Walnut jam: benefits and harms, how to cook?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Have you tried walnut jam? But did you know that in order to prepare one jar of such jam, the hostesses spend more than one week tirelessly spinning around the fruits for a future treat? And it's not in vain that they try so hard, because as a result - the most valuable product for he alth.

Despite the fact that the recipe sounds very complicated, the process of boiling and seaming is simple and can be done by novice cooks. In this article, we will share with you a recipe for green walnut jam, as well as talk about the benefits and harms of eating it.

Nut jam

Most of our readers have never heard of such a jam, well, or remotely remember its taste from a distant childhood. This is easily explained by the fact that the walnut grows in the Caucasus, Greece and Asia Minor, Ukraine, China, India and Iran and definitely cannot take root in a dacha near St. Petersburg. Residents of those places where the walnut still sprouts are incredibly lucky, because they have the opportunity to independently prepare jam and enjoy a ripe nut.

But why is green walnut used for jam? After all, besides spring juiciness, there is something else in it that is useful for our body.

Useful unripe nut

Walnut is a storehouse of essential substances useful to our body, vitamins and minerals. It is rich in both he althy fats and protein. But why do we use green fruits for walnut jam? The fact is that as the fruit ripens, its chemical composition changes. The main problem lies in the peel, which, while ripening, hardens, it contains a huge amount of iodine, which will not be so easy to get out of the hardened shell. But insufficient iodine intake negatively affects the function of the thyroid gland, respectively, and hormone-dependent metabolism.

In addition to iodine, walnuts are full of vitamins B, C, PP, also A, E and K. They have enough magnesium, iron, fluorine, the amount of cob alt, zinc, sulfur and potassium we need, as well as the necessary for us and calcium, and phosphorus, and magnesium with copper, and selenium with sodium. In addition, walnuts contain a large number of various acids we need: stearic, oleic, for example. You can also find tannins, quinones and essential oils in walnuts.

After reviewing the list of useful elements in walnuts, you involuntarily recall pharmacy vitamin complexes. So why not eat a handful of nuts, the same rich complex of elements necessary and indispensable for our body?

Thus, the walnut has a positive effect on our body, namely:

• improves cerebral circulation, that is, improves memory and concentration;
• strengthens blood vessels;
• good anti-inflammatory;
• muscle recovery after exercise;
• stabilizes the nervous system;
• strengthens bones, teeth and joints;
• positively affects the work of the heart;
• does not bypass the liver and gastrointestinal tract;
• positive effect on metabolism.

It is also useful that walnuts are necessary for women who are restoring their reproductive functions, and for men suffering from impotence or prostate.

Benefits of Nut Jam

So what good is walnut jam?

It has been established that those who eat a spoon or two of walnut jam in winter or during periods of epidemics are less susceptible to disease or recover faster. And those who suffer from arrhythmia and other heart conditions, have unstable blood pressure, claim to feel improved overall he alth and increased vitality.

Following the list of useful elements in walnut jam and reading the reviews about this delicacy, we concluded that it perfectly strengthens the immune system, has a positive effect on mood and general tone, and also helps in the treatment of hypothyroidism, strengthens the liver, has a positive effect on sleep and helps to get rid of insomnia, fightsore throat and flu, saves our nerve cells and heart.

It has a positive effect on our mental activity and helps to recover from serious illnesses and operations. Green walnut jam helps with stomach ulcers and gastritis, and also cleanses our body.

And this is just a small list of the he alth benefits of walnuts.

Don't overdo it

But even from such a large number of positive effects on the body, you should not lose your head and buy a box of walnuts, because they also have their drawbacks.

With extreme caution, women should use walnuts during lactation and gestation, because it is a rather strong allergen. An exception may be women with a lack of iodine.

But walnuts are also very high in calories: 100 grams have 654 kcal, which limits its consumption by people who want to lose weight or just watch their weight, do not recommend walnuts to diabetics because of the large amount of sugar in it. Remember that both a lack and an excess of iodine are harmful to he alth. In general, it is not recommended to eat more than 5 nuts a day, and eat them on an empty stomach.

This is how walnut jam has its own harm, albeit a small list, but quite serious, so you need to approach the use of a nut or jam from it wisely. The optimal solution is the consumption of nuts as a medicine, tasty and very he althy. Counting in spoons of jam, the daily norm is two to three tablespoons. Perfect solutiondiversify a sweet sandwich, add to dessert or saturate your body with vitamins, iodine, minerals and essential acids over a cup of tea.

Making jam

The process of making jam from young walnuts is laborious and time consuming. But whatever the recipe, whatever it is cooked with (often walnuts are boiled with spices, plums or green tomatoes, as well as no less he althy mountain ash), and the main secret of a successful jam is the quality of green fruits and proper preparation for cooking.

So, the preparation and selection of raw materials are decisive steps in the preparation of dessert.

Fetal selection

As we have already said, the main ingredients of the walnut jam recipe are green fruits. You can determine the quality of a green nut by paying attention to:

• nut skin is soft, there is a slight wax coating;
• core soft, jelly-like consistency.

Most often, fruits reach this degree of maturity by the end of June, cooking begins in early July after a long and careful preparation of raw materials.

Inspect the nuts carefully, only smooth, solid fruits are suitable for canning, without dents or other damage. This explains the fact that the fruits for seaming are plucked only on their own from the tree. Choose medium-sized fruits, preferably the same.

There is a wonderful way to check the readiness of raw materials for jam. Take a wooden needleor a toothpick and pierce the nut through. If you succeeded, the harvest can be harvested and prepared for canning.

Cooking utensils

It should be noted that not all dishes are suitable for making walnut jam due to the rich amount of elements in the raw materials. So, for example, copper utensils, aluminum will not work. Use enamelware and stainless steel. Keep in mind that soaking green nuts is necessary because of the huge amount of iodine, respectively, the iodine coming out of them can stain the container. Get ready for it.

The soaking process is long, therefore, so that the green fruits do not ferment, wash the container with a solution of water and soda (a liter of water per heaping teaspoon).

Soaking a nut

After you collect the fruits, they must be cleaned. By the way, wear rubber gloves before cleaning as the nuts will stain your hands. The peel is removed in a thin layer, transferred to a container and filled with clean water.

There are several ways to soak nuts. We will share with you the most accessible. After cleaning, the fruits are pierced with a fork and soaked for at least seven days, the water must be changed two to three times a day.

Citric acid helps to remove iodine here, so we dilute a special solution. For 1.5-2 liters of water, there is a teaspoon of citric acid, which is poured over nuts for a day.

The next option is to simmer in lemon water for about 20 minutes. The water does not drain, but it stays for another day.

After the nuts are washed, they are ready forthe main stage - cooking walnut jam.

Cooking

Correctly cooking jam is really not an easy task, because nuts always need an eye and an eye. But although the process is laborious and responsible, it is worth all the effort spent on jam.

Before cooking, check out other options for making walnut jam, such as rowan or plum, and choose the one that suits you best. And we will offer you a fragrant Armenian way.

Armenian walnut jam

To make jam you will need:

• fruits - 100 pcs. medium size (1.2kg);
• sugar - 1 kg;
• water - 0.4 l;
• lemon - 2 pieces;
• carnation - 10-12 inflorescences;
• cinnamon - 10g

Make syrup from sugar and water and cool. Pour the spices in there. If you are not a fan of chewing cloves, then build a gauze bag in which it will sink and infuse. Add nuts to syrup and squeeze lemons.

Bring the jam to a boil and leave for a day. Repeat this three times.

You can roll up jam only on the fourth day. Remove the bag of spices and pour into jars.

Please note that different recipes have different cooking times, so be sure to taste the nut to make sure it's ready. Take out the nut, it should retain its shape, but not be hard, its shell can be easily cracked, and inside it is like marmalade or jelly. The finished nut should not be bitter.

This is such a wonderful walnut recipe. We hope you enjoy trying this incredibly he althy treat.