Lemon Compote for Winter
Try this wonderful refreshing drink. Over summer and fall, many of us rush to put up plenty of preserves from vegetables and fruit. But lemon compote can be made year-round — from winter into summer, and from summer into winter — because it refreshes just as well as any other drink.
Cooking method
-
Step 1:
How do you make lemon compote for winter? Get the ingredients ready. Use a large, juicy, fresh lemon with a strong aroma. The skin shouldn't be dry or wrinkled — those lemons have been sitting a while, and the compote won't taste good with them.
-
Step 2:
Since the lemon goes into the compote with its peel, wash the fruit well, scrub it with a brush, and rinse again.
-
Step 3:
Cut the lemon in half lengthwise, then cut each half lengthwise again into two pieces. Cut the resulting long wedges into fairly thin pieces — you should end up with quarter-slices. You can cut lemons for compote different ways, but the more surface area touches the water, the more juice they give off.
-
Step 4:
Bring 3 quarts (3 liters) of water to a boil in a pot. Allowing for what boils off, you'll end up with just about one 3-quart jar of compote, fruit and sugar included. Add the lemon slices and the sugar. Stir gently, so as not to crush the fruit, until the sugar fully dissolves. Bring the compote back to a boil and simmer for another 2–3 minutes.
-
Step 5:
Wash the jars and lids thoroughly inside and out and sterilize them. You can steam them with a special sterilizing lid or heat them in the oven. If you sterilize jars in the oven, don't put them straight into a hot oven, or they'll crack from the temperature change — set them on the rack in a cold oven so they heat up gradually.
-
Step 6:
Pour the compote into the jars. I had one 2-quart jar and one 1-quart jar; you could use a single 3-quart jar. There's no need to process the compote further, since it already has plenty of citric acid, which keeps bacteria from multiplying when it's stored properly.
-
Step 7:
Close the jars with screw-on lids, or seal tin lids with a canning tool.
-
Step 8:
Turn the jars upside down, wrap them up, and leave them until completely cool. Turn the cooled jars of lemon compote right side up again. Store the compote in a cool, dark place out of direct sunlight — ideally a cellar, but a regular cabinet will do. Keep opened compote in the fridge. Enjoy!
- It's better to sterilize the jars at the same time as you cook the compote, so they don't cool down. If you pour freshly boiled compote into fully cooled jars, the glass can crack. It also keeps dust and bacteria from settling on the jars and lids.
- So I usually make the base on one burner while sterilizing the jars on another. The lids sterilize alongside in water in the same pot.
- Cover sterilized jars with sterilized lids right away.
- Lemon and grapefruit compotes can be a little bitter. To my mind that's fine — the bitterness comes from the white pith between the flesh and the outer zest. If you don't remove it, any compote turns bitter after it steeps, and the thicker that layer, the more bitter the drink. Personally the slight bitterness doesn't bother me. But if you want to get rid of it completely, peel off a thin layer of zest separately without touching the white part, then cut the white pith off the flesh, and make the compote from just the yellow flesh and the zest, discarding the white part.
- Instead of sugar, you can use a sweetener that holds up to heat.
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Lemon - 16 kcal/100g
- Lemon zest - 47 kcal/100g
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
