Pumpkin jam: 10 recipes

A product such as pumpkin stores well in its natural form, but most urban housewives prefer to process it, since space for its storage is often limited. Pumpkin jam can be a suitable alternative for canning the berry, plus it's quick to prepare.

The dessert comes out fragrant, the color is pleasantly amber-golden, and the taste of pumpkin is not felt at all. Also in the jam you do not feel the specific smell of the fruit, which discourages many people from eating pumpkin. This dessert can be served with tea or used as a filling for baked goods.

Composition and calories

Due to the fact that pumpkin is a dietary product, and its caloric value is only 26 calories, even with the addition of sugar, jam from it can be considered low-calorie.

The energy value of such a dessert in its pure form is 180 calories per 100 grams of product. For comparison, only apple and bird cherry jam has a lower caloric value.

Most of the FU is accounted for by carbohydrates - 40 grams. The share of fat and protein is very low - 0.1 and 0.8, respectively.

To prepare a portion of pumpkin jam, you will not need a lot of exotic ingredients, the classic composition of the dish has only three components:

• 1 kilogram of pumpkin.
• 1 kilogram of sugar.
• 1.5 cups of water.

Pumpkin goes well with citrus fruits, so you can add lemon or orange to the recipe for a variety of flavors. Such a composition is as follows:

• 1 kilogram of pumpkin.
• 1 lemon and/or 1 orange.
• 800 grams of sugar.
• Water.

In cookbooks there are more refined recipes for lovers of gourmet desserts. According to them, pumpkin jam can contain cloves, black pepper peas, apples or apricots.

What is pumpkin jam good for?

After heat treatment, pumpkin still retains its useful properties, and some only intensifies. For example, people with kidney disease are strongly recommended to eat pumpkin porridge. The flesh of the fruit contains a number of vitamins: A, C, B1, B2, B12, PP, K, as well as sodium and phosphorus. It also contains a lot of iron, so the use of this orange berry is useful for anemia. Crushed raw pumpkin can be used to treat allergies, wounds and skin rashes.

The orange color of the berry indicates the presence of carotene in it. This substance has an antioxidant and immune-stimulating effect on the body, which reduces the likelihood of cancer. The daily dose of carotene for humans is 5 mg per day, the amount of its consumption is not limited. It has a very beneficial effect on the eyesight.

Also, thanks to its unique combination of potassium and magnesium, pumpkin jam can eliminate excess fluid from the human body.

Adding lemon to jam is beneficial. This type of dessert is good for intestinal function, eliminates cholesterol and helps to balance water-salt metabolism.

Due to its high content of dietary insoluble fiber, pumpkin should especially appeal to people who want to lose weight. It speeds up the metabolism, and the zinc and iron content provides a balanced diet even when dieting, while eating the berry improves the metabolism itself. It is worth replacing one meal with pumpkin - and you will notice an improvement in weight.

If you are obese, dieticians even prescribe a pumpkin diet. The fruit promotes the renewal of liver cells and removes heavy metal salts. In combination, this improves digestion, and the weight will fall intensively. By removing sugar or replacing it with fructose, you can make jam safe for diabetics as well.

In the winter months, such a dessert comes in handy for the whole family, it stimulates children's brain activity and can be a natural remedy for disease prevention.

On a side note! Pumpkin juice also has useful properties, it helps with constipation, sleep problems and nervous agitation, has practical benefits for pregnant women, helping to eliminate nausea during toxicosis.

How to choose a pumpkin for jam

There are several kinds of pumpkins to grow, some varieties are yellow inside and out, others are green outside and orange inside. For jam to turn out very tasty and golden, it is better to choose a summer berry. Unlike winter varieties, it has a more tender and juicy flesh.

Also remember: the smaller the pumpkin, the higher the concentration of useful substances in it for the body. Therefore, for cooking, it is better to give preference to small specimens of the berry, buying them in the store. If you grow your own pumpkin, you can initially plant varieties of small berries.

Before cooking, it is better to try a piece of fruit, if the pumpkin itself is very sweet, you can reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe. Also if you do not like sugary jam, you should definitely add lemon, it balances the balance of sour-sweet flavor.

For jam, it is better to choose a slightly underripe pumpkin, but in moderation. Contrary to opinion, you can determine its ripeness not by its color. There are usually three varieties in the store:

1. Large-bodied varieties with oval or large shapes, such pumpkins are the least likely to melt when cooked.
2. Hard-skinned, most often round, this variety has the tastiest seeds.
3. Nutmeg - in the form of a pear or zucchini - such a berry is considered the most fragrant, it has the most keratin.

Nut and melon pumpkins are available for planting with seeds, they are already more difficult to find at the market or in the store. However, even the most common varieties will do for jam.

Medium pumpkins have the advantage of being less fibrous. The rind should be without dents and damages, smooth, dense and firm to the touch. Store around for shriveled and spotted specimens. Also look at the stripes of the fruit, they should be straight, wavy stripes can be a sign of nitrates. When buying, you should also inspect the tail, as in melon and watermelon. When the pumpkin is ripe, it begins to shrink and darken. The fruit without a tail is better not to buy, without the stalk it is difficult to determine whether it has spoiled. In addition, without the tail, the pumpkin is stored for a very short time.

It is better to buy whole pumpkins, but if you choose to buy half of the fruit, you should pay attention to the seeds. Sprouted seeds signal that the fruit has been on the shelves for a long time.

Another indicator of ripeness is the hardening of the pumpkin's bark, which should have a good pattern on it. In early winter you can find pumpkins that are already frozen, so you should keep a close eye on them. Even if the pumpkin will be used for jam, it is better to store it in a cold and dark place.

The pumpkin flesh should be fleshy and firm when cut. The orange flesh is the better the fruit. The seeds can also help you determine ripeness. Cut the pumpkin in half, take out the seeds and examine them. If they are all rounded and developed - then the fruit is ripe, and you can make jam from it. Otherwise, it's better to let the unripe berry for porridge.

The seeds are not part of the jam, but there is no need to throw them away. They have no less useful substances than the pulp. They should be washed and left to dry. Pumpkin seeds are useful for men's health, have a positive effect on blood vessels. The seeds of this fruit are a well-known anthelmintic. Their shell contains cucurbitin, and it, in turn, paralyzes helminths in the body. The seeds can be toasted, added to salads or left for planting.

How to boil pumpkin jam: recipes

Any preparation of pumpkin begins with washing the fruit and peeling from the skin and seeds. Next, it needs to be cut in pieces of about equal size, so that they are evenly boiled. The size of the cubes depends on preference. If you need the individual pieces to be felt in the jam, it is better to cut with medium cubes, if not, their size can be reduced or even rubbed pumpkin on a grater.

So that the berry immediately begins to give juice, you should put it in a pan, alternating with layers of granulated sugar. While you finish cutting the pumpkin, its bottom part under the influence of sugar will already begin to release liquid, and the water should not be added categorically. If the stove is induction, you can immediately put it on 9, and after boiling reduce the temperature to 7. Cook until the pumpkin becomes transparent. First, cook under a lid, after boiling it is removed, so that the juice secreted by the pumpkin, boiled under the lid into syrup. It is not necessary to remove the foam formed, it will dissolve itself during the boiling process.

To preserve all the useful substances and minerals in the jam, it is recommended to boil the pumpkin in short periods of several approaches.

Pay attention! Since pumpkin jam has no flavor, to add flavor, add nutmeg, cinnamon powder, rosemary or other spices.

A classic recipe

For the jam you will need:

• 1 kg chopped pumpkin.
• 1 kg of granulated sugar.
• 1.5 cups of water.

Preparation:

1. To boil the syrup, dilute the sugar with water and cook until the syrup begins to drip thinly from the spatula.
2. Peel the pumpkin and cut into 1 cm squares.
3. Pour the pumpkin pulp with the syrup and cook until dissolved. The liquid should turn a dark amber color.

The jam is ready to be poured into jars.

Pumpkin candy for sweet tooth

To cook a sweeter jam, the ingredients should be left the same as in the classic recipe, but the amount of sugar to increase to 1.5 kg.

How to cook:

1. For the syrup, take half the sugar and a glass of water.
2. Peel and chop the pumpkin.
3. Add the berries to the syrup, bring it all to boil and boil for 3 minutes.
4. When the mixture has cooled, add the rest of the sugar and cook again for 3 minutes.
5. Remove the container from the stove and leave the syrup with the pumpkin pulp for 8 hours.
6. Bring to taste, twist into jars and leave to cool.

Diet pumpkin jam

This recipe can be used to make a dessert, which is suitable for unloading days and will help to lose extra pounds.

Ingredients:

• 3 kg of pumpkin.
• 1 lemon.
• 2 oranges.
• 2/3 cup of fructose.

Process:

1. Grind all ingredients, add water and stew in a deep bowl.
2. Cool and run the mass through a blender.
3. Spread into jars and put on the refrigerator shelf.

If the dessert still needs to be twisted into jars, the lemon should be replaced by 8 tablets of ascorbic acid, pre-crumbled. Consume no more than two tablespoons per day during the diet.

Pumpkin jam with lemon juice and cloves

For this recipe, you will need the following products:

• 1 kg of pumpkin.
• 1,5 kg granulated sugar.
• 1 cup 6% vinegar.
• One liter of water.
• Juice of a lemon.
• Dried cloves.

Cooking process:

1. Slice the pumpkin into slices up to 2 centimeters in size.
2. Boil the water with the vinegar, let it cool and pour it into the pumpkin, leaving it for more than 5 hours.
3. Strain, put the pumpkin in a saucepan and cover with sugar, leave for 4 hours.
4. Place on the fire, wait for it to boil, remove the pot, cool it, put it back on the fire, wait for it to boil and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Repeat three times, adding another five minutes each time, and during the last boil, pour in the cloves and lemon juice.
6. Pour into a container and put in a dark place.

Pumpkin and apple jam

Apple filling gives the jam a pleasant taste with a subtle sourness.

Ingredients for the recipe:

• 800 g pumpkin.
• 200 g apples.
• 1 kg of sugar.

Cooking steps:

1. Peel the skin, remove the seeds, chop the pumpkin.
2. Sprinkle the pumpkin pulp with sugar and leave overnight to soak.
3. Place on a fire, wait until it is ready.
4. Shred the apples with a coarse grater and add to the mixture.
5. Cook for half an hour.

Pumpkin jam with spices

This dessert treat is perfect for fall. The bright orange contents of the jars with a rich, tart flavor goes well with the yellow-red landscape outside the window.

You'll need the following ingredients:

• 1.5 pumpkin pulp.
• Orange.
• Lemon.
• 800g granulated sugar.
• 1 tsp. cinnamon.
• 1 tsp. nutmeg.
• 2 tsp. crushed ginger.
• 800 ml of water.

Preparation:

1. Chop pumpkin, grate lemon zest, squeeze juice, cut orange peel into small pieces.
2. Mix the chopped ingredients with the spices.
3. Add water and simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes.
4. Add granulated sugar and cook for about an hour until thickened.
5. Pour into jars.

Pumpkin and apricot fruit in wine

Another common variant of jam. Apricots just ripen at the same time as the pumpkin fruit.

The composition of the jam:

• 2.5 kg of pumpkin.
• 1 kg of apricots.
• Lemon and orange.
• 1.5 kg of sugar.
• 250 ml of water.
• 250 ml white dry wine.
• 50 ml of rum.
• Stick or 1 tsp. vanillin.

Step-by-step recipe:

1. Peel pumpkin and grate orange zest.
2. Layer the pumpkin and zest mixed with the sugar.
3. Drizzle with lemon juice and leave to stand overnight.
4. Remove the pips of washed apricots, cut them up and add them to the mass.
5. Add everything except the rum, and boil it for 40 minutes once it comes to the boil.
6. Pour in the rum, and the jam is ready.

Quick Pumpkin Jam

The preparation of this jam will not take much time, because it does not require cooking, in addition, pumpkin fully retains its useful properties.

Necessary products:

• 1 kg of pumpkin.
• Orange.
• 850 grams of granulated sugar.
• Lemon.

Process:

1. Wash all the ingredients, peel, remove the pips and chop.
2. Throw everything in a blender or food processor and blend.
3. Stir in the granulated sugar until it dissolves.

Dessert is ready.

Making jam in a multicooker

In today's kitchen, there are many devices that can speed up the process of cooking and canning. One of these handy tools is a multicooker.

The necessary ingredients:

• 1 kg of pumpkin.
• 700 grams of granulated sugar.
• 1/2 tsp. citric acid.

How to cook:

1. Peel the ingredients and cut them into pieces.
2. Pour them into the container of a multicooker, add granulated sugar, leave to infuse for 6 hours.
3. Add citric acid and turn on the mode for boiling or stewing.
4. Cook for about an hour, periodically stirring the jam from the bottom. Pour into jars and seal the lids.

Pumpkin jam with black chokeberry

This is a bold variation of pumpkin with the addition of another berry. Instead of an acidic taste, the dessert will turn out more tart. To get a mass of a pretty dark, almost black hue, the following recipe should be followed.

1. Peel the pumpkin and cut it into cubes the size of the fruit of the black rowan.
2. Wash the berries, mix them with the fruit, add a kilo of sugar, wait until the mixture is infused for 4 hours.
3. Bring slowly to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Allow the liquid to cool for 8 hours, boil again. Repeat this 3 times.

How to cook jam

On cold winter evenings in many families, it's nice to open the preserves from the fall, but sometimes the household does not have time to eat them all over the winter. There are a few rules for the proper storage of jam. However, some preserves have a limited period, and you need to be aware of this.

1. When rolling in jars, the lids for them must be sterilized by boiling them in a pot. Containers also require sterilization, so that over the winter the jam does not go bad. They should be washed with baking soda, pour a little water on the bottom and send it to the microwave for about 5-7 minutes. If in doubt, you can run the container through boiling water twice. Insufficiently sterilized containers contribute to product fermentation.
2. It is recommended to use only glass jars, since plastic contains harmful chemical impurities and during prolonged storage will begin to release them into the jam.
3. The shelf life of any jam is no more than two years, so jars, especially those that will be stored in the basement, should be labeled and not opened after the expiration date. The ideal storage location is the pantry. Jam can be stored at temperatures between +5 and +20 degrees.

If the storage conditions are not met, the jam will gradually deteriorate. Store it at very low temperatures, too, is not recommended, as it can sugary. If the jam still candied, but not spoiled, it can be resuscitated by boiling it and adding a little water. A small jar can be heated under hot water to begin with.

It is better to get rid of jam that is covered with mold right away and not try to eat it, even if only the top layer is affected.

Jars should be stored in a dry and darkened place.

The jam can also be stored in the refrigerator, then it will always be on hand. But contrary to common practice, it is undesirable to store jars of jam in the freezer. The delicacy quickly loses its usefulness and taste.

If there is no extra space in the refrigerator, you can store pumpkin jam outside of it. You need to find a cool and dark place, usually such a nook is near the balcony. But you need to put the jars away from the battery and cover them from the sun. So you can store canned food for up to two years.

It is better not to store jam in cellars. The room can get damp, this will cause rust if the jars are rolled with metal lids. Also due to temperature differences glass jars can burst and cause a lot of inconvenience. As an alternative to metal lids, you can use your grandmother's old method of using parchment and twine. Place alternating layers of parchment paper and cardboard on the neck of the jar, and tie everything on top with hot water soaked twine. Once dry, the twine will dry out and provide a tight seal. Plastic lids are not reliable in practice, although they are easy to use, but they are not suitable for canning. Glass lids are the safest and most environmentally friendly.

Please note that if pumpkin jam contains fruit or berries with pips, the storage time of the jam will not exceed one year. The fact is that the seeds begin to release the poison hydrocyanic acid, so the use at the end of the term is harmful to health.

Interesting facts about the pumpkin

1. Although the pumpkin looks like a relative of the zucchini or pâtisson, unlike them, it is a berry, but not a simple one, but a giant berry. Its fruits can weigh a couple of hundred kilograms.
2. On the territory of Mexico were found the most ancient seeds of the pumpkin, they are about 7 thousand years old, so the country can rightfully be considered the birthplace of this colorful plant.
3. Although there are over 800 varieties of pumpkin in the world, only 200 of them can be eaten. The rest can only have a decorative function.
4. Pumpkin seed oil is one of the most useful, it is rich in vitamins A and E. One liter of oil requires 30-plus fruits.
5. Ninety percent of this berry consists of water.
6. The record representative was grown in Belgium and weighed over a ton.
7. In the German city of Ludwigsburg, an annual pumpkin festival is held.
8. Botanically speaking, cucumbers, zucchini and watermelons and pumpkin are related after all.
9. Some species bloom and the flowers can be eaten.
10. Fresh juice helps with insomnia.
11. The ancient Indians made mats from dried fruit.
12. Dried pumpkin fruits are used in Argentina to brew and drink mate tea.
13. In the Middle Ages, pumpkin was an ingredient in love potions.
14. The largest number of pumpkins are grown in the U.S. state of Illinois.
15. One kilogram contains only 250 calories.
16. Raw pumpkin pulp is capable of relieving pain from burns.
17. Pumpkin can be grown all over the globe except Antarctica.
18. When a French explorer discovered pumpkins, he thought of them as huge watermelons and named them "pompions," later the name became "pumkins."
19. The older the pumpkin, the healthier its seeds.
20. The pumpkin is extremely popular on Halloween. The tradition of carving or at least decorating homes with an entire pumpkin has spread from the United States to the rest of the world. The tradition itself came from the Irish and their celebration of Samhain. The Irish used to carve scary faces out of rutabagas, but found that it was much easier to make them out of pumpkins. So the most recognizable attribute of All Saints' Day was the orange-skinned beauty of the pumpkin.