Watermelon honey nardek. Nardek (Watermelon honey)

Properties of nardek (watermelon honey)

How much does nardek cost? watermelon honey) (average price for 1 ban.)?

Moscow and Moscow region.

The most fragrant watermelon honey or nardek, which is brewed from the juice of a fully ripened striped berry, is one of the many inventions of the cuisine of Central Asia, which was later adopted by the Don Cossacks. Over time, all melon growers began to prepare nardek (watermelon honey), since preserving the harvest until the new season was a guarantee of a well-fed life. big family. And today it is brewed in Central Asia, in the south of Russia, as well as in the Lower Volga region.

A distinctive feature of nardek (watermelon honey) is that it is prepared without adding sugar. By the way, close relatives of this product are considered to be bekmes (grape honey), irchal (bekmes, but with berries), and also cue (honey made from fruits with added sugar). The word “nardek” itself is characterized by Turkish origin, where “nardak” means syrup made from pomegranate juice.

The modern use of nardek (watermelon honey) is quite extensive - this product is usually used as a delicious dessert, served with hot drinks instead of jam or preserves. In Cossack villages, for example, they pour nardek (watermelon honey) over pancakes, pancakes, casseroles, crumpets, and often eat it with a piece fresh bread. In addition, this thick syrup can be used as a filling for baking pies, cheesecakes, cookies, or candied watermelon can be made from it.

Traditionally, nardek (watermelon honey) in Cossack villages was prepared in late autumn - a time when the main harvest of watermelons was already sold out. From small pot-bellied berries, which were cut in half, they were taken out with spoons juicy pulp and passed through a fine hair sieve. The resulting watermelon juice was poured into a large cast iron vat, which was placed on open fire. This juice had to be boiled until it turned into a thick syrup Brown with a characteristic watermelon aroma.

Moreover, interestingly, the thickness of nardek (watermelon honey) was determined by the duration of boiling: as a rule, the consistency of the syrup was similar to young honey. The finished product was then bottled into glass jars and sealed for the winter or stored in clay pots in a cool basement.

The calorie content of nardek (watermelon honey), surprisingly, is low, even though it contains up to 60% sugar. Wherein nutritional value the product is only 110 kcal, which are present in 100 grams of this aromatic dessert. That is why the use of nardek is recommended even for patients with diabetes. In addition, watermelon honey helps with colds - you can gargle with it when you have a sore throat.

Calorie content of nardek (watermelon honey) 110 kcal

Energy value of nardek (watermelon honey) (Ratio of proteins, fats, carbohydrates - bju).

02.12.2016 2

Watermelon honey: homemade recipe. This is one type of “honey” that bees do not produce. Therefore, this delicacy (popular in Asian countries, where it came from in our diet) has to be prepared independently.

The fact is that natural honey You can hardly find watermelon: there are no such huge chestnuts that the bees have no choice, and they collect nectar only from this plant, which is one of the weakest honey plants. Honey plants are those that produce at least 100 kg of honey per hectare. The normal level is considered to be 250-400 kg of honey per hectare. For watermelon it is only 20 kg/ha.

Natural watermelon honey crystallizes quickly (it contains virtually no moisture). It is not recommended for bees to leave it for the winter. Mostly this honey is collected in desert and semi-desert areas, where sandy soils predominate. But bees do not like such terrain and conditions - that’s why you can rarely find natural watermelon honey.

But it is possible to successfully grow melons (bashtans) under these conditions. And it is necessary to preserve the resulting harvest. Including in the form of self-prepared watermelon honey. Let's talk in more detail about what nardek is - this is what this pseudo-honey product is called in Central Asia (it can also be called “bekmez”).

Watermelon honey nardek

Nardek is a sweet, viscous syrup that resembles the consistency of liquid honey. For this similarity in our latitudes, it got its name “watermelon honey”. It is prepared from one ingredient - sweet berries(whose name you already guessed). It is better to take the largest and most sugary varieties: both the traditional “Ogonyok”, “Kholodok”, “Astrakhansky”, and the special super-sugar watermelon “Barrel of Honey”.

For preparation, only one condition is important: all fruits must be as ripe as possible - with high content sugar in pulp. The final qualities of watermelon honey depend on this:

color (it should be dark brown, resemble buckwheat honey by color);
sweetness: from unripe watermelons You can’t cook nardek, and if you do, you won’t keep it for long;
consistency: the sugar in the pulp will turn into syrup during cooking, and if there is not enough sugar, the result will not be nardek, but sweet watermelon water.

The right technology

You will need a large container to chop the pulp. Don't waste a drop watermelon juice– carry out all cutting and pulp removal operations over this container. Before this process, watermelons should be washed and dried well. Peels and pits go to waste. Check the raw materials for the presence of seeds - if even a little gets into the squeezed juice, the final product may turn out to be bitter.
Grind all the pulp in the same container into a homogeneous mass, the finer the better. The resulting porridge must be strained through cheesecloth into a separate container - now you have watermelon juice. You need to squeeze it in small portions - this way the juice yield will be greater.
Place the container with the juice on the fire and bring to a boil, which should last up to 3 minutes.
Next, you need to let the juice cool, and then filter it again, but through a thick cloth. This is done in order to completely clear the product of pulp: the less pulp there is (even microparticles), the better the nardek will be.
And after that, place the container on the fire again and cook for 4...6 hours. Set the heat to low and remove the lid. Excess moisture evaporates and fructose and glucose thicken. During the cooking process, it is necessary to stir the future delicacy from time to time and remove foam from it. The degree of readiness is determined by appearance: when the delicacy becomes viscous and dark like buckwheat honey, it is packaged in prepared jars with a tight lid.
The finished product must be poured into a sterilized container. The degree of boiling is 5...7 times. If you initially brew 5 liters of juice, the resulting yield will be only 1 liter.

IMPORTANT! The entire process must take place using clean utensils and containers. Watermelon honey can very strongly attract foreign odors. The presence of a source of odor can easily spoil it.

Therefore, it is important to use only clean equipment and not allow the pan to come into proximity when cooking, for example, with frying cutlets: splashes of oil, smoke, soot - all this can make the taste of the prepared delicacy unpleasant, rancid, disgusting.

Now you know how to cook nardek, it remains to say a few words about storage finished product. When sealed, boiled syrup can be stored for up to a year. Storage location: refrigerator or cellar.

Video: watermelon honey.

Other recipes: how to make honey from watermelon?

Nardek is also prepared with the addition of other ingredients. You can prepare watermelon syrup with the following additives:

sugar (no more than 150 g for each liter of juice);
natural honey to add flavor (100...150 g per 1 kg of watermelons);
mint, cinnamon, other spices to taste.

It is best to drink tea with this honey or use it as a sweetener for baking. The use of sugar and natural honey extends the shelf life of the finished product.

Found online and Adyghe recipe Nardek. It is distinguished by the presence of cream or sour cream, which is added in the amount of 100 g per 2-3 kg of finished nardek after it has cooled. Cooled honey and cream must be carefully moved before pouring into jars.

Another feature of the recipe for nardek: delicacies from other berries, fruits, and sweet vegetables are cooked using the same method. You can combine the main ingredients to create original flavors.

Why is nardek valuable:

The main thing is a large supply of sweet syrup, which can be used as a treat, an additive instead of sugar in baked goods, cereals, and desserts. When converting honey into culinary recipes from volume to grams and vice versa in the following proportions: 1 teaspoon equals 6...8 g, a tablespoon contains about 20 g of nardek, and a glass filled with syrup with a volume of 200 ml will weigh about 300...330 g.
Nardek improves appetite, strengthens the general condition of the body during the cold season, and increases hemoglobin. Many articles mention it as a remedy useful for tuberculosis and respiratory diseases.
As a sweetener, nardek is a low-calorie product - there are no more than 110 calories per 100 g if it is cooked according to the classic recipe.
If you are allergic to bee products, then nardek (cooked, of course, without the addition of natural honey) will be a pleasant substitute for the real product collected by bees.
For medical use: when mixed with other ingredients, it allows you to treat a number of diseases, primarily the gastrointestinal tract. It is also used as a sweetener for diseases of the kidneys, liver, pancreas (accordingly, for these purposes it is prepared only according to traditional technology- cooking without sugar).
Nardek contains few vitamins and amino acids - most of them are destroyed during cooking, but there are plenty of microelements in it. There are substances useful to humans in accessible nutritional form: zinc, magnesium, iron.

IMPORTANT! Nardek should not be taken by people with diabetes or those who are overweight. Or take in very limited quantities only with the permission of your doctor.

Have you ever tried watermelon honey? Surely not. This product can hardly be found on the shelves of regular supermarkets. In any case, I have never had the opportunity to do so. But preparing it yourself is not at all difficult - active actions It won't take much from you, you just have to be patient, because... The boiling process will take a lot of time.

The consistency of watermelon honey, or nardek, actually resembles a beekeeping product, but the bees have absolutely nothing to do with it. Therefore, nardek can be eaten even by those who are allergic to honey.
Some sources claim that the Sarepta Germans invented watermelon honey. Exactly on watermelon honey they baked the famous Sarepta gingerbreads, which could be stored for years. According to other sources, we owe the invention of this dish to the peoples of Central Asia, from whom the Don Cossacks subsequently adopted the recipe. We can only say for sure that watermelon honey is prepared exactly where watermelons grow in abundance)
“Nardek is a Don dessert, prepared exclusively on the Don by Cossack villages. Nardek is prepared in the fall, when the watermelons are ripe, from which it is prepared in the following way: from ripe, mainly small watermelons, the pulp is hollowed out with spoons, which is then pressed through a sieve. The resulting sweet reddish liquid (syrup) is poured into a cast-iron cauldron, which is boiled in a forge in the open air until a syrup is obtained, the consistency of which depends on the duration of boiling. The usual thickness of nardek is similar to the consistency of the thickest cream or honey. way, like dessert and how nutrient at breakfast, at noon, where they eat it with bread, and Don Cossack women especially love to eat it with crumpets. Consumption of nardek without habit or in large quantities causes symptoms of acute gastritis in some people, expressed in a burning sensation in the pit of the stomach, nausea, and sometimes vomiting. The Don Cossacks and Cossack women who are accustomed to it eat nardek in large quantities without any harm to their health." A.S. Shcherbakov. Magazine "Our Food" 1891.
Traditionally, melon growers prepare watermelon honey late in the fall, when the main harvest of watermelons has already been sold out.
I would hardly have decided to cook nardek, but the watermelon I bought turned out to be not very successful - my husband and I still ate half, and for the second half there were only two options - either go to the trash or become honey) I chose the second option, so Moreover, shortly before this I saw a recipe for watermelon honey on the Food TV channel. True, the author of the recipe added sugar during cooking, but I abandoned this idea. But during cooking I added aromatic herbs, which traditional recipe are not used.

YOU WILL NEED:

2 kg watermelon
- 2 sprigs of mint
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- time
- patience

Remove the pulp from the watermelon and remove the seeds.
Grind the watermelon pulp in a blender, strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth.
Pour watermelon juice into a thick saucepan, add mint and thyme.
Bring to a boil, skimming off any foam that forms during boiling.
Reduce heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is reduced to concentration thick syrup(the volume will decrease by 8-10 times). The color of the finished product is red-brown.
Strain the finished watermelon honey through a strainer into a sterilized jar of the required volume and close with a lid.
Nardek is consumed in the same way as honey. It can be used as a natural sweetener, added to baked goods, or served with pancakes or cheesecakes.
Watermelon honey is said to have medicinal properties, and can be used as a therapeutic and prophylactic agent in the treatment of certain diseases, but I do not undertake to give advice on a medical topic.

I am sending the recipe to paprika_andlife on FM "Gifts of Autumn",

I looked around the site and was surprised that there is not a single recipe for making watermelon honey. It is mine favorite treat, and for colds it simply has no equal. I hope it is useful to someone.

Ingredients for Watermelon Honey:

Recipe for “Watermelon honey”:

We will need:
Deep saucepan – 3 pieces
Kitchen paper towels
Aluminum basin with thick bottom
Knife
Tablespoon – 2 pieces
Tolkushka
Sieve
Sterile gauze – 1 meter 20 centimeters
Skimmer

Preparing the watermelon
To begin, place a deep pan with plain water and bring it to a boil. We need water in order to process the equipment that we will use while preparing honey with boiling water.
To prepare watermelon honey or, as it is also called, nardek, you need to choose the ripest watermelons late varieties, such watermelons contain more glucose and sucrose, which during cooking help the watermelon juice become thicker.
First, let's rinse the watermelons under the running water. cold water and dry with kitchen paper towels.
We take a clean, boiled-water-treated aluminum basin with a thick bottom and, using a knife, cut the watermelon into two halves directly above it, this process is necessary so that every drop of juice is preserved during slicing.

Then take a clean tablespoon, scalded with boiling water, and scoop out the pulp from each half of the watermelon directly into an aluminum bowl.
Take a clean masher, treated with boiling water, and use it to mash the watermelon pulp until pureed.
The watermelon pulp is dented, but there are still seeds in it, which will be completely unnecessary in the honey.

Therefore, we place the same clean strainer on a clean, deep saucepan treated with boiling water and rub all the watermelon pulp through it with a tablespoon, this way we separate the seeds.

We take clean, sterile gauze and, using scissors treated with boiling water, cut off 2 pieces of 60 by 60 centimeters. Fold each piece in half and place a clean tablespoon of watermelon puree on one of them, right in the middle. We connect the edges of the gauze with our hands so that we get a bag, and squeeze the watermelon juice through it directly into an aluminum basin. After all the juice has been squeezed out, throw out the remaining watermelon pulp and place the basin with the juice on the stove, set to high heat. Bring the juice to a boil, stirring vigorously and removing the foam from it using a clean slotted spoon treated with boiling water. Be sure to remove the foam, as all dirt and nitrates are removed with it. There is no need to boil the juice for a long time; after boiling, 2-3 minutes will be enough.
Let the hot watermelon juice cool until room temperature. Take a second piece of gauze and strain the cooled watermelon juice through it directly into a clean, deep saucepan. We remove the gauze with the remnants of watermelon fibers; we will no longer need it, and we pour the juice from the pan into the aluminum basin in which it was boiled and put it on the stove, turned on on low heat.

The second cooking of watermelon juice lasts a very long time - approximately 3 to 6 hours, this process depends on the ripeness of the watermelon and its juiciness. To make it thick quality honey, cook the watermelon juice until excess moisture has evaporated from it. It should become very thick and decrease in volume by about 5-6 times, sometimes even more. During cooking, you must constantly stir the watermelon mass with a slotted spoon at intervals of 5–6 minutes so that the honey being prepared does not burn. The honey will change color and turn light brown.

While the honey is boiling, remembering to stir it periodically, let’s prepare jars for storing it. Take 2 half-liter jars, 2 lids for preservation and a large deep saucepan of about 5 liters, lower the container into it and pour water so that it is 2 fingers above the level of the jars. We put the lids there too. Place a saucepan with jars and lids on the stove, set to high heat, and sterilize the equipment in boiling water for 15 minutes. The time for sterilization of jars and lids is calculated after the water boils. We take out the sterilized jars with tongs along with boiling water and place them on a table previously covered with a waffle towel, and leave them to cool in this form. Leave the lids in a saucepan with boiling water. After the water in the jars has cooled, pour it out, cover the table with a new, clean waffle towel, since the previous towel has been wet from water for a long time, and place the sterilized jars on it, bottom down.

In order to start canning watermelon honey, you need to be sure that it is ready. Take a clean, sterile tablespoon, treated with boiling water, and put it in a small amount of honey and drop onto a cold plate. The drop should be thick, very viscous and not spread all over the plate, or if it spreads a little, then it should do it very slowly. The consistency of finished watermelon honey resembles regular honey or very heavy cream. If the mass of honey you prepared is thick and viscous, then it is ready. We turn the sterilized jars upside down, take one and place it in a clean, deep plate treated with boiling water, it is needed so that not a single drop of nardek is lost, the honey from the plate can then be eaten. Using a clean ladle treated with boiling water, scoop honey from the basin and pour it into the jar to the very top. Cover the jar of honey with a sterilized lid, which is easy to remove clean hand from water that has long cooled down. Cover the lid with a preservation key and tighten it with the key so that the lid fits tightly to the neck of the jar.
The color of watermelon honey is dark red or even brown, the consistency is viscous, and the taste is very sweet. There is no need to cool the honey under a blanket like any other preserved food; we just put it in a cool place to let it cool.

Nardek or, as it is also called, watermelon honey, served in a bowl with a teaspoon. It can be eaten separately as a snack with tea or coffee, spread on any type of bread, and used in making cakes and pies. Watermelon honey makes an excellent syrup for cakes, pretzels and gingerbread. This honey has medicinal properties and improves digestion; it is often added to baby cereals. Watermelon honey will delight you with its aroma and taste in winter.

− Watermelon honey tolerates storage well; you don’t have to preserve it, but simply tighten the neck of the jars parchment paper and tie with an elastic band or twine. It is better to store such honey in a dark, well-ventilated area.

− Watermelon pulp can be chopped using a blender or through a manual and electric meat grinder, but before using these units, the manual meat grinder must be boiled for 15 -20 minutes in water, and the parts of the blender or electric meat grinder Rinse thoroughly and rinse with boiling water.

− If you can’t have a lot of sugar, are you watching your figure or have diabetes, you should not consume watermelon honey, it contains a lot of sucrose and glucose.

− If you took an unripe watermelon, it can also be used to prepare nardek, but such honey will be a little sour.

− Using the technology described above, you can prepare other types of honey; it can be honey from mulberries, grapes, melons or other sweet fruits. But remember that the fruits you choose should not be sour. Because condensed acid is tasteless and does not curdle well during cooking.

− Carefully monitor the thickening of the juice, mix it thoroughly and often with a slotted spoon so that it does not burn and there is no burning smell in the prepared honey.

− If you don’t have an aluminum basin, no problem, you can use an enamel basin or pan. The main thing is that they have a thick bottom.

When the fruits are already well ripened, you can prepare such a delicacy as watermelon honey. To do this, you will have to put in a little effort and spend a decent amount of time, but once you taste this sweetness, you will not remain indifferent.

Since honey boils down greatly during cooking, you need to take several watermelons at once: about five to six for a half-liter jar. You should only choose ripe fruits and the sweeter the better, since there is no need to add sugar during cooking.

Wash the watermelons well so that no dust or dirt gets into the juice. Use a large container because there will be a lot of pulp. Cut the watermelon in half with a knife, allowing the juice to drain into the container.

Using a tablespoon, scoop out all the pulp. Do the same with the next half and the remaining watermelons.

Take the masher you usually use to mash potatoes and mash the pulp, you should get homogeneous mass, the better you grind it, the easier it will be to squeeze out the juice later.

Now you need to fold gauze or any other fabric that can serve as a sieve several times. Clean old curtains and bandages will do. Prepare another thick-walled container in which you will boil the honey. Place a cloth on top of it and lay out a small part of the watermelon mass, then roll the cloth into a bag and squeeze out the juice with your hands, the pulp should be semi-dry and remain inside the bag. Thus, squeeze out all the juice.

Turn on high heat and place a saucepan with juice on it, which should boil very quickly, after which you need to remove the foam and turn off the heat. The juice should boil over the fire for no more than two minutes. Leave it to cool for 10 minutes, during which time flakes of pulp will appear in the juice. You need to fold the fabric several times again and strain the liquid. In the end it should be pure juice uniform red color. Now you need to put it on the fire again, the juice should boil slowly, otherwise it will burn. To prevent this from happening, you need to stir the honey with a spoon every ten minutes.

At first it will be liquid like water, after about half an hour you will notice that it has become half as much, this is the water evaporating, and what remains is the most valuable thing in watermelons. It takes a long time to cook, depending on the amount of watermelon juice. When you notice that the honey is thickening, you need to stir it constantly with a spoon, otherwise you miss the moment of readiness and it will burn. To check if the honey is ready, you need to drop a little on the saucer; if the drop does not spread, it’s time to turn off the heat. Ready honey The consistency looks like regular bee or heavy cream. As the honey cools, it will become even thicker.

You can grind the watermelon pulp not with a masher, but through a meat grinder, but this will take longer and be troublesome. Or you can even squeeze it out with your hands.
You can store watermelon honey not in a hermetically sealed container, that is, without rolling it into jars; to do this, put it in the refrigerator and cover with a plastic lid.
You can make honey from not quite ripe watermelons, but be prepared for the taste to be a little sour, which is not for everyone.
You can consume honey with tea, baked goods, desserts and sweet cereals.
By this recipe You can make honey not only from watermelon, but also from grapes, melon and mulberries. You don’t have to remove the pulp and then you’ll get delicious jam.

Benefits of watermelon honey

When preparing watermelon honey, all trace elements and minerals contained in fresh fruits are preserved. It contains a lot of vitamins C, E, B, PP, iron, calcium, magnesium, pectin, phosphorus, potassium and folic acid. Besides the fact that it's simple delicious product, it is also recommended for some diseases as a medicine.