Chokeberry (Aronia) Jam for Winter
A quick, delicious, and wholesome chokeberry jam! Aronia, or chokeberry, is known to many not just as a tasty berry with an astringent bite, but as one rich in nutrients and vitamins. It's often recommended for people with blood-pressure issues tied to cardiovascular problems, with weak eyesight, and for many other conditions. The best way to keep this berry for winter is to freeze it. But not everyone enjoys chokeberry fresh—it's quite heavy and astringent. It does make a delicious jam, though. And of course, to keep the most vitamins in the berry, you want to cook it as little as possible.
Cooking method
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Step 1:
Gather the ingredients for the jam. The simplest, fastest jam recipe—the so-called "five-minute"—keeps the most nutrients in the berries because the jam cooks for literally just 5 minutes. Sort through the chokeberries, wash them, and discard any rotten or spoiled berries.
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Step 2:
Drain the chokeberries in a colander and let the water run off completely. The berries are picked in fall, between September and November. It's best when they're from your own garden, grown in a clean spot. The chokeberries should be fully ripe, or the jam will come out bitter and astringent. You can make jam from freshly picked berries or from frozen chokeberries.
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Step 3:
Put the chokeberries in a metal pot or bowl, cover them with boiling water so all the berries are submerged, and blanch over medium heat until soft. A few minutes is enough, depending on the variety, ripeness, and size of the berries, so it's best to taste them. Then drain the water and tip the berries into a colander.
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Step 4:
Return the berries to a non-reactive metal pot that won't react with the berry juice—a heavy-bottomed one is best for jam. Add the sugar to the berries and mash them together with a hand masher or a blender. If you don't have those, you can use a meat grinder. How finely you grind them is up to you, depending on whether you want a smooth jam or one with pieces of berry.
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Step 5:
Set the chokeberry-and-sugar mixture over the heat. Bring it to a boil and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly so the sugar doesn't stick to the bottom and dissolves fully, for five minutes from the moment it boils.
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Step 6:
Right away, spoon the jam into jars you've prepared and sterilized. Seal them with lids and store in a cool place.
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Step 7:
Enjoy!
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Water - 0 kcal/100g
- Chokeberry - 52 kcal/100g
