Pumpkin Jam: 10 Cooking Recipes

A product such as pumpkin is well stored in its natural form, however, most urban housewives prefer to process it, since the place under its storage is often limited. Pumpkin jam can be a suitable alternative for preserving the berry, and it quickly cooks.

The dessert comes fragrant, the color is pleasantly amber-golden, and the taste of the pumpkin is not at all felt. Also, a specific smell of the fruit is not felt in the jam, which discourages the desire of many to eat pumpkin. This dessert can be served with tea or used as a filling for baking.

Composition and calorie content

Due to the fact that pumpkin is a dietary product, and its calorie content 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: calorie content is lower only for apple and bird cherry jam.

Most carbohydrates are 40 grams of carbohydrates. The proportion of fats and proteins is very low - 0.1 and 0.8, respectively.

To prepare a serving of pumpkin jam, you don’t need many 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 for a change of taste, lemon or orange can be added to the recipe. Such a composition is as follows:

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

In the cookbooks there are also more refined recipes for lovers of delicious desserts. According to them, in pumpkin jam you can introduce cloves, peas of black pepper, apples or dried apricots.

What is useful pumpkin jam

After heat treatment, the pumpkin still retains its beneficial properties, and only enhances some. For example, people with kidney disease are advised to eat pumpkin porridge. The pulp 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, because the use of this orange berry is useful for anemia. In raw crushed form, pumpkin can 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 immunostimulating 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 beneficial effect on vision.

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

Adding lemon to jam is beneficial. This type of dessert is useful for intestinal work, removes cholesterol and helps balance water-salt metabolism.

Due to the high content of food insoluble fiber, pumpkin should especially appeal to people who want to lose weight. It speeds up the metabolism, and the content of zinc and iron provides a balanced diet, even with a diet, while the use of berries improves metabolism. It is worth replacing one of the meals with a pumpkin - and you will notice improvements in weight.

With obesity, nutritionists even prescribe a pumpkin diet. The fetus helps renew liver cells and removes heavy metal salts.In a complex, it improves digestion, and the weight drops rapidly. By removing sugar or replacing it with fructose, you can make jam safe for diabetics.

In the winter months, such a dessert is useful for the whole family, it stimulates children's brain activity and can be a means of natural origin for the prevention of diseases.

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

How to choose a pumpkin for jam

There are several types of pumpkins for growing, some varieties are yellow inside and out, others are green outside and orange inside. To make the jam very tasty and golden, it is better to choose a summer berry. Unlike winter varieties, it has a more tender and juicy pulp.

You should also remember: the smaller the pumpkin, the higher the concentration of substances useful for the body in it. Therefore, for cooking, it is better to give preference to small specimens of berries, acquiring them in a store. If the pumpkin is grown independently, 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 a lemon, it balances the balance of sweet and sour taste.

For jam, it is better to choose a slightly unripe pumpkin, but in moderation. Contrary to opinions, its maturity can be determined not by color. The store usually has three types:

1. Large-fruited varieties of oval or large shape, such pumpkins are least spread when cooking.
2. Hard-bark, most often round, this variety has the most delicious seeds.
3. Nutmeg - in the form of a pear or zucchini - this berry is considered the most fragrant, it has the most keratin.

For planting seeds, nut and melon pumpkins are offered, it is already more difficult to find them in the market or in the store. However, even the most ordinary varieties are suitable for jam.

The advantage of medium sized pumpkins is less fiber. The peel should be without dents or damage, smooth, dense and firm to the touch. In the store you need to get around shriveled and spotty specimens. Also consider strips of the fetus, they should be straight, wavy strips can serve as a sign of nitrate content. When buying, you should examine the tail, like a melon and a watermelon. When the pumpkin has ripened, it begins to dry out and darken. It is better not to buy a fruit without a ponytail; it is difficult to determine if it has not deteriorated without a peduncle. In addition, without a tail, the pumpkin is not stored for very long.

It is better to buy whole pumpkins, but if half of the fruit is selected for purchase, you need to pay attention to the seeds. Sprouted seeds indicate that the fruit has long been on the shelves.

Hardening of the pumpkin bark is also an indicator of ripeness; a figure should be clearly visible on it. In the early winter, frozen fruit may already be on the shelves; this should be closely monitored. Even if the pumpkin goes for jam, it is better to store it in a cold and dark place.

In the context, the pulp of the pumpkin should be fleshy and elastic. The orangeer the pulp, the better the fruit. Seeds will also help determine ripeness. After cutting the pumpkin in half, you need to take out the seeds and consider them. If they are all round and developed, then the berry is ripe, and jam can be made from it. Otherwise, it is better to let the unripe berry on the porridge.

Seeds are not part of the jam, but you do not need to throw them away. They have no less beneficial substances than pulp. They need to be washed and left to dry. Pumpkin seeds are beneficial for men's health, have a positive effect on blood vessels. The seeds of this fruit are a well-known anthelmintic. The composition of their shell includes cucurbitin, and it, in turn, paralyzes helminths in the body. Seeds can be fried, added to salads or left for planting.

How to cook pumpkin jam: recipes

Any preparation of pumpkin begins with washing the fruit and peeling from the peel and seeds.Next, it needs to be cut into pieces of approximately the same size so that they are evenly cooked. The size of the cubes depends on preference. If you want individual pieces to feel in the jam, it is better to cut with medium cubes, if not, you can reduce their size or even grate the pumpkin.

So that the berry immediately begins to give juice, it should be laid out in a saucepan, alternating with layers of granulated sugar. While you will cut the pumpkin, its lower part under the influence of sugar will already begin to release liquid, while water should not be added categorically. If the stove is induction, you can immediately set it to 9, and after boiling, lower the temperature to 7. Cook it to the state until the pumpkin becomes transparent. First, cook under the lid, after boiling, remove it so that the juice allocated by the pumpkin is boiled in the syrup under the lid. It is also not necessary to remove the resulting foam, in the process of boiling it will dissolve by itself.

To preserve all beneficial substances and minerals in jam, it is recommended to cook pumpkin for short periods in several approaches.

Note! Since pumpkin jam is odorless, add nutmeg, cinnamon powder, rosemary or other spices to add flavor.

Classic recipe

For jam you will need:

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

Cooking:

1. To make the syrup, dilute the sugar with water and cook until the syrup begins to thinly drain from the scapula.
2. Peel the pumpkin and cut into 1 centimeter squares.
3. Pour pumpkin pulp into syrup and cook until dissolved. The liquid should become a dark amber color.

Jam is ready for pouring into jars.

Pumpkin Sweet for Sweet Tooth

In order to cook jam better, the ingredients must be left the same as in the classic recipe, but the amount of sugar should be increased to 1.5 kg.

How to cook:

1. For syrup, take half the sugar and a glass of water.
2. Peel and chop the pumpkin.
3. Add the berry to the syrup - boil all this and cook for 3 minutes.
4. Cool the mixture, add the rest of the sugar and cook again for 3 minutes.
5. Remove the container from the stove and leave the syrup with pumpkin pulp for 8 hours.
6. Bring to taste, twist in jars and leave to cool.

Diet Pumpkin Jam

This recipe can be used to make a dessert that is suitable for fasting days and helps to lose extra pounds.

Ingredients:

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

Process:

1. Grind all ingredients, add water and simmer in a deep container.
2. Cool and pass the mass through a blender.
3. Arrange in jars and put on the shelf of the refrigerator.

If the dessert still needs to be twisted into jars, the lemon must be replaced with 8 tablets of ascorbic acid, previously crumbled. Use during the diet no more than two tablespoons per day.

Pumpkin Jam in Lemon Juice with Cloves

For this recipe you will need these products:

• 1 kg of pumpkin.
• 1.5 kg of granulated sugar.
• 1 cup six percent vinegar.
• Liter of water.
• Juice from a lemon.
• Dried cloves.

Cooking process:

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

Pumpkin and apple jam

Apple filling gives the jam a pleasant taste with a fine acidity.

Prescription Ingredients:

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

Stages of preparation:

1. Peel the skin, remove the seeds, chop the pumpkin.
2. Sprinkle pumpkin pulp with sugar and leave overnight to soak.
3. Put on fire, wait for readiness.
4. Using a coarse grater, chop the apples and add to the mixture.
5. Boil for half an hour.

Spice Pumpkin Jam

This dessert treat is perfect for fall. The bright orange contents of the cans with a rich tart taste go well with the yellow-red landscape outside the window.

You will need the following components:

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

Cooking:

1. Cut the pumpkin, grate the zest of lemon, squeeze the juice, cut the orange into small pieces in the peel.
2. Mix chopped ingredients with spices.
3. Add water, boil at low temperature for 20 minutes.
4. Add granulated sugar and cook for about an hour until thickened.
5. Pour into jars.

Pumpkin and Apricot Fruits in Wine

Another common jam option. Apricots just ripen at the same time as pumpkin fruits.

Composition of jam:

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

Step by step recipe:

1. Peel the pumpkin and rub the zest of the orange.
2. Lay out pumpkin and zest mixed with sugar.
3. Pour over lemon juice and leave overnight.
4. Detached washed apricot fruits from the seeds, cut and add to the total mass.
5. Add everything except rum and cook 40 minutes after the mixture boils.
6. Pour in the rum, the jam is done.

Quick Pumpkin Jam

Cooking this jam does not take much time, because it does not require cooking, moreover, pumpkin completely retains its beneficial properties.

Required Products:

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

Process:

1. Wash all ingredients, clean, remove seeds and chop.
2. Throw everything into a blender or combine, grind.
3. Introduce granulated sugar and mix until it dissolves.

The dessert is ready.

Jam in the slow cooker

In modern kitchen there are a lot of appliances to speed up the process of cooking and canning. One of these tools at hand is a multicooker.

Necessary components:

• 1 kg of pumpkin.
• 700 g 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 capacity of the multicooker, add granulated sugar, leave to infuse for 6 hours.
3. Add citric acid and turn on the mode for cooking or stewing.
4. Cook for about an hour, periodically stirring the jam from the bottom. Pour into jars and plug caps.

Pumpkin jam with aronia

This is a bold variation of pumpkin with the addition of another berry. Instead of an acidified taste, the dessert will turn out to be more tart. To get a lot of a nice dark, almost black shade, the following recipe should be observed.

1. Peel the pumpkin and cut it into cubes the size of the fruits of Chokeberry.
2. Rinse the berry, mix with the fruit, add a kilogram of sugar, wait until the mixture is infused for 4 hours.
3. Bring to a boil slowly and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Allow the liquid to cool to 8 hours, boil again. Repeat this 3 times.

Jam storage rules

On cold winter evenings, in many families it is pleasant to open preparations from the autumn, but sometimes households do not have time to eat them all during the winter. There are several rules for the proper storage of jam. However, some blanks have a limited time, and you need to know about this.

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

If storage conditions are not observed, the jam will gradually deteriorate. It is also not recommended to store it at very low temperatures, as it may be sugared. If the jam is still sugared, but not spoiled, it can be reanimated by boiling and adding a little water. For a start, a small jar can be heated under hot water.

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

Cans should be stored in a dry and dark place.

Jam can also be stored in the refrigerator, then it will always be at hand. But contrary to common practice, storing jars of jam in the freezer is undesirable. The delicacy quickly loses its favor 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 located on the balcony. But you need to put the jars away from the battery and cover them from the sun. So you can store conservation for up to two years.

It is better not to store jam in the cellars. The room may become damp, it will cause rust if the cans are rolled up with metal lids. Also, due to the temperature difference, glass jars can burst and cause a lot of inconvenience. An alternative to metal covers can be the old grandmother's method using parchment and twine. Place alternating layers of parchment paper and cardboard on the neck of the can, and tie the twine moistened with hot water on top. After drying, the twine will dry out and provide a tight seal. Plastic covers are not reliable in practice, although they are easy to use, but they will not work for conservation. Glass lids are the safest and most environmentally friendly.

It should be noted that if fruit or pitted berries were added to pumpkin jam, the jam storage time will be no more than one year. The fact is that the bones begin to secrete hydrocyanic acid poison, so consumption at the end of the term is harmful to health.

Interesting facts about pumpkin

1. Although the pumpkin looks like a relative of the zucchini or squash, in contrast to them, it is a berry, but not a simple one, but a giant berry. Its fruits can weigh a couple of hundred kilograms.
2. In Mexico, the most ancient pumpkin seeds were found, they are about 7 thousand years old, so the country can rightfully be considered the birthplace of this bright plant.
3. Despite the fact that there are more than 800 varieties of pumpkins in the world, only 200 of them can be eaten. The rest can carry only a decorative function.
4. Pumpkin oil is one of the most useful, it is rich in vitamins A and E. One liter of oil requires more than 30 fruits.
5. 90 percent of this berry consists of water.
6. The record representative was grown in Belgium and weighed more than a ton.
7. In the German city of Ludwigsburg, a pumpkin festival is held annually.
8. From a botanical point of view, cucumbers, zucchini and watermelons and pumpkin still are in kinship.
9. Some species bloom and flowers can be eaten.
10. Fresh juice helps with insomnia.
11. Ancient Indians made from dried fruit mats.
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 US state of Illinois.
15. One kilogram contains only 250 calories.
16. Raw flesh of a pumpkin can relieve burn pain.
17. Pumpkin can be grown all over the globe, except for Antarctica.
18. When a French explorer discovered pumpkins, he considered them huge watermelons and called them "pompions," later the name turned into "pamkins."
19. The older the pumpkin, the more useful its seeds.
20. Pumpkin is extremely popular on Halloween. The tradition of carving or at least decorating houses with a whole pumpkin has spread from the United States around the world. The tradition itself came from the Irish and their Samhain festival. The Irish cut out scary faces from rutabaga, but found that making pumpkins was much easier. So the most recognizable attribute of All Saints Day was the orange-yellow beauty pumpkin.