg of berries;
• 650 g granulated sugar;
• 1 glass of warm water.

Pour water over the berries and put on fire for about 20 minutes. When the blueberries soften, grind them in a blender or rub through a sieve. Then place in a thin layer on a baking sheet and dry. The marshmallows are checked regularly. The finished marshmallow is flexible and does not break.

Blueberry juice with pulp

Blueberry fruits are sorted and washed under water. Then you need to pass it through a meat grinder or grind it in a blender. Squeeze out the juice, pour it into a saucepan and cook for 10 minutes over low heat. At this time you need to prepare sugar syrup.

When the sugar syrup is ready, mix it with the juice and cook for 20 minutes. After the juice is boiled, it is poured into jars and rolled up. And in winter, the whole family can enjoy tasty and healthy juice based on blueberries. Other fruits or berries are used along with blueberries for flavor.

Liquor

Liqueur is made from blueberries at home. To prepare it you need:

• 300 g fruits;
• 300 ml vodka;
• granulated sugar;
• 1 glass of water.

Crush the berries, put them in a jar and fill them with vodka. Leave in this form for 10 days in a dark room. The longer the liqueur is infused, the richer the taste will be. When the liqueur is ready, you need to boil the sugar syrup and mix everything together. Before pouring the liqueur into sugar syrup, squeeze it out. The finished liqueur should be stored in the refrigerator.

Wine

To prepare wine you will need:

• berries;
• water;
• a handful of raisins;
• 15 g citric acid.

Mash the berries into porridge. Add sugar and citric acid to the water. Pour water over the berry puree and add raisins. Mix thoroughly until the puree dissolves in the water. Not all of the sugar needs to be added. Cover the container with wine with gauze and put it in a cool room. After a few days the wine will begin to ferment. Then add more sugar and stir. It is important to make a gas outlet in the bottle. After 5 days, the gas outlet is removed. After 3 days, shake the wine. After 40 days the wine will be ready. The shade becomes lighter. After this, the wine is bottled.

Confiture

To cook confiture, lemon juice and gelatin are used together with fruits and sugar. Pour water over the fruits and cook for no more than 10 minutes. After cooking, the fruits are placed in a colander and the juice is squeezed out, in which the gelatin is then dissolved. The fruits themselves are crushed using a blender with added sugar. Then the juice with gelatin and the berry mass are combined together and lemon juice and lemon zest are added. After this, the confiture is poured into jars and put in the refrigerator.

Jelly

A delicious jelly is made from blueberries. To prepare it, you need to pour water over the berries and put it on fire. Cook until they are soft and most of the water has evaporated. After this, the fruits are rubbed through a sieve until smooth.

They put the fire back on, but now they add sugar to the mixture. Cook for 15-25 minutes until the jelly thickens. At this time, you need to dilute the gelatin. When the mass is prepared, diluted gelatin is poured into it and poured into a container. Place the jelly in the refrigerator. In a few hours it will be ready.

Blueberries pureed with sugar without cooking

Another way to preserve vitamins in blueberries is to rub them with sugar. The fruits are first ground through a sieve so that a homogeneous mass is obtained. Then add sugar. After the fruits produce juice, they are eaten as jam or added to teas.

Storage Features

Fresh blueberries are stored in the refrigerator. But you need to eat it as quickly as possible. If it sits for a long time, then after 1-2 days it will begin to become moldy and disappear.

Frozen fruits can be stored for no more than 2 years. After two years, even frozen, they will lose all taste and aroma.

Dried fruits are stored in glass jars. The shelf life is also no more than 2 years. After this time, the fruits begin to disappear and are not suitable for consumption.

Jam, compotes and other products that have been prepared can be stored for an unlimited amount of time. But again, you need to eat blueberry jams right away, because the longer they sit, the less tasty they will seem. The optimal storage period in the cellar is 3 years. Jam must be stored in a cellar or refrigerator.

For the winter, you can prepare both ready-made berry products and semi-finished products. The latter are perfect for boiling or jelly in the cold season, and will also be indispensable for homemade fruit juice and as a filling for pies. First of all, let's consider the option of blueberries in their own juice. The cooking process is not complicated, and from the ingredients you will only need half a kilo of sugar per 1 kilogram of berries, which must first be sorted and washed in a colander.

Blueberry pie filling

We separate the crushed berries as part of a fifth of the total volume of blueberries and crush them into a paste. Mix the resulting mass with the rest of the fruits, add sugar and mix thoroughly (for this it is best to use a wooden spoon or spatula). Next, place the container with the berries in juice on the stove and light a small fire. After bringing to a boil and simmering for up to 5 minutes, remove the pan from the gas and pour the contents into jars. We place the filled container for sterilization in another saucepan or high basin, for liter containers we set it to half an hour, and for smaller or larger containers we lower or increase the blanching time by 10 minutes for every half liter.

If you have an abundance of blueberries, winter recipes can be made without cooking at all. In particular, fresh berries can be dried quickly and inexpensively. To do this, wash them in running water and let it drain, placing the blueberries in a sieve, which we then place on a baking sheet in a preheated oven. We don’t close the door, keep the gas low, shake the berries from time to time so that the moisture evaporates from them evenly. You can store the resulting semi-finished product in a box or bag right in the kitchen cabinet, and to use it, just put the blueberries in water so that they swell slightly. Then you can use the fruits in compote or as a filling for dumplings and pies.

Blueberries

There are other no-cost recipes, for example, berries cooked without sugar. Apart from them, you don’t need anything, not even water. First, take some of the fruits and squeeze out the juice, which should be at least a glass. The process is simple, but labor-intensive: first we grind the blueberries through a strainer, and then we put the resulting pulp without peel into a gauze bag and squeeze it out. You can then put the cake into compote or blueberry jelly, and pour the juice into a saucepan, put a kilogram of berries in it and, after boiling, cook for 5 minutes. Then pour the finished product into jars and close. By adding sugar to an open twist in winter, you get jam, and if you also dilute it with water, you get compote.

The following recipes, in which you will learn how else you can prepare and preserve blueberries for the winter, are offered to those who love similar products. Let's start with the most liquid option - confiture. To cook this delicacy you will need for every 500 grams of blueberries a glass of sugar (heaped), half a lemon and about 15 grams of pectin, preferably in powder. First, the washed berries are placed in a pan and sprinkled with sugar until all raw materials are completely exhausted.

Berry confiture

Then, when the juice appears, squeeze half a lemon into the same container through cheesecloth and pour in the pectin. We add the zest to a compote made from leftover berries and fruits. Leave the resulting mixture for about another half hour to release more juice from the berries, and then put the pan on low heat. Cooking time depends on how many blueberries you cook at a time, and how juicy the berries are in the harvest. In any case, you need to cook until the mass thickens. All that remains is to pour the hot confiture into sterilized jars and screw on the metal lids. Turn the container upside down and cover it with something warm to cool gradually.

If you do not have the opportunity to buy pectin, you can get a product with a high content of pectin by boiling berry cake and fruit cores, cooling the strained broth in the refrigerator and waiting for it to thicken.

Pectin for thickening

For jam we take blueberries, sugar and water in equal parts, that is, per kilogram of berries you will need the same amount of sand and a liter of water. Place the sorted, washed in running water and dried fruits in sugar syrup made from a fifth of sugar and the entire volume of water specified in the recipe. Since the sweet solution is already boiling when we immerse the berries in it, we simply boil them for 10 minutes and then pour in all the remaining sugar. The brew must be stirred constantly, while being careful not to damage the berries. The jam is ready when it thickens and a drop on the plate does not spread. If you add a pinch of citric acid, the product will last longer. Place the jam in the jars and close tightly.

To make marshmallows at home, you will need only 600 grams of granulated sugar per kilo of berries. After thoroughly washing and sorting the berries, place them in a saucepan and heat them in a water bath (so as not to burn) until they soften. Next, you need to crush the blueberries in a sieve, resulting in a pulp without peel and seeds. Add sugar and put it on gas again, now without a water bath, cook until a very thick mass is obtained, stirring constantly. We transfer the pastilles into containers with lids and place them in a cool cellar.

Many ways blueberries can be prepared have been described here, but traditional winter twist recipes have been saved for last. Compote is not very popular today, so we will look at regular jam. For it we take a quarter liter of water and one kilo of berries and sugar. Place the latter in water heated over a fire and cook the syrup. We wash the berries and sort them carefully. The sugar solution should become quite thick, so stir occasionally to prevent it from burning to the bottom and walls of the pan.

Blueberry jam

When the syrup is ready, remove the container from the stove and wait for the thick sweet mass to cool. Then we take the already dried berries and immerse them in a sugar solution, after which we put them on the fire again. When bubbles appear, we begin to stir regularly (it is best to use a wooden spoon or spatula), and cook for no more than half an hour so that the berries do not become sour. Then quickly pour into jars and close.

Preparation of sugar syrup

Recipes for berries grated with sugar are no less popular. Next, we will tell you how to prepare blueberries for the winter with granulated sugar and without any cooking at all. We take ripe washed fruits and the same amount of sugar by weight, that is, in a 1:1 ratio. The classic option is to crush the berries and then grind them through a strainer. But you can cope with the task faster by chopping blueberries in a blender, however, in this case, fragments of skin and seeds will be mixed with the pulp. Regardless of the method of processing the fruits, they should be thoroughly mixed with sugar and left for 15-20 minutes to allow it to dissolve. We sterilize the jars and, while they are hot, put the prepared mass inside and immediately roll them up for the winter.

And finally, let's move on to a very interesting recipe and learn how to make homemade blueberry wine. Using a regular wooden masher we crush the berries, of which we need about 4 kilograms. Carefully place them in a large 10-liter bottle, fill it with 2 liters of water and, after tightening the neck with gauze, put it in a warm and dark place for 5 days. Then you need to strain the resulting tincture through several layers of gauze, throw away the berries, and pour the liquid into a bottle. There we pour 1.5 kilos of sugar and 300 grams of linden honey, dissolved in 1.5 liters of water.

Homemade blueberry wine

We plug our container with a rubber stopper with a tube from a dropper passed through it (through a small hole made in advance), the other end of which is inserted into the lid of a jar of water, lowering it to the bottom. In the same lid we make another hole for air to escape. All this is necessary so that the wine does not resemble compote. Leave it for a month and a half in a dark place, then throw out the water from the jar and fill it with fresh water. We put the bottle away again, now in a cool place and for 2 months. After this period, all that remains is to pour the wine into bottles and seal tightly.