Plum tincture at home is the culinary heritage of our ancestors, which has not lost its popularity today. Plum tincture at home is distinguished by its mild taste, pleasant aroma and ease of manufacture.
Initially, such drinks were more of a ritual character, used by sorcerers in magic rituals. They were also used by healers to tone the body's defenses and cure various ailments. But for the taste, aroma and intoxicating properties, they quickly fell in love with ordinary people. For example, the Slavs, due to climatic features, especially liked the tincture of plums. Even the name for her came up affectionate - plum.
Pleasure for the benefit
Plum tincture at home can not only decorate the festive table, it is also famous for its medicinal properties. Regular consumption of the drink in moderation will be a worthy alternative to choleretic and diuretic drugs. Tincture can be used to cleanse the body, remove toxins. In addition, plum is indispensable for gastric ulcers, difficulty in defecation, in the treatment of anemia and in the fight against excess weight. Use it with caution in case of endocrine system dysfunction, thyroid diseases and with increased acidity in the organs of the gastrointestinal tract.
Standards and principles of preparation
As in a winery, tincture of plums at home is most often prepared on the basis of ethyl alcohol.
The principle of its preparation is to combine alcohol with substances in the composition of fruit fruits. Plums must be fully ripe, ready to fall from a tree to the ground. Unripe fruits spoil the taste of the tincture, giving it a grassy note and a sour taste. Overripe fruits are not suitable due to the large amount of pectin in them. This substance will spoil the appearance of the tincture, giving it a cloudy tint.
To make the plums softer, you can hold them in a plate under sunlight for a couple of days. At this time, they will subside, their juice will become thicker, and the composition will be enriched with the bacteria necessary for fermentation.
It is important that in the process of preparing the drain, do not get carried away with washing them. If you wash the fruits well, but not thoroughly, then their fermentation will be much faster. If the plums from your own garden are not very dirty, it is permissible to simply clean them from leaves, branches and wipe them with a towel.
The ratio of the main components of plum tincture depends on individual preferences, however, there are some generally accepted recommendations for the content of plums, alcohol and sugar.
As a proven raw material, plums of sweet varieties are suitable, for example, “Raklod”, “Vengerka”. You can replace plums with cherry plum or prunes.
The alcohol content may vary. The factory standard for the strength of similar drinks is 18-20%, but in the home kitchen they can be neglected. The strength of the tincture varies depending on the amount of added water or juice. Dessert will be considered tincture with a strength of not more than 16%, low-grade - up to 28%, strong - up to 45%.
Sugar or honey is added as desired. The standard is 200 grams of sugar per 1 kg of plums, but sometimes the amount of sugar reaches 400 grams (40%). It all depends on the degree of maturity of the fruit and personal taste preferences. You can completely exclude this ingredient, but do not forget that it is sweetness that gives softness to the taste.
Tincture with a weak degree of fortress is stored in a refrigerator or a cold cellar. Strong tinctures - at room temperature. Immediately after readiness, it is better not to rush with a treat: the taste of tinctures from plums at home, like vintage wine, is determined by time.
Wealth of recipes
Plum tincture at home is good because it has a variety of cooking recipes, variations of the combination of ingredients.
Classics of the genre
• 1 kg drain
• 500 ml of alcohol or vodka
• 300 g sugar
Peel the fruit from contamination. If the plums are large, you can cut them into smaller pieces. Next, put the fruits in a vessel with a wide neck in several layers, sprinkling each layer with sugar. Closing the lid tightly, remove the container in a dark place for 3 days, so that the fruits give juice. To evenly distribute sugar, shake the contents periodically. On the 4th day, pour alcohol into the mixture and put it again in a dark corner for a month and a half. After this period, the drink is filtered and bottled.
Tincture "Original"
• 6 kg pitted drain
• 600 ml of water
• 2.8 kg of sugar
• 100 g of raisins
Cut the plums in half, mix with sugar and water, transfer to a glass jar and put in a warm place for 10 days. Then, to speed up the fermentation, add washed raisins. When bubbles begin to form on the surface of the tincture, pull a rubber glove over the jar, making a small hole in it. After a month, the glove will swell as much as possible, but will gradually lose its shape. When it falls completely, you can start filtering the contents of the jar and bottling it. Our grandmothers indulged in a similar tincture of plums at home. Its originality is in the natural process of fermentation and the absence of alcohol.
Caramel pleasure
• 0.7 l of any cognac
• 6 kg drain
• 2.4 kg of sugar
Cut plums as finely as possible, but without using a blender so that later there are no difficulties with filtering. Mix the fruit with a piece of sugar, pour in the alcohol, mix thoroughly, cover and leave for aging. After 20 days, from 1 kg of granulated sugar and water, boil a dark colored syrup and, slightly allowing it to burn, cool slightly. Filter the plum stock and add syrup into it, allow to cool to the end and place in the refrigerator. The remaining fruits of the plums are again poured with sugar and squeeze the juice under a press. Filter to the desired consistency and connect to the part from the refrigerator.
Especially for ladies
• 250 g sugar
• 500 g of prunes
• 0.7 l of vodka
• 800 g of condensed milk
• 3 vanilla sticks
• 0.5 l of water
Rinse the prunes, dry them and place the vanilla sticks in a container, add vodka and leave for 10-14 days. After the resulting contents, filter. Transfer the remaining pulp into a pan, pour 200 ml of boiling water, sugar and bring to a boil, then cool and filter. Combine the resulting broth and previously prepared tincture, add condensed milk. In finished form, this tincture will be similar in texture to milk liquor. It tastes amazing! Sweet lovers will certainly appreciate it. But this recipe has a drawback - such tincture is stored for no more than six months, and an opened bottle is consumed immediately.
Oriental tale
• 4 kg of plum
• 2.7 kg of sugar
• Water
• 0.5 l of alcohol
• Orange zest
• Cinnamon
• Cardamom
• Anise
• Nutmeg
• cloves
• Vanilla
Mix all spices, add alcohol. Sprinkle the washed plum with sugar and leave for natural fermentation. After the end of the process, filter the resulting wine: it should be transparent. Strain the tincture with spices. Cook sugar syrup to a caramel consistency and cool to 40 degrees. The syrup is introduced into the alcohol tincture, add the prepared wine. Bottled, corked and subjected to home pasteurization for three hours at a temperature of 60 degrees. In the end, wait until the water in the pan cools down by itself, remove the bottles, wipe and put in a dark place for a month to complete the process.
Peppermint Freshness
• 2 kg drain
• 0.2 l of alcohol
• 400 g sugar
• 5 sprigs of mint (can be replaced with lemon balm)
Prepare plums, mashed them and grated to a puree state, put in a cool place for two hours. After the slurry, pass through a sieve to make juice with pulp, but without plum peel. Add the remaining ingredients to it, pour into containers and let it brew for 2 months. After the drink must be filtered and aged for a couple of weeks.
This tincture of plums at home is distinguished by a special strength, but the refreshing taste turns it into a light drink.
Tips & Tricks
In order to make tincture of plums at home in terms of taste not inferior to store wine products, it is important to know a few secrets on its preparation:
• To flavor and enhance the piquancy of the taste properties of the tincture, plums can be frozen beforehand.
• If you do not remove the seeds from the fruits, then the tincture will be enriched with almond flavor.
• If sugar is not added to the tincture, it will turn out to be stronger (about 30 degrees), and its taste will be more astringent.
• If the hostess and her guests prefer transparent tinctures, to obtain such a plum brandy, sugar should be replaced with pre-prepared sugar syrup. It is easy to prepare it: heat a liter of water over medium heat and dilute half a glass of granulated sugar in it.
• In any plum tincture, you can put a small handful of washed raisins. This additional ingredient will enhance the fermentation process. In addition, the tincture will turn out more fragrant.
• In any recipe for making homemade plum tincture, you can optionally add flavoring ingredients such as dried cloves, cinnamon, vanillin, citrus fruit zest.
• Used plum fruits should not be thrown away after the drink is drunk. They will also please you with their original taste as a dessert or ingredient for meat dishes and will become a delicious decoration for sweet pastries, cakes, ice cream. To save them and use them in the future, they are transferred to small containers, poured with the rest of tinctures, covered with a lid and stored for a year.
