How to make honey from watermelons?

The season of watermelons is a great opportunity to enjoy the tastes of this berry, and to get the maximum health benefits. Many housewives make preparations for the winter, freezing, boiling, marinating, salting watermelons. But very few people know that you can cook another wonderful treat - honey from watermelons. It is well kept, and on a cold winter evening it will warm with the wonderful taste and aroma of a sunny summer.

What is it - watermelon honey? And what is the name of this unusual delicacy? It is obtained from the juice of this berry, which is cooked until thick. Surprisingly, for the preparation of delicacies, no sugar or other additives will be required.

Honey or not honey?

As we see, bees do not participate in the preparation of this product. Maybe you should not call it honey? In fact, the name is given more likely because of the color and consistency. Externally, the treats really resemble natural honey collected by bees. Most people familiar with this product of Russian-speaking people call it watermelon honey.

Other names

Surprisingly, this product is very common abroad. Typically, there honey from watermelon is called pekmez. This word is of Asian origin. Along with it, the terms "bekmez" and "bekmes" are used, meaning the juice of berries or fruit cooked to a gelatinous consistency. The most common is the name "Nardek".

The origin of the recipe

Honey from watermelons always cooked in the autumn, when watermelons are many and they are inexpensive. The homeland of this food is Central Asia, in which it was prepared by many peoples. Later, the experience of cooking and the recipe was adopted by the Don Cossacks. Thanks to them, the dish became widespread, many melon growers began to cook it.

Cossacks cooked nardek late autumn. The main batch was already sold, and the remaining small, but pot-bellied berries were used for making honey. Watermelons were cut in half, spooned out the flesh, passed it through a sieve to get juice. The resulting liquid was poured into an iron pot, boiled on an open fire, without adding even sugar. The juice was boiled until it turned into a thick brown syrup. On a consistence nardek should remind usual young honey. The readiness of the delicacy was determined on this basis. The finished honey was stored in clay pots or rolled into cans, as we do.

Adygea serves nardek to tea, pour pancakes, puffs and casseroles on them, spread on bread.

Today honey from watermelon, the recipe of which continues to change, is brewed almost everywhere. Some add to it additional ingredients that impart new tastes and extend shelf life, but some remain true to the classics.

Benefit

Surely before you make honey from watermelons, you are thinking about whether this product is healthy. Nardek perfectly preserves the whole benefit of fresh watermelon. When cooking is not used sugar, the product reaches the taste only due to the content of natural ingredients.

A delicious treat strengthens the immune system and improves appetite. In addition, nardek has a beneficial effect on the work of the kidneys, liver, gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system. Doctors recommend including this product in the menu of those who suffer from tuberculosis and other acute and chronic diseases of the respiratory tract. Regular use nardeka in food increases hemoglobin, helps to cope with atherosclerosis and even prevents the growth of tumors.

Preparation of products for watermelon honey

Juice is strongly boiled. In order to get a kilogram of product, you need 15 kg of raw materials.

Choose sweet varieties with a juicy pulp. Thoroughly rinse the watermelons, let them dry out. Cut in half or into several parts - as you prefer. Separate the pulp.

Getting Juice

Go through the pulp, breaking or cutting into pieces and removing the bones. To squeeze the juice, you can use a juicer or press it manually through a sieve. Many squeeze the resulting gruel even through gauze. If before you boil honey from a watermelon, you do not remove all the bones and squeeze the juice with a juicer, particles of seeds can get into the product. This will give him a bitter taste.

Stage of boiling

We proceed to the most responsible business. Honey from watermelons cook on medium heat, stirring and taking off the foam. After a few hours, the juice will boil twice. Put out the fire, and pour the mass into another dish and allow to cool. Leave the nardeck in a dark cool place for 12 hours. Pass the juice through the sieve again, repeat the cooking, settling and straining step three times. Each time the syrup will thicken more and more.

Do not brew nardek at one time, because in this case it will turn out to be not too dark, and even to the bottom it will burn. It is better to take the time, make an effort - and the result will be a delicious and beautiful honey from watermelons.

How to check the readiness?

The transparent amber nardeck should be thick enough. Drip a few drops on the plate and turn it - honey will not spread. By the way, you can use this technique and to determine the readiness of any jam.

Harvesting for future use

Finished honey from watermelons remove from the plate and leave to cool. Meanwhile, prepare the cans: wash, sterilize, wipe dry. When nardek will cool to 40 degrees, strain it through a sieve, and then spread it over the jars. It remains to seal hermetically.

Storage

Cool the jars under a warm blanket, and then transfer them to the cellar, garage, shed - to where it's cool. If space allows, you can store jars in the refrigerator. If you do not have a basement and a balcony, leave the honey from the watermelons in the closet. Try to limit the amount of light.

Application of watermelon honey

This product can be used even during diets. Add a spoonful of honey to the drinks for sweets. Watermelon honey is very sweet and fragrant, but not at all high-calorie. If you use it in reasonable quantities, it will not harm the figure. Several spoons of nardek, dissolved in a glass of water, will help to quench your thirst.

For colds, it is useful to prepare the following mixture: combine in equal parts honey from watermelons, apple cider vinegar and finely chopped onions. Stir and let it brew a little. The spoon of the product obtained is recommended to dissolve in the mouth slowly. To improve the work of the digestive tract, replace sugar in the diet with nardeck. In acute conditions during liver diseases, relieve exacerbations by using oats broth with the addition of a small amount of watermelon honey. If you regularly take tea from the dog rose, sweetened with watermelon honey, you can increase and stabilize the level of hemoglobin in the blood and get rid of the pain in the heart.

You can eat this product and just for fun. It can be added to fillings for pies, cheesecakes, cakes, connecting with fruits and cottage cheese. It is very tasty nardek in combination with pancakes, pyshki, fritters.

The nutritional value

Before you make honey from watermelon, many learn about its low calorie content. In 100 grams of nardek contains only 110 kilocalories, although this product contains about 60% of sugar. For this reason, doctors are allowed to consume it even for those who have diabetes. In addition, the nordech contains 9% of fats and not more than 1% of protein.

Try to prepare this dessert for family and friends. This healthy treat will not leave anyone indifferent.