If you wake up early and early and, without opening your eyes, hear the pigeon goo-goo, goo-goo, then you can suddenly find yourself again in the old courtyard on Volodarskaya: a quiet summer morning, all the adults have gone about their business, and the children, besides me, we don’t have any more ... And it’s even good - no one bothers to wander along the old stone path along the thickets of small lilac asterets buzzing with bees and think about everything a little. Behind a low, plank fence painted with green paint, there is a front garden between two verandas - ours and Aunt Lidina's. There is always a damp twilight from a huge old sprawling apricot. He stands exactly in the middle and whitens with lime of the trunk, forked, knotted and very conveniently arranged for climbing. To the right of the apricot is our pride - a huge lilac bush.
When it blooms, even the rooms are fragrant with lilacs! Lilacs are not Persian at all, but the most common - light purple, but there are always so many of them that it seems as if it is such a huge bouquet standing in the yard. And the largest and most beautiful brushes (four together) are so high that even from the street they are visible from behind the roof of our house. Of course, such a bush is able to cover half of the veranda with itself and merges with it so much that it is impossible even to put your hand between them. Therefore, our mother paints our veranda every spring only half.
In autumn, the bush rustles dry leaves on the glass, and this makes the veranda somehow especially cozy. And if it’s evening, it’s raining a little, an old electric stove (for warmth) is red-hot on the table with scarlet spirals, then there simply can’t be a better place! I would give dearly to be there now with a soft poppy seed bagel, cut lengthwise and buttered, with a mug of sweet tea and one of my favorite books…
To the left of the apricot, near Aunt Lida's veranda, a rose bush grows. Or rather, there are two of them, but they stand so closely, clinging to each other, that it turns out, as it were, one. On the largest of them, small raspberry-colored roses bloom almost all summer (as they paint on Zhostovo trays), but on the one that is a little smaller, roses of amazing beauty appear for a very short time. Aunt Lida calls them teahouses. They really smell like fragrant tea with honey, and the color is a magical creamy-yellowish, as if illuminated from the inside. Their petals are dense, velvety, cool. Do I need to say that it never occurred to anyone in the yard to pick them, to make bouquets out of them? They live their lives, gradually blossoming and never crumbling, they simply disappear without a trace. In childhood, a lot of things are taken for granted without requiring explanation. For some reason, it is believed by adults that a child always has a lot of questions. There are not so many of them ... Everything was explained by itself. One morning, I did not see that Aunt Lida carefully cuts the most blooming roses with scissors to the very bud and puts them in an apron. So that's why they never crumbled to the ground and no one saw them dead!
Bewitched, I follow Aunt Lida to the veranda and see what happens next. Snow-white gauze is laid out on the table, and fragrant miracle flowers are laid out on it. They also give me one rose: now you can hold it in your hands and tear off the slightly withered and therefore no longer waxy, but silky petals, until only a bud resembling a green rosehip, only with a scallop of yellow stamens, remains in your hands. Finally, all the petals are laid out. The following will be added tomorrow. And what will happen then? And then, it turns out, jam will be cooked from them! From flowers - jam? Miracles!
I already know jam from cherries, sweet cherries, apricots (Aunt Lida always says “abirkos”, but no one ever corrects her: everyone just says what they want, because it’s clear what it’s about), raisins, dogwood and quince. For some reason, something else is always found in books, and certainly in vases (probably, it is very beautiful - in vases, but we always have them in saucers). So they have there, in vases, their gooseberry jam, heavenly apples, raspberries, currants, lingonberries, Antonovka - this is all some kind of wonderful literary jam and reading about it is always delicious. As well as about any children who “ate jam with a big spoon straight from the jar” (I once tried it: you can’t eat much - it’s too cloying). Maybe their jam is not so sweet? But here we have it - so very sweet, especially from yellow cherries, just like honey. And its color is amber. But the most delicious from yellow cherries is obtained in the form of canned compote. This sweet cherry floats in a thick compote, dense, sweet and so tasty that you can’t stop at all in your hands with such a jar: you sip the compote itself and eat, and eat this delicious cherry. Such a compote can be bought in the winter in a large vegetable store on Pionerskaya.
Next to it, on the shelf, there is another great thing - Hungarian peach confiture (we don’t cook this either; peaches, like strawberries, we like to eat fresh, and they are usually expensive). Confiture is like jam and jelly together. When in one book I came across this verse:
HERE IS THE BULGARIAN CONFITURE.
I JUST SAW IT.
HOW MUCH DO NOT PUT IN A SAUCER,
AGAIN YOU CAN SEE THE BOTTOM
For a long time I "did not make ends meet." Why "Bulgarian" when the banks always say "Hungarian"? Secondly, how can you call confiture jam?! Jam is what is in donuts or rolls and still lies on a tray in a dark cube, cut with a large knife and sold by weight. And confiture ... It lies on a piece of saika (or just bread) in an almost transparent lump, like a delicate and fragrant marmalade (even better!) And it smells deliciously of peaches. Thirdly, the word "saucer" was also definitely not linked with confiture. “The bottom is visible” - this is if you put jam: it is liquid. Then if you run a spoon over it, then there will be a path, and under it is just the “bottom”. So usually mother and aunt Marusya checked the readiness of the jam (or dripped on the nail: if the drop holds, does not flow over the finger, then the jam is ready).
When our "yard" apricots ripened, all the neighbors immediately began to cook jam. Our apricot fruited very well, and as an only child, I was “seconded” every day with a can for apricots to it (and to the roof under it). The roof is covered with old, in some places covered with moss, Tatar tiles, and it is very convenient for the apricot to lay out its heavy branches densely strewn with orange fruits on it. You don't have to ask me for a long time. “Just walk carefully on the tiles!”, as always, rushes after me, and I enthusiastically set about my honorable duty - I collect the most beautiful and ripe apricots, lowering from time to time a full can on a rope down. Below are buckets: empty and with water. Apricots are poured into the empty ones, and right there in the water everyone can easily wash them and eat plenty. The holidaymakers marveled at all this, but also did not lag behind - they ate plenty. Of the rest, they made jam and jam, and there was enough for everyone. What a tree! I will teach you now.
Apricots for jam need to be broken in half and the pit removed. There is a hammer right next to it on the ground, and in a convenient stone recess, you can prick the bones with an o-o-worked blow (so as not to damage the grain) and put them in a jar. These sweet grains will then go into jam for beauty and a special taste, or you can just eat them. It's amazing, but spa guests always say the same thing: “My God, they are full of hydrocyanic acid! They can easily be poisoned, and even to death! They say that every summer, but every summer we eat them for ourselves and eat them, and, by the way, the children of the resort also eat them on the sly from their parents and do not die. What do holidaymakers know? They say strawberries: how much is THIS BERRY? Or: where did you buy such a VICTORIA? They can't tell a cherry from a cherry and even from a cherry! Some people call all plums plums and do not know at all what is izyumerik. And when they try the jam from this small, slightly elongated, almost black cream, they simply gasp.
I help aunt Marusa to cook raisin jam. A stone - a long and sharp one does not need to be pulled out of it, but you need to pierce each plum several times with a pin (this is so that it does not burst in hot syrup later, but remains whole). We also do not take out the bones from cherries for jam. At this, the holidaymakers again begin to frighten with hydrocyanic acid: that if the jam stays for a long time, then they can be poisoned. Why does he have to stand for so long? It needs to be eaten during the winter, and the next summer to cook a new one. Then the holidaymakers agree that, they say, there really is no need to bother with the bones then.
But if you make dumplings with cherries, then you can’t argue - the bones must be removed. To do this, a pin is taken again, only it is not unfastened, as for an “injection” of raisins, and when closed with a pin head, like a spatula, a bone is deftly removed from the cherry. At the same time, the juice flows into a plate and a sweet syrup-gravy will be made from it for ready-made dumplings. But somehow it so happened that in the yard we don’t really like dumplings with cherries, but more with cottage cheese and sour cream.
Aunt Lida generally makes dumplings almost every day - tiny ones, themselves a little larger than a pinhead. We also love dumplings and soup with ears (it's like dumplings, stuck on only two sides, so that the broth runs freely through them). I also tell the holidaymakers about their dogwood and quince jam, but they understand little of this, because I can’t show them: we will have both dogwood and quince only by autumn, and we don’t store jam until summer - not with seeds , nor pitted. And yet I tell them about the dogwood, that it is a “shaitan berry” and I suggest that those who wish to read it, as it is said in the “Legends of the Crimea” (this book is always on our shelf in the summer kitchen for everyone). And about quince - that it kind of resembles an apple with a pear, very fragrant, only very hard and tart. They don’t eat it like that, but only make jam and compote.
Some vacationers from Siberia listened to all this, listened, and then in the winter they sent us a whole box of cranberries. We decided to show off our own. And what is there to brag about? At first I was delighted - a whole box of berries in winter! And the name is such a forest - cranberry. The box was dragged from the main post office. Only the cranberry turned out to be bitter-sour and, in my opinion, was no good. Then my mother said that it also makes very tasty jam. But it is somehow strange and unusual to cook jam not in summer, but in winter. Then my mother remembered that they once cooked a wonderful fruit drink from cranberries in Leningrad. I was delighted again and began to wait for the drink. What kind of fruit drink is this, everyone thought. Boiled and poured into a beautiful jug. It turned out that fruit drink is such a compote. Indeed, delicious. Although still not like our cherry ...
And here are the recipes for Crimean jam
You need to cook the jam in a spacious large bowl, stirring often so that it does not burn. If the fruits are not juicy, then add more water, if juicy - much less. For sour berries, at least 1.5 kg of sugar is required for each kilogram of berries (for sweet ones - 0.8-1 kg). If you want the berries or fruit slices to be perfectly whole, do not be too lazy to cook the jam in several stages: pour the berries with sugar, pour water and leave for a couple of hours; then put on fire and boil for 7-10 minutes after boiling; set aside until completely cooled; put on fire again and boil and set aside again (so repeat 3-4 times and until cooked). You can cook jam and very quickly - in just 10-15 minutes (the so-called "five-minute jam"). But then it needs to be poured into jars still hot and rolled up with lids, otherwise it may turn sour. How to determine the readiness of classically brewed jam? First, dripping on a saucer and drawing a path through the drop with a spoon. If the path remains, does not “swim”, then the jam is ready. Secondly, drop by drop: if a drop on a saucer or on a thumbnail does not blur, but holds, then the jam is also ready. In addition, in a well-cooked jam, fruits and berries are in a "suspended" state; in the undercooked, they float up. Classically brewed jam is not covered with plastic lids, but only with sheets of clean white paper with rubber bands (for ventilation). then the jam is also ready. In addition, in a well-cooked jam, fruits and berries are in a "suspended" state; in the undercooked, they float up. Classically brewed jam is not covered with plastic lids, but only with sheets of clean white paper with rubber bands (for ventilation). then the jam is also ready. In addition, in a well-cooked jam, fruits and berries are in a "suspended" state; in the undercooked, they float up. Classically brewed jam is not covered with plastic lids, but only with sheets of clean white paper with rubber bands (for ventilation).
Cherry jam . For 1 kg of cherries - 1.5 kg of sugar and 2/3 tbsp. water. Rinse the cherries, remove the cuttings and prick each with a pin. Pour the cherry with sugar, add water and put the juice for several hours. Then - on the fire and after boiling, cook over low heat, from time to time removing the foam and stirring so that it does not burn. Cook until done.
Yellow cherry jam . For 1 kg of cherries - 1 kg of sugar and 1.5 st. water. Rinse the cherries, remove the petioles (you can take out the bones, or you can not take them out). Boil syrup from water and sugar, stirring until it becomes transparent. Pour cherries into it and cook until fully cooked. If you like jam with sourness, you can add a little citric acid. The jam is amber in color with a thick syrup. If the cherries are large, then you can put pieces of walnut in place of the seeds.
Apricot jam. For 1 kg of apricots - 1 kg of sugar and 1 tbsp. water. Rinse slightly hard (but ripe) apricots and, breaking in half, separate from the pits. Put them in the finished sugar syrup. Boil for 7-8 minutes and set aside to cool. Repeat 3 times. Cook for the last time for 30 minutes. Apricots should be translucent while remaining whole. For the last time, you can pour peeled apricot kernels into the jam. If you come across small and not very ripe fruits, then you can also cook excellent jam in several stages, after breaking each apricot and replacing its stone with half a walnut kernel. Only sugar for such a jam needs one and a half times more, as well as water. And never take a very small “wild” apricot for jam - it will certainly be bitter.
Raisin jam. For 1 kg of plums - 0.6-0.7 kg of sugar, 1 tbsp. water. Wash the plums, prick in several places with a pin. Dip plums into boiling sugar syrup and cook in two or three doses until tender.
Jam from petals of tea roses. For 100g of petals - 400-500g of sugar, 0.5 tbsp. water. Cut the petals, pour over boiling water and soak in a small amount of water to remove bitterness from them. Then squeeze a little and place in hot sugar syrup. Boil 10-15 min. Roll hot into jars. You can just rub the petals with honey well with a spoon (for 100g of petals - 200g of honey). Put them in a glass jar and close with a plastic lid. Ready for use is considered after 21 days. It is good to use for stomatitis and tonsillitis, as well as for thrush in infants.
Dogwood jam. For 1 kg of dogwood - 1.5 kg of sugar and 1.5 st. water. Sort dogwood, rinse, pour boiling water over and let stand until cool. Drain the water, dissolve the sugar in it. Add the berries to the boiling syrup, bring to a boil, remove the foam and cook for 10-15 minutes. In 4-5 doses until ready. Jam from a small forest dogwood is much more aromatic and healthier than from a large garden one. By the way, dogwood jam is no less useful for colds than raspberry jam.
Quince jam. For 1 kg of quince - 1 kg of sugar and 2 tbsp. water. Rinse and peel yellow ripe quince. Then either cut into thin slices, or grate on a coarse grater. Lightly boil the quince in water without sugar (10-15 minutes). Drain and boil sugar syrup in the same water. Place quince slices in it and boil for 5-7 minutes. Set aside for 10 hours. Then cook until tender on low heat for 40-50 minutes. The quince slices will become almost translucent.
Author: Julia Samarina
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