Is it possible to cook jam in cast iron. Which cookware is best for making jam: choosing a saucepan

A basin or a saucepan - what is the best way to cook jam

When choosing the shape of the dishes for making jam, it is recommended to give preference to shallow containers with a wide bottom. Thus, the dish will cook evenly, and the large surface area will allow excess moisture to evaporate faster.

It is also important that the tender and soft berries retain their shape and do not turn into jam. When boiling jam in a saucepan, raspberries or blueberries can be crushed under the weight of a thick layer of food. In this case, a bowl for making jam is ideal.

In which dish is it better to cook jam: aluminum, copper, or stainless steel

The taste and useful composition of the jam depend on the dish in which the jam is cooked. Incorrectly selected material of the container for cooking can not only spoil the quality of the finished dish, but also affect the durability of its storage. Most importantly, oxidation products of some metals can be harmful to health.

Stainless steel

The best cookware for making jam is stainless steel. This material is called "food grade" for a reason: the metal does not react with food and food acids. Jam cooked in a stainless steel pot or bowl will retain its taste and benefits.

If the dish is prepared in several stages, it can be left in the dish without fear of the container itself and the jam.

If there is no steel cookware: aluminum or copper

The best recipes our grandmothers are advised to use a copper bowl for making jam. If you want to completely repeat the cooking process to get the "taste of childhood" - this is acceptable. A container made of such a metal has good thermal conductivity, and the dish is cooked in it evenly, without burning.

But copper cookware has disadvantages:

• When heated, copper ions react with ascorbic acid, completely destroying useful vitamins;
• Copper oxides, which can get into the dish during cooking, are harmful to the human body.

If your choice fell on copper dishes, they must be thoroughly cleaned and polished. When the jam is cooked in several stages, do not leave it in a copper basin to cool, but rather pour it into another container.

Copper containers are rarely found today, so housewives are wondering: is it possible to cook jam in an aluminum pan, or a basin? It is allowed to use utensils made of this metal, but only in extreme cases.

An oxide film will always be present on the surface of such containers, which is destroyed when interacting with food acids, and particles of the substance enter the dish. You can use such utensils for quick cooking in one step, and the finished product should be poured into jars immediately.

Enamelled Jam Cookware

The disadvantage of enameled dishes is fragility. At high temperatures, enamel tends to crack. Coating particles can get directly into the jam. And the exposed metal reacts with acids that secrete berries and fruits, destroying valuable vitamin C.

Modern jams, which is better: Teflon or ceramic

When choosing which saucepan to cook the jam in, Teflon is not the best option. This coating does not withstand high temperatures. You can use such utensils to prepare a small amount of delicacies using the fast cooking method.

Ceramic cookware has many advantages:

• long service life;
• uniform heating;
• insensitivity to temperature changes.

But ceramics cool down very slowly. Therefore, when cooking jam in several stages, it will have to be constantly poured.

Outcome

By choosing the right dishes, you will greatly simplify the process of making jam. And the dish will turn out not only tasty, but also preserve beneficial features berries and fruits.

Cast iron cookware people have been using it for a long time, from about 4-6 centuries BC. It is difficult to say in which country such dishes first appeared - both in North Africa (tajin), and in Central Asia (cauldron for pilaf), and in Europe (cast iron), ancient kitchen utensils made of cast iron were found, cast at about the same time. It is reasonable to assume that these dishes began to be widely used among those peoples who had learned by that time to melt metal from ore.

Previously, hot food was cooked in clay dishes, gradually cast iron products replaced it from everyday life, because cast iron had much better qualities and characteristics than clay. In poor families, cast iron bowlers were highly valued not so much by the taste of the food prepared in them, as by their beneficial practicality, strength and good quality, which allowed such dishes to be passed down to several generations.

What is cooked in a cast iron pot

Any meat, vegetable, mushroom or fish dishes that require prolonged heat treatment at low temperatures, all kinds of soups, sauces and cereals are best obtained in cast iron dishes. The high taste qualities of the dishes cooked in such dishes are obtained due to the special properties of the alloy from which the cast iron is made. It consists of iron and carbon with the addition of phosphorus and silicon, which provide it with reduced thermal conductivity, due to which the heating of cast iron dishes occurs gradually and uniformly over the entire surface of the walls, bottom and lid, this is its advantageous difference from similar dishes made of aluminum, steel or glass. Shortly before the end of cooking a dish in a cast-iron dish, it should be removed from the heat and left to simmer until tender - low thermal conductivity does not allow the dish to cool down too quickly, so the dish “reaches” under the influence of low temperatures, which has a beneficial effect on the quality of the finished product.

This cookware can be used on any heating elements up to open fire, it is suitable for glass ceramics and induction, without previously removed wooden or bakelite handles, you can safely put it in the oven.

Advantages of cast iron cookware

All kitchen utensils made of cast iron - pans, duck bowls, pots, cauldrons, braziers, saucepans, pots, woks - surpass in many qualities the dishes made of any other material, which makes them desirable in every kitchen:

• Cast iron cookware will last longer than any other, it is almost impossible to spoil it. The only possible option for damage is that it can crack from impact or fall from a height onto a stone or other very durable surface, but dishes made of any materials will not withstand such tests;
• At proper care food in this dish does not burn, it only gets better over the years. Before you start cooking, cast-iron dishes must be well warmed up over the fire for at least 3-5 minutes to avoid burning the food;
• Cast iron cookware is wear-resistant and perfectly resists deformation, keeps its shape at any temperature - from the lowest to the highest;
• The main advantage of this dish is the delicate and unique taste of food cooked in it.

Minor cons

• It is known that cast iron is quite heavy, it is not easy to cook, for example, a pile of pancakes for a large family, constantly raising and lowering a weighty pancake pan;
• Cast iron products can rust. To avoid this, the washed dishes should be wiped dry or heated over a fire. But if this nevertheless happened, you need to carefully wipe off the rusted place with a hard brush, and then repeat the procedure for preparing to use a new cast-iron cookware (ignite with salt and grease with oil). Enamelled cast iron does not rust, but chips can form on it;
• Cast iron is afraid of an acidic environment, so you should avoid cooking on it, for example, dishes with tomatoes;
• It is not recommended to store cooked food in such a container, because cast iron strongly absorbs aromas, after cooking, the food must be transferred to a container, and the dishes must be washed immediately - they are easier to wash when hot.

Cast iron cookware care

Before the first use, the dishes must be washed with hot water and a sponge in order to wash off possible residues of grease, with which manufacturers can process them in order to avoid the appearance of rust. Fry over the fire until the color changes from black to gray, rinse under cold water, put on fire again, dry and cover with a thick layer of coarse table salt. Continue to fry for at least 10 minutes, until the salt begins to shoot characteristically, then pour it in, and wash the dishes thoroughly again with cold water. Heat again over the fire, remove and grease with plenty of lukewarm vegetable oil that instantly fills the pores. Next, you need to bake it in an oven preheated to 180 degrees upside down for about 3 hours - then the oil will dry and form a strong protective film on the entire surface.

It is recommended to wash cast-iron dishes immediately after cooking, then they can be easily washed with a regular kitchen sponge and running hot water. It is very undesirable to use detergents - they wash off the protective fatty film, which will have to be restored using the laborious method described above to avoid food burning.

How great it is in summer, when berries and fruits ripen all around. You can enjoy the juicy fruits to your fullest and enrich yourself with your loved ones with useful substances. But the sunny season is not eternal, and sooner or later it will be replaced by a long winter.

Sweet treats will disappear from the shelves, and with them the main source of vitamins. The only way to preserve them is to process the wonderful gifts of nature and make a product with a longer shelf life. An ideal candidate for this role is jam.

You can prepare such a dessert from any berries and fruits. There are also a lot of recipes. But during the cooking process, a number of insidious questions may arise, one of them - in which dish is it better to cook the jam?

Choosing dishes

The first thing you should pay attention to when choosing a container is the material from which it is made. It is on him that the quality of the finished jam and the safety of nutrients, which nature has so generously awarded fruits and berries, will depend.

In addition, sweet dessert is cooked in different ways in different dishes. And it is much easier to think over all the possible nuances in advance than to wash the burnt jam.

Stainless steel

It is not for nothing that stainless steel is called food steel. It does not react with food even after prolonged exposure to high temperatures. Therefore, it will not destroy the nutrients contained in the berries.

The second known property of the common material is resistance to food acids. This means that you can not be afraid of the harmful effects of acids contained in berries and fruits. The basin will not undergo oxidation and will serve its owner for many years.

Any experienced cook without a shadow of a doubt he will say that stainless steel dishes are the best option for making jam!

Aluminum

But such dishes are best avoided! Its surface is covered with an oxide film that is unable to withstand the destructive effects of acids, which are so rich in natural gifts.

As a result, the film will dissolve, and the metal that it has safely held will gain complete freedom. Therefore, if you do not want to eat dessert with particles of metal, give up aluminum dishes.

But, if there is no other option, no need to be upset. Cook the jam in an aluminum bowl, just don't keep them together for too long. It is better to immediately pour the finished product into the cans, and wash the basin. And remember, such metal dishwashing detergents should be free of iron.

Copper

Surely, many remember how carefully their grandmothers treated the copper dishes. She was for them, a kind of family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation.

The fact is that natural copper is very expensive, but it has special properties, namely, high thermal conductivity and durability.

When cooking in such a bowl, the jam will evenly heat up and will not burn.

But such dishes have flaws:

• Copper ions destroy the valuable ascorbic acid found in fresh fruits.
• And its oxides, which are harmful to the human body, can penetrate into the jam itself.

However, if there is an urgent need to cook dessert in such a dish, you can still, most importantly, thoroughly wash and polish the basins every time. And also do not store the finished product in them.

Teflon coating

Such dishes have appeared relatively recently, but have already earned the title of the most durable. Its minimum service life with careful handling exceeds 10 years. In addition, the structure of the material slightly resembles honeycomb, increases the heating surface and promotes uniform cooking of the jam.

A saucepan made of high quality material will not be a bad substitute for a stainless steel basin. Especially when you need to cook quite a bit of jam.

The only "but" - it must not be overheated! Therefore, alas, it will not work for the uninterrupted cooking of large volumes of jam.

Ceramics

The main advantage is uniform heating and cooking of the jam. Also, a ceramic pan perfectly tolerates sudden changes in temperature and has a long service life.

But it cools down for a long time, so while the jam is cooling it is better to pour it into another container.

Enamelled coating

Another type of cookware in which jam is to be cooked. But here, too, there are some nuances.

If the dishes are new, you don't have to worry about the quality of your favorite dessert. But over time, it undergoes critical changes.

Enamel is a weak material. With constant heating to a high temperature, it cracks, and pieces of the substance can get into food, moreover, absolutely imperceptibly for our eyes.

The iron that is under the enamel begins to interact with the elements of the food. As a result, vitamin C, which is so useful and important for humans, is almost completely destroyed.

And of course, one more disadvantage of the irreversible process is the sticking of the jam in the damaged areas. Even if these are almost imperceptible chips and cracks, it will not be so easy to clean them from carbon deposits.

However, despite such significant disadvantages, enameled dishes are ideal for settling jam. This is appropriate if you are preparing a dessert using the multi-cooking technology.

An equally important detail to pay attention to is the shape of the dishes:

• Choose a shallow bowl, as too thick layers of food will not boil evenly.
• The wider the bottom, the better. With a large area of ​​contact with the fire, the bowl will heat up faster and more evenly, therefore, the lower section of the jam will not be overcooked.
• And so that it does not burn, choose a basin with a whole, even, flat bottom. Otherwise, you will have to spend a lot of time and effort scrubbing away carbon deposits in cracks and gaps.
• Since jam is a sweet and aromatic product, all the "sweet tooth" from the surrounding area flock to it: bees, wasps, bumblebees. An ordinary cover will save their curiosity.

If you make jam often, get a divider. With his helpsoup, you will prevent the food from burning, and also distribute the temperature evenly over the entire bottom of the basin.

Competently selected dishes will help you prepare tasty, high-quality and really healthy jam, the magic properties of which we need so much in the winter cold. After all, it is so pitiful to waste wonderful berries in the waste!