Pumpkin wine at home

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

Many grow pumpkins to make fragrant pies and casseroles, he althy cereals and soups, but not many people know that this vegetable can be used to make a truly winter drink that will retain all the warmth and generosity summer days. Pumpkin wine is an original drink, with a characteristic tart taste and incomparable aroma.

Taste of the drink

Pumpkin wine is unlike other drinks in this category. It has a tart taste and a characteristic aroma of fresh vegetables. An interesting feature is that pumpkin wine retains all the beneficial properties and vitamins of a recently harvested crop. The drink is rich in vitamins (groups A, B, C, D, E, F, T), contains macro- and microelements (magnesium, potassium, calcium and iron), and has excellent antioxidant properties.

It is noteworthy that many gourmets, having once tasted home-made pumpkin wine, prefer this particular drink, which warms in winter and helps strengthen the immune system. Moreover, forpeople come to villages and towns with pumpkin wine, as it is difficult to find such an exquisite drink in ordinary stores. By the way, few people know the recipe for pumpkin wine, and all because this vegetable is not so common in the garden.

Quick cooking method

The essence of this method is to artificially accelerate the fermentation process by heating.

So, a step-by-step recipe for homemade pumpkin wine:

• Wash, cut into slices and remove the insides of a medium-sized pumpkin.
• Cut the vegetable into small pieces and put in a container of the right size.
• Pour the chopped pumpkin with water and put the pan on a small fire.
• Cook until soft, but do not boil.
• Put the boiled grounds into a glass bottle (from 5 l) or a barrel.
• Add yeast (about 1-2 tablespoons per 5 liters of the resulting mass), sugar (depending on individual preferences) and barley m alt.
• Mix everything well and pour hot water over it.
• Immediately after the mixture has cooled, it is necessary to tightly close the container and put a water seal or a homemade "water stopper".
• Leave for 3-4 weeks to ferment in a dark place.

As soon as the fermentation process is over, you can strain the pumpkin wine and bottle it.

The painstaking way to make pumpkin wine

This method is longer thanprevious method of making pumpkin wine. But it is distinguished by a richer taste and high value of the drink. First of all, it is necessary to select the fruits - the vegetables must be ripe, without signs of rot and spoilage. After that, you should carefully prepare all the dishes that will be used to prepare the drink.

Ingredients:

• 3kg peeled pumpkin;
• 3 liters of boiled water;
• 50 grams of raisins, which can be replaced with the same amount of wine yeast;
• 300 grams of sugar and 5 grams of citric acid per 1 liter of liquid.

Warning! Do not use baker's or distiller's yeast - this will result in mash.

Citric acid acts as a preservative and acidity stabilizer. Its presence improves the fermentation process, and also prevents the formation of pathogenic microflora. The sugar content of wine should not exceed 20% - for this it is better to add sand in equal parts.

Cooking wine

In the event that wine yeast was not at hand, they can be replaced with self-made raisin sourdough. It is prepared for 3-4 days, so the wine itself will be prepared a little later.

Preparation of sourdough:

• Pour washed raisins into a jar, add sugar (20 grams) and water (150 grams). Everything is thoroughly mixed and covered with gauze.
• After the container with raisins is sent to a dark room.
• As soon as foam appears on the surface of the can,the starter is almost ready - this should tell the appropriate smell of fermentation.
• This may not happen if you get low-quality raisins that have been treated with chemicals.

Some housewives prepare sourdough from currants, cherries or plums.

Classic recipe

To find exactly your recipe for making pumpkin wine, you should try several methods on a small number of ingredients, and then choose the most suitable among them. There is another fairly common method of making pumpkin wine at home. The recipe is simple:

• Make a sourdough starter if wine yeast is not available.
• Peel the vegetable and grind its flesh with a meat grinder.
• Dilute puree with water (1:1), add starter.
• Add a little lemon juice and sugar to taste.
• Stir the mixture thoroughly.
• Cover the container with gauze and take it to a dark place for 4 days.
• From time to time it is necessary to mix the whole mass directly.
• After 4 days, you need to strain the infused mass, squeezing the cake.
• Add sugar to the resulting liquid (about 100 grams per 1 liter).
• Pour into a fermentation vessel.
• Install a water seal or medical gloves and leave in a dark place.

A week later, all that remains is to add a little more sugar (about 50 grams per 1 liter of liquid). To do this, it is better to pour a small amount of wine and dilutesugar in it, then pour it into the main mass. You can't stir the wine yet. The container is sent for further storage with a water seal. Now the young wine is stored for six months. After 6 months, you can bottle the drink. If a precipitate forms, strain the pumpkin wine at home. A simple method is to do it with gauze.

Hanging pumpkin wine method

To prepare a fragrant drink in this way, you should choose the largest pumpkin (at least 10 kg). The vegetable should be wiped with a damp cloth, cut off the top and carefully cleaned of seeds. A small amount of pulp should also be removed to form a so-called wine reservoir.

Pour about 5 kg of sugar, 1-2 tablespoons of wine yeast into a pumpkin "pan" and fill it with water. The cut part will act as a lid - it is necessary to cover a kind of pan with it. The gap can be closed with tape. After that, it is necessary to completely cover the pumpkin with a plastic bag to prevent oxygen from entering. A bag with a vegetable should be hung at a small distance from the floor in a dark place. It is advisable to immediately substitute a clean basin under it. Literally in 1-2 weeks, the fruit will become soft - this means that it's time to make a small hole in the bag, through which the resulting wine will drain. As soon as all the liquid drains, it must be poured into a large bottle and left until complete fermentation. As soon as the process comes to its logicalfinish, you can strain the drink and bottle it.

Pumpkin Spicy Liqueur

Drink with a characteristic tart aroma and unusual taste - pumpkin wine. Reviews about it are very diverse: someone says that alcohol has a characteristic pumpkin flavor, someone finds pronounced notes of ripe vegetables and fruits in this drink. In any case, pumpkin wine is unlike any other drink in this category.

It turns out that another alcoholic drink can be made from this vegetable. This is a sweet liqueur that will warm you up on a cold evening and remind you of autumn generosity.

Required ingredients:

• 500 ml boiled water;
• 1 cup white sugar;
• 1 cup brown sugar;
• about 500 grams of pumpkin puree;
• 5 sticks of cinnamon (can be replaced with ground);
• 5 small carnations;
• 2 vanilla beans (can substitute regular vanilla);
• 2 glasses of white rum.

Mashed potatoes should be prepared in advance - for this you need to wash and peel a medium-sized vegetable, free it from the core and peel, and then chop it with a meat grinder or blender.

Cooking method

Pour water into a small saucepan, add sugar and bring to a boil over low heat. Then add pumpkin puree, cloves, vanilla beans and cinnamon. Beat everything gently with a whisk and return to the stove. As soon as the mass boils, makereduce heat and continue to cook until a characteristic rich aroma appears (about half an hour).

During cooking, you can do the preparation of the so-called filter. To do this, you need to take a piece of gauze and cover it with a clean pan. Then carefully pour the billet of the future liquor into it and wait a bit. You can slightly speed up the filtration process by gently pressing the pumpkin mass with a silicone brush. The result should be about 2 cups of liquid. It is to it that rum is added, after which the whole mass is thoroughly mixed and removed to the side until it cools completely (for about 1 hour).

As soon as the liquor has cooled completely, you can pour it into a bottle and send it to storage. This drink should be stored no more than 3 months.