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Isabella grapes traditionally considered a typical wine variety and, indeed, homemade wine from it is of excellent quality with an aroma that cannot be confused with any other grape variety. But for some people, wine is contraindicated for health reasons, others do not drink it for reasons of principle, and they want to prepare grapes of this variety for the winter, since their yield is quite high. And in the fall, Isabella grapes are offered everywhere on the market, often for a symbolic price. But this grape variety is very valuable because it has amazing medicinal properties: it relieves fever and the condition of patients with colds and viral diseases, improves metabolism, helps with anemia, diseases of the liver and pancreas, and is also used as a diuretic and cleanser.
Compote from Isabella grapes for the winter will be the best way out of the situation, since the berries are preserved quite well in it, it is prepared simply and quickly, and the taste of the drink itself can be further diversified with spices, as well as other berries and fruits.
Homemade compote from Isabella
As mentioned above, Isabella grapes at the time of their ripening can be offered on every corner, and in more southern regions they grow in almost every yard. Therefore, many caring mothers and grandmothers try to please their family by making all kinds of desserts from it. If you are thinking about how to cook Isabella grape compote to diversify its taste, then below are some useful tips:
- Try adding a few slices of lemon or orange to the compote when making it, right along with the peel, which contains the main citrus flavor. Just don’t forget to remove all the seeds from the citrus fruits before doing this - they can add bitter notes to the finished drink.
- To add some piquancy to the grape compote, add a few grains of cardamom, cloves or star anise, a pinch of cinnamon or vanilla, or maybe a handful of mint or lemon balm.
- Grapes go well with other fruits and berries. It is very good to add thinly sliced pieces of apples, plums, nectarines, pears or quinces to the compote. Of the berries that ripen at this time, dogwood, mountain ash, viburnum, blueberries, lingonberries and remontant raspberries would be appropriate.
The most delicious recipe
According to this recipe, your grandmothers and, perhaps, great-grandmothers prepared compote from Isabella grapes for the winter. Nowadays, only some devices have been invented that greatly facilitate the work of the housewife, which will be discussed further.
The preparation of grapes involves first washing the bunches thoroughly in running cold water.Then strong, whole, undamaged and dense berries are selected from the brushes into a separate vessel; everything else can theoretically be used for wine or grape jam, but are put aside for the time being. It is better to dry the selected berries in a colander or on a towel.
According to the recipe, 1 kg of washed and peeled grapes is used for two two-liter jars. Sugar should be taken from one to two glasses depending on your taste. But it should be remembered that if there is too little sugar, the compote risks turning sour in the first months of storage. Conversely, too much sugar can cause an inadequate fermentation reaction. The best option for making syrup is to use 150-200 grams of sugar per 2 liters of water.
Fill sterilized jars with prepared grapes. If you need the compote to be intended only to quench your thirst and have only a grape aroma, then cover the bottom with grape berries and this will be quite enough. But in order for the grape compote to resemble real juice, one two-liter jar will require at least 500 grams of grapes.
If you have a shortage of glass jars, and you urgently need to close the grape compote, then you can even fill the jars with grapes almost entirely, up to the hangers. In the future, the compote will simply turn out to be very concentrated and when opening the jar it will need to be diluted with boiled water.
Prepare the sugar syrup by boiling it for 5-6 minutes.After preparing the syrup, while hot, carefully pour it into jars with grapes. After that, leave them for 15-20 minutes.
This is where the fun begins.
In ancient times, when the recipe for multiple pouring was just being invented, this process was quite complex and labor-intensive. Witty housewives invented everything to make their lives easier - they used a colander and made holes in the lids with a nail.
Nowadays, any interesting idea is picked up very quickly, and some time ago amazing devices appeared - plastic lids for traditional-sized glass jars with many holes and a special drain. They came to be called drain covers.
Now you just need to take such a lid, put it on top of the jar and easily pour all the liquid contents of the jar into a separate pan. Then remove it, put it on the next jar and repeat the process in the same sequence. Thus, one lid can be used on an unlimited number of jars as many times as desired.
Once you have poured all the syrup back into the pan, bring it back to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Fill the grapes in the jars with syrup again, wait the required time and again pour the syrup through the lid back into the pan. The third time after pouring syrup into the grapes, you can roll up the jars and, turning them upside down, wrap them in warm blankets until they cool completely.
Grapes with scallops
Many novice housewives may have a question: “How to close a compote of Isabella grapes with twigs for the winter and is it possible to do this?” Of course you can - such a preparation will not only look very elegant and original, but after opening the jar you will be able to surprise your guests and family by gradually pulling out of the jar a long bunch of grapes folded many times over. If, of course, you can find one and carefully place it in a jar.
Preparing grape compote with twigs or scallops, as they are sometimes called, will take you even less time, since there is no need to inspect each berry and remove all the twigs.
But still, the bunches of grapes must be washed very thoroughly, preferably under a running stream of water, and inspected for removal of soft, overripe or rotten berries.
Twisting without sterilization
Place the washed and dried bunches in sterilized jars so that they occupy approximately half the jar in volume. According to the recipe, for 1 kg of prepared grapes you need to use 250-300 grams of granulated sugar. Pour the required amount of sugar into the jars, based on how many grapes you used.
Separately, boil water and carefully and gradually pour it into the jars with grapes and sugar. Close the jars immediately after pouring boiling water, using sterilized lids.The jars must be left wrapped until they cool down so that the process of additional self-sterilization occurs.
Preparation of compote with sterilization
Since the bunches of grapes according to this recipe will necessarily be sterilized, it is enough to wash the jars thoroughly with soda and rinse well with water. There is no need to pre-sterilize them. As in the first case, the grape branches are carefully laid out in jars and filled with hot syrup. The syrup is prepared at the rate of 250 grams of sugar per 1 liter of water used.
Then the jars of grapes are covered with lids.
After which they are placed in a wide pan of water, which is placed on the fire. After boiling water in a saucepan, liter jars are sterilized for 15 minutes, two-liter jars - 25 minutes, three-liter jars - 35 minutes. At the end of the sterilization process, the jars are carefully removed from the water and immediately closed with tin lids using a seaming machine.
Conclusion
Compote from Isabella grapes is equally good both during the ripening season, when it can perfectly quench thirst, and in the form of preparations for the winter. Moreover, in winter you can not only drink it, but also make a variety of fruit drinks, cups, sbitn and jelly from it. Often, even cream for cakes and fruit desserts is prepared on its basis.
