Birch juice dishes and drinks: 23 recipes for cooking

A natural elixir rich in ascorbic acid, vitamins A, group B, potassium, iron, manganese, from ancient times is drunk to fight against avitaminosis, used for healing wounds. Natural birch juice refreshes, quenches thirst, heals and rejuvenates the skin.

Birch sap: when, where and how to collect it correctly?

In order for the transparent liquid flowing from the damaged trunk of the birch to be of maximum benefit, you need to know when, where and how to collect it.

When to collect

The period of collecting tree nectar depends on the climatic zone, weather conditions. It begins in the middle, near the end of March or early April, and lasts until the leaves open.

Signs of intensive sap movement:

• snowfall;
• Swelling of the buds on birch trees.

To make sure that it's time to make birch buds, poke a shallow birch trunk with an awl. If you see a drop of liquid protruding, then it's time to start harvesting.

Important! Trees live by biological rhythms. The birch gives out more sap from 10 to 18 hours.

Where to collect

Prepare plant nectar outside the city limits, away from environmentally unfriendly places:

• of busy highways;
• POWER LINES;
• industrial plants;
• cemeteries;
• landfills;
• agricultural lands treated with chemicals.

The roots of the birch penetrate deeply into the soil and do not absorb toxic substances, but the above-ground parts of the plant accumulate them.

According to the law (part 3 of article 8.26 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation) it is prohibited to collect birch sap in public gardens, city parks, historical and cultural reserves, botanical gardens, near hospitals, rest homes, and sanatoriums. It's prohibited to harvest food forest resources in the places where red-listed animals and endangered species of plants grow.

How to harvest correctly

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation by the order № 495 from 28.07.2020 has confirmed the rules of birch sap gathering:

1. The natural beverage is recommended to be extracted in places designated for the cutting of trees.
2. Only birch trees over 50 years of age with a trunk diameter of at least 20 cm may be damaged in order to collect sap.
3. If the tree is thicker, it is allowed to drill up to four holes with a minimum distance of 8 cm between them at a height of 25 cm from the root neck.

The tree must be strong, healthy and have a branched crown. If young birch trees are used for harvesting, they may die.

Guidelines for collecting sap:

1. Approach the tree from the south side. Remove a square of the top bark layer measuring 2 cm by 2 cm.
2. Using a drill, screwdriver, or hand drill, make a hole at a downward slope to the mesga (2-3 cm). Hammer a plastic or aluminum groove into it.
3. When the transparent liquid begins to flow, put the container underneath, tie it to the trunk.

From one birch tree collect up to 8 liters of sap. The most humane and convenient way of extracting the natural elixir is the use of a dripper. The plastic tip is inserted into the drilled hole, and the other end without the needle and adapter is lowered into the jar.

To save the tree, after collecting, plug the hole with a fragment of dry branch. It will swell up, completely blocking the exit of the sap. The piece of wood can be replaced with wax, garden varnish, moss and even chewing gum.

Useful properties and composition of birch sap

Useful actions because of which you should put birch nectar in your diet:

1. Reduces the level of harmful cholesterol.
2. Increases immune status, resistance to cold infections.
3. Stimulates brain activity, concentrates attention, increases cognitive abilities.
4. Improves sleep.
5. Lowers pain threshold.
6. Improves the function of the reproductive organs.
7. Removes toxins, uric acid, ammonia, phosphates from the body.
8. Suppresses the development of cancer cells.
9. Participates in the synthesis of pituitary hormones.
10. Controls the contraction of muscle tissue.
11. Helps you lose excess weight.
12. Cleanses, renews the skin.
13. Normalizes metabolism, acid-alkaline balance, hormonal background.
14. Eliminates absent-mindedness, fatigue, fights depression.
15. Prevents urolithiasis, atherosclerosis and tooth decay.

The drink prevents dehydration, relieves inflammation in the mouth, stimulates the heart, normalizes blood pressure.

8 recipes for non-alcoholic birch juice drinks

On the basis of birch juice you can prepare a variety of healthy drinks with affordable ingredients.

Birch Juice Kvass

Birch invigorating kvass is made in several ways.

Variant 1
Strain 5 liters of vegetable nectar, bring it to a boil. When it cools down add 25g of yeast to the liquid and leave it for four days. On the fifth day pour the kvass into bottles, close them tightly. Store in a cool place.

Variation 2.
Squeeze the juice of two lemons, pour into 5 liters of strained wood nectar. Add 1 tbsp honey, 25g yeast. Pour into bottles, put 3 raisins each. Place in a dark, cool room. Birch kvass will be ready in 14 days.

Option 3
If you have collected a lot of juice, pour it into a barrel. Dip burnt rye bread crusts into the container, placed in a gauze or canvas bag. To preserve the kvass until the end of summer, add a bucket of oak bark after the beginning of fermentation.

Juice with lemon or orange

In birch juice with citrus, the taste, aroma become more pronounced, the useful properties are enhanced.

Ingredients:

• 3 liters of wood nectar;
• quarter lemon;
• 2 sprigs mint;
• 0.5 tbsp. sugar.

Preparation:

1. Strain the birch juice through gauze. Put the pot with the drink on the stove.
2. Sterilize the jars and metal lids.
3. Pour in the sugar, pour the squeezed lemon juice.
4. Once it boils, add the mint. Continue to boil the juice for 10 minutes on low heat.
5. Pour into jars and seal. Turn the jar upside down, insulated with a blanket.
6. After cooling, put it away for storage.

If you use a sweet orange (1 piece) instead of lemon reduce the sugar level to 3 spoons. Cut the fruit into circles and put at the bottom of sterilized jars. Pour boiling birch juice with sugar, mint and 1 tsp. citric acid, roll up.

Drink with rosehip

Fresh birch juice with rosehip fruit gives the drink a beautiful brick color, increases the concentration of vitamins.

Products:

• 6 liters of birch juice;
• 100 г rosehip;
• 1 tsp. citric acid;
• two cups of sugar.

How to prepare:

1. Rinse rose hips, remove small debris.
2. Strain into a saucepan a liter of birch juice, add rose hips. Put it on the heat.
3. Boil for 5 minutes over low heat. Remove the pot from the stove, wrap with a blanket, leave to infuse for 10-15 hours.
4. Wash, sterilize jars, lids.
5. In the remaining birch juice add sugar, citric acid. Bring to a boil, but do not boil.
6. Pour the drink with rose hips in jars. Fill the missing volume with wood nectar.
7. Roll up the jars with the lids. Slowly cool under a blanket. Remove to a cool place without access to light.

Although the cooking process is not quick, the end result will not disappoint.

Birch juice with raisins and honey

Place a saucepan with 5 liters of strained birch juice on the stove. Bring to a boil. Dissolve in liquid 1 tbsp. honey. Place 3 raisins in a 1 liter sterilized jar, pour the drink, and seal.

Birch sap with pine scent

To make your own fragrant healthy drink, mash two large spoons of washed pine needles, pour a glass of birch juice.

Put the container in the cellar or refrigerator for 3 hours. Then strain, add honey to taste and drink.

Beverage with barley

To give the birch juice-based drink a flavor of malt, add roasted barley.

Method of preparation:

1. Roast one and a half cups of barley in a dry pan until blackened in color, stirring occasionally.
2. Strain six liters of birch juice into an enameled pot or bucket. Pour a cup of sugar, 6 tbsp. raisins, cooled grain.
3. Leave the juice to ferment for 3-4 days.
4. Filter the kvass, pour into bottles and put in the fridge.

The color of the drink depends on the degree of barley frying.

Birch juice with dried fruits

To prepare a delicious, healthy drink you will need:

• 100 g of a mixture of dried apples, pears, prunes;
• 5 l of wood nectar.

Strain the juice into a saucepan, add the dried fruit, boil for a few minutes. Sterilize the jars and lids in any way you like. Pour the drink, seal it.

Drink "Berezovitsa".

This recipe is widespread in Siberia and the Urals.

Strain a liter of birch juice, pour into a bottle. Add 10 grams of sugar, 3 pieces of raisins, a few slices of sour apples. Cork the container, take out in the cold. After 2 weeks of fizzy birch can drink.

Alcoholic drinks from birch sap: 6 recipes

From wood nectar at home it is not difficult to prepare alcohol of varying strength, taste, depending on the preferences of the winemaker.

Braga on birch juice

Heat 12 liters of birch juice to a temperature of 35 degrees. Pour 3 kg of sugar, stir it, pour it into a glass bottle leaving a third of the container free.

Dilute 200 grams of baker's yeast with water, according to the instructions on the package, and add to the sweet liquid. Add 1 tbsp of milk or kefir to quench the foaming.

Put the bottle in a warm, dark place, sealing it with a water trap so that the gas escapes. In 10 days, the brew will ferment, lighten and become bitter.

The drink has a sweet, pleasant taste when its strength reaches eight degrees.

Samogon from birch juice

According to connoisseurs, moonshine on the basis of birch juice is easy to drink, differs from vodka in taste and does not cause strong intoxication.

To prepare three liters of moonshine will require 10 liters of broth, moonshine machine.

Distillation process:

1. Place the low-alcohol drink in the distillation cube, turn on the burner on low heat.
2. Pour out 150 ml of the still, as it contains a high concentration of distillery oils.
3. Clean the collected alcohol with activated carbon.
4. Start the process of redistillation.
5. Dilute the moonshine with purified water using an alcohol meter.
6. After one day additional filtration is done.
7. Add manganese to the moonshine at the rate of 2 g per 1 liter. After 10 hours the harmful oils will precipitate as flakes, and the crimson color of the alcohol will change to pale pink.
8. The final step is filtration. Use a water filter, the cartridge of which absorbs harmful elements.

The output will be transparent moonshine with a mild taste. There will be no characteristic odor if the alcoholic beverage is diluted to 35-40 degrees.

Birch wine

Making homemade wine with this recipe will overpower even a novice winemaker.

Cooking Guide:

1. Combine 0.7 liters of dry white wine, 0.7 kg of sugar with three liters of wood sap. Pour the mixture into a barrel.
2. Leave the alcohol in a cool place for a few months.
3. Pour the wine off the lees, strain and bottle. Keep the drink for at least another couple of months.

As an option instead of white dry you can add port, to improve the taste - apricots, honey, raisins.

Beer

In order to brew 4 liters of birch sap at home, the taste of which will satisfy even the most demanding gourmets, you need a set of products:

• 1 kg of sugar;
• half a sachet brewer's yeast;
• 15 grams of lemon peel.

How to brew:

1. Place a pot of vegetable nectar on the stove. After boiling, simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
2. Sprinkle grated zest and sugar into the container.
3. Continue to heat the liquid until the sweet crystals have dissolved.
4. Pour it into another container and add the yeast.
5. For a week send the container to a dark, warm room, remembering to stir at least twice a day, remove the foam.
6. Once the fermentation process is complete, strain the beer and bottle it.

Home-made champagne from birch sap

For the preparation of homemade champagne prepare:

• 6 liters of birch nectar;
• 1.5 kg sugar;
• 25 г honey;
• 0.5 tsp. citric acid;
• 50 г raisins2 tsp. sugar, 5 tbsp. water for sourdough.

How to make:

1. Add sugar and raisins to the water. Allow the leaven to ferment for 4 days.
2. Put on the stove an enamel pan with filtered birch juice. Add sugar, citric acid. Boil it until it has reduced by 15%.
3. Cool the contents of the pot, add honey, sourdough.
4. Pour into a glass bottle and leave for a month to ferment.
5. Carefully pour the liquid into a clean container, without affecting the sediment in the bottle.
6. In a liter plastic bottles pour 10 grams of sugar, pour the fermented juice, close the corks, leave for a week in a dark place.
7. Periodically check the alcoholic beverage for gas content. If the bottles are bloated and hard, open the caps ajar and drain off any excess carbon dioxide.
8. After a week, place the champagne in the refrigerator or cellar, with the bottles lying flat on shelves.

The shelf life of homemade sparkling wine is limited to 6 months.

Medovukha

Prepare 400 g of honey, 200 g of black bread, 100 g of fresh yeast, 4 liters of birch juice.

Algorithm of preparation:

1. Pour the juice into a stainless steel bowl, pour in the honey. When it is boiling simmer for an hour on a low heat.
2. Drain the liquid into a wooden barrel.
3. Spread a piece of bread with yeast, and add it to the mead base.
4. Move the barrel closer to a heat source.
5. When fermentation is complete, pour the liquid into bottles, close with corks, and place in the refrigerator.

If you want a stronger mead, add 400 ml of spirit, diluted with water by half to the ready drink.

What dishes can be prepared with birch juice

Housewives and professional chefs use birch juice instead of water when cooking fish and meat soups, porridges, okroshki. Make a brine based on the drink for pickling vegetables.

Marmalade .

Add 2 tbsp of agar-agar to 300 g of birch juice. Stir, bring to the boil, and boil for half a minute. Pour the liquid into molds. To give the product a tart and floral flavor, coat the marmalade in dried violets.

Granita

Freeze fresh birch sap in a household freezer. Before serving, crack it into chunks and grind into crumbs with a blender. Sweet birch juice is suitable for making granita.

Syrup

You don't need sugar to make syrup, just evaporate the excess moisture from the juice.

Take a wide, low saucepan. Fill half of the pot with wood nectar, and place it on a low heat. Be guided by the color and consistency. The syrup will be ready when the liquid becomes amber and viscous like honey.

Vinegar

To make mild vinegar, pour birch sap into a wide saucepan, cover with a cloth, and place for 7-10 days close to a heat source. To speed up the oxidation of the liquid, stir it occasionally.

After this period, put the container with the contents in a cold place for a week in order to settle the mud in the sediment. The birch juice vinegar tastes about half as concentrated as apple vinegar. It is used to dress green salads with sunflower oil.

Porridge

Thoroughly rinse rice or oatmeal, put it in a saucepan. Pour the groats with birch juice so that it covers it by 3 cm. Preheat the oven to 140 degrees.

The dish with rice (oatmeal) and juice cover with a sheet of foil, send for half an hour in the oven. The finished porridge salt, add honey, nuts, baked, shredded carrots.

Uha

To cook fish soup on birch juice take white fish, the taste of which is combined with the taste of birch bark, a slight sweetness.

Ingredients:

• 500 г halibut;
• 2 tubers potatoes;
• one carrot, onion;
• 2 liters of birch nectar;
• 2 bay leaves;
• 6 peas of black pepper;
• salt;
• 80 ml vodka.

How to prepare:

1. Peel the vegetables. Cut the tubers into bars, cut the carrots into circles, cut the onions crosswise at the base.
2. Put fish, vegetables, salt and spices into a thick-walled saucepan.
3. Pour in the juice, put on the stove.
4. After boiling, remove the foam, turn down the heat, cook for 40 minutes.
5. Take out the fish, remove the bones, put the fillets back.
6. Remove, discard boiled onions.
7. Pour in vodka, turn off the fire, leave the soup to infuse for 10-15 minutes.

Serve the dish hot or chilled, sprinkle with chopped dill, green onions.

Ocroshka

For 4 servings of rustic okroshka you will need:

• 0.6 liters of fermented birch juice;
• 2 fresh cucumbers;
• 100 g of boiled sausage;
• 150 g of boiled potatoes;
• two boiled eggs;
• 80 г radishes;
• 1 tsp salt, mustard;
• 30 g fresh dill, green onions;
• 2 tbsp. mayonnaise or sour cream.

Preparation steps:

1. Chop the greens, put them in a saucepan. Add salt, knead with a shredder.
2. Dice potatoes, sausage, egg whites. Grate radish, cucumbers on a grater. Add the ingredients to the greens.
3. Rub yolks with mustard and salt. Add the mayonnaise. Stir in birch nectar. Pour over dry mixture.

Serve the okroshka chilled with white toast. If the dish lacks sourness, add lemon juice.

Birch Honey

To make birch honey, you will need a slice of rye bread, 20 g of fresh yeast, 3 liters of birch juice, and 0.5 kg of honey.

Pour the juice over the honey, put the pot on the stove, simmer over low heat for one hour. Add the bread with the yeast spread on it, put the container in a warm place for 60 minutes. Once the fermentation process begins, remove the bread. Cover the pot with a towel and wait for the fermentation to finish.

Pour the liquid into bottles, seal tightly, and place in the refrigerator or cellar horizontally. The birch honey will be ready in four months.

Asparagus in birch brine

Surprise your guests with an unusual dish - asparagus pickled in a pumpkin.

Cut off the top of the pumpkin, free it from the pulp. Put washed and dried asparagus inside, fill with brine, and put it in the fridge for a few days.

To prepare the brine, take 1 tbsp. salt per liter of birch juice, a couple of dill umbrellas, 2 cloves of garlic, bay leaf, black pepper and allspice peas two pieces each.

How to drink birch juice correctly

Plant nectar for medicinal purposes is drunk three times a day before meals for a month.

If there are no side effects and contraindications, the dose can be increased, reducing the duration of intake to two weeks. In case of diabetes, the natural elixir is diluted by 50% with water.

How much you can drink per day.

It is worth limiting yourself to one or two glasses of birch juice per day, so as not to get a disorder of the functions of the gastrointestinal tract.

Is it possible to drink at night and on an empty stomach

Woody drink, does not affect acidity, does not irritate the mucosa. For this reason, nutritionists recommend drinking it on an empty stomach, even with digestive disorders such as pancreatitis, gastritis, stomach ulcers, duodenal ulcers.

The consumption of liquid before a meal is useful because the plant nectar regulates metabolism and normalizes intestinal microflora.

At night the juice is undesirable because it has a diuretic effect.

Contraindications to use

The wood elixir is contraindicated in children under one year old, with urolithiasis, allergies to the pollen of birch earrings.

Excessive use of the drink containing saponins causes flatulence, bloating, diarrhea.

Terms and conditions of storage of birch sap

Freshly picked plant nectar at room temperature on the second or third day begins to ferment, becoming turbid.

If the drink in a glass jar immediately put on the shelf in the refrigerator, the consumer properties are preserved for up to five days.

How to preserve for the winter

The classic recipe for canning provides for the preservation of useful chemical elements for six months.

How to prepare:

1. Thoroughly wash glass jars. Prepare the lids.
2. Fold in several times a piece of gauze, cover the pot with it, fix it. Strain the juice of the birch, add sugar (3 Tbsp. per 1 liter), put on the fire.
3. Heat until the first bubbles, but do not boil to preserve the useful substances.
4. Sterilize in the oven or steam jars, lids boil in a separate bowl.
5. Pour the drink into glass containers and seal the lids.

Done canned wrapped with a blanket, after cooling put it in the cellar or any other dark, cool place for storage.

Can I Freeze

If there is enough space in the household freezer, feel free to place the strained juice poured into plastic bottles. The main conditions are a tightly closed lid and not completely filled containers, because the liquid tends to expand during freezing.

Shelf life of the vitamin drink in the freezer - 8 months.

Q&A

Fans of the drink are interested in information about its gastronomic, therapeutic, cosmetic properties.

What does birch juice taste like?

Birch juice has a specific pleasant taste with hints of wood, unripe watermelon, lemon. The concentration of sugar in the drink is 0.5-2% and depends on the weather conditions of the past winter.

If severe cold was absent, the taste will be little different from water. In hard frosts, sugars accumulate more intensely.

What diseases does birch sap cure?

Birch juice is useful for diseases of the liver, gallbladder, dysbacteriosis, rheumatism, arthritis, gout, tuberculosis. Healing drink does not irritate the walls of the stomach, so patients with gastritis, stomach and intestinal ulcers include it in the diet.

Juice increases the body's resistance to colds, speeds up metabolic reactions, cleanses the blood.

Plant nectar with diuretic properties reduces high blood pressure, treats angina, iron deficiency anemia, increasing hemoglobin.

What is the effect of birch juice on the liver?

The natural drink helps the liver to neutralize and remove toxins, promotes the production and outflow of bile, which improves digestion, accelerates the assimilation of nutrients.

Can I wash my face with birch juice?

In spring, during the sap season, forget about foams, cosmetic tonics. Daily washing or wiping birch sap ice cubes on the face, neck and cleavage area perfectly cleanses and refreshes all skin types. In addition, the juice lightens freckles, age spots, and fights acne.

1. To tone up your winter-weary dermis, make a mask of cosmetic clay diluted with a natural drink.
2. If you combine a glass of birch juice with 1 tsp. honey and six drops of lemon juice, you get a rejuvenating lotion, which is used to cleanse the skin in the morning and evening.
3. The natural elixir also gets rid of greasy hair shine. Before every washing of the head, rub into the roots a lotion prepared from two cups of birch juice, a tablespoon of honey, a teaspoon of salt, a cup of vodka. These procedures will normalize the sebaceous glands.
4. Birch juice as a rinse gets rid of hair brittleness and dandruff.

If you follow the rules of collection and consumption, birch nectar helps make up for spring vitamin deficiencies, strengthen the immune system, reduce the intensity of pain in joint diseases. Birch sap is used not only as a healing elixir. On its basis prepare a variety of drinks, first, second courses and even desserts.