Elderberry honey has medicinal properties. Elderflower honey and jam
People often distrust anything that has the word “artificial” in its name. This fate has not spared artificial honey, which is put on a par with outright fakes made from sugar and dyes. But is this right? It’s worth starting with the fact that artificial honey, as you might guess, is created by human hands without the help of bees. In this case, they are used natural ingredients and a little physics - temperature effects, mixing, etc. Of course, such honey is somewhat inferior to its natural counterpart in terms of benefits, but it also has its own advantages. For example, artificial honey can be consumed by people who are allergic to bee products.
Unnatural honey
Artificial honey is made from acacia, elderberry, linden and fruit. The composition of the final product will depend on the choice of raw materials; most often, artificial honey mostly consists of sugar (from 80%), water (up to 17%) and natural impurities (up to 3%).
In industrial production, starch syrup is often used instead of sugar.
It is important to know and appearance proper artificial honey:
- Transparent, without foreign impurities. After crystallization it becomes whitish;
- The aroma is bright, floral;
- The viscosity is low, honey has a liquid, watery structure.
Cooking recipes
How to make artificial honey at home? In fact, you can experiment endlessly with preparing delicacies, and some invented recipe can easily become the pride of the housewife. But today we will look at a timeless classic - elderberry and acacia honey.
Artificial elderberry honey at home
Elderberry honey retains all the beneficial properties of the plant - this delicious syrup can be used for flu and colds, lung diseases and as a sedative. Can be used by both adults and children.
How to make elderberry honey?
- During the flowering period, from May to June, elderberry flowers begin to be collected. We will need a half-liter jar of tightly compacted plant flowers;
- The collected flowers are transferred to a saucepan and water (1 liter) is added - cooking begins. It is customary to cook for 10 minutes after boiling. Next, remove the pan from the stove and leave to steep for 12-15 hours;
- After the specified time, the broth must be strained from the flowers, add sugar (3 kg) and let the resulting mixture boil and cook for an hour, stirring occasionally, until thickened;
- The final touch is to add a teaspoon citric acid.
Hot honey is poured into jars, allowed to cool and only then covered with plastic lids. Store the resulting product in a dark and cool place.
Acacia honey
Artificial acacia honey is not inferior to elderberry honey - it has a beautiful pink-brown hue, a pleasant aroma and low calorie content(compared to natural honey). Also, this honey retains all the beneficial properties of acacia. Well, isn't it a housewife's dream? To realize this dream, we need white acacia flowers. It is advisable to collect them in the morning or after rain, in the countryside away from roads. The collected flowers are washed in water, the stalks and stems are cut off.
Important! It is advisable that the cooking container be wide, this will speed up the cooking process. Do not use copper utensils!
- Flowers (1-1.5 kg) need to be soaked in water and half a teaspoon of citric acid added;
- While the mixture is infused, proceed to cooking the sugar syrup;
- Pour sugar (1.5 kg) into a separate pan, add water (1.5 l) and place the container on medium heat;
- Drain the water from the acacia flowers and pour them into the boiling syrup;
- Cooking continues over medium heat until the petals become transparent. This usually takes 30-40 minutes;
- After cooking is completed, the finished, still hot dessert is poured into jars.
Acacia flower honey
Acacia honey with lemon recipe
- Fill acacia flowers (1-1.5 kg) with water. Take two lemons and cut them into cubes together with the peel;
- Mix these pieces with the flowers (after draining the water from them);
- Boil the resulting mixture over low heat for 15-20 minutes;
- Next, let it brew for 24 hours in a dark and cool place;
- After the specified time, you need to squeeze out the product. excess liquid and clean through a sieve;
- Then pour sugar into the raw material and cook over low heat for 40-45 minutes until it reaches a thick consistency.
Acacia honey is also stored in a dark and cool place.
These recipes will help you prepare a tasty and healthy treat at home. But what if you want to buy artificial honey in a store or at a fair? Or are you afraid to “run into” it when buying natural honey?
How to distinguish artificial honey from natural?
Differences between artificial honey and natural honey
- Artificial honey is cheaper;
- Lack of viscosity, plasticity: natural honey, if taken into a spoon, will flow in a continuous stream, which can be wrapped around the spoon. You can’t do this with artificial honey;
- Artificial honey does not cause a sore throat;
- The taste is dominated by fruity or floral notes, there is no characteristic aftertaste and versatility of natural honey;
- If you dip a slice of bread in natural honey, it will not get soggy, because... natural honey there is practically no water.
These are the rules you need to remember in order to choose the right honey you need.
At the same time, artificial honey exists perfectly on the market as a good alternative natural honey(especially if the year was lean) and replacement with high-calorie or less healthy sweets. Don't be afraid to try this product; perhaps it will take its rightful place on your table.
Just recently black medicinal elderberry necessarily grew up in every farmstead. Elder flowers were made from healing honey, jam from berries, recipes were passed down from grandmothers, healers and midwives to granddaughters, future herbalists, healers.
How to cook remedy For what diseases is it especially effective?
Few people know about this today, but it is honey and elderberry jam that have remarkable properties gentle, gentle effect on the body, they are much more effective than chemical antibiotics, vitamins from plastic and rubber boxes.
The inflorescences are rich in glycosides, vitamins, essential oils, alkaloids, mineral salts, phytoncides. If you boil honey, you can forget about pills for colds, flu, coughs, and sore throats.
Natural antibiotics can cope with more serious illnesses: chronic diseases kidneys, joints, rheumatism, osteochondrosis. This is an excellent prevention of tuberculosis infection and oncology, as it remarkably strengthens the immune system.
Recipe for healing elderberry honey
Ingredients: 1 kg sugar, 500 gr. flowers.
- The inflorescences are placed in a wide bowl, water is poured into it, boiled for 20 minutes, sugar is added, and left for an hour.
- The dishes are put back on the fire, with slow, frequent stirring, the flowers are simmered in syrup until a stretchy thick mass is obtained (30 minutes).
- The honey is almost ready, but it is not immediately poured into jars; it is necessary to keep the mass until it cools completely.
- Cold thick syrup It is famous for its very pleasant aromatic taste.
- Store it in a well-closed glass container, refrigerated. They used to put them in cellars, but today they keep them in the refrigerator.
- Even children eat it with pleasure, but it is important to remember that any brew from medicinal herbs Do not take in large portions!
- It’s better to hide it away, close it tightly, and give it out a little at a time.
Elderberry jam, best recipes
Elderberry berries are successfully used as anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial agents. Dried fruits It is brewed as tea, and an amazingly healing, very aromatic, tasty jam is made from elderberries.
Elderberry jam, recipe 1
- Berries and sugar are taken in equal quantities.
- Keep in the bowl for 4 hours, then put on low heat.
- Cook for five minutes: it boils, turn it off, stir, after 10 minutes return to the fire, and continue until drops of syrup completely stop spreading over the dry saucer.
- The jam is considered ready when a drop of syrup, shaken from a spoon onto the porcelain, retains its round, dense structure.
Jam from flowers and elderberries can be cooked with the addition of juice. For 1 kg of berries (600g of flowers) you need one and a half kilograms of sugar, the juice of 1 large lemon (or you can grind it in a meat grinder), 500 ml of water.
- First you need to boil the syrup from water and sugar, then add berries (flowers), lemon (or juice) into it.
- We also cook for five minutes.
- With this method of making jam, less vitamins and other biological active substances are lost.
- The finished elderberry jam is poured hot into clean glass jars, but they don’t seal them right away, first they just cover them with a clean cloth.
- When cool, put on the lids.
It is important to remember that you cannot eat a lot of elderberry jam and honey; the seeds of the berries contain enough large number alkaloids.
However, it is their presence that allows one to recover from severe pulmonary diseases and has a positive effect on the treatment of diabetes, ulcerative lesions, and some types of cancer.
Between natural bee honey and artificial have nothing in common. This product is not produced by bees, but is created by human hands at home. But artificial honey is not fake at all. It's completely independent food product, obtained from cane or juice of grapes, melon, watermelon or flower infusions of linden, acacia, elderberry with the addition granulated sugar. It is the latter honey that is considered useful, since it retains medicinal properties plants that are valued folk medicine.
Benefits of elderflower honey
The medicinal plant elderberry has been used in folk medicine for many years to prepare infusions and decoctions. They are used as an antipyretic, diaphoretic, diuretic, anthelmintic. Hot decoction of elderberry flowers helps in the treatment of diseases respiratory tract, bronchitis, as well as sore throat, stomatitis, etc. Infusions from this plant soothe nervous system, relieve headaches and toothaches.
Elderberry honey is real medicinal syrup, which retains unique properties plants. It helps in treating flu, colds, pneumonia, etc. With such delicious medicine recovery occurs much faster.
homemade recipe
During the period of intense flowering of elderberry, from May to June, it is the right time to collect the flowers of the plant. They are separated from the stalks and compacted tightly into a half-liter jar. This is exactly how many flowers you will need to make elderberry honey at home, the recipe for which is offered below.
At home, transfer the flowers to a saucepan and add cold water(1 l). After boiling, cook for 10 minutes. Remove the pan from the stove and, without opening the lid, leave to steep for 12-15 hours.
After the specified time, strain the broth from the flowers, add sugar (3 kg) and let it boil. Boil the honey for an hour, stirring occasionally, until the mixture begins to thicken. At the end of cooking, add a teaspoon of citric acid (can be replaced with the juice of half a lemon). Pour hot honey into jars, and after cooling, cover with plastic lids and store in a cool, dark place.
Artificial elderberry honey: indications for use
The main advantage of artificial honey over natural honey is that it does not cause allergies. This means that the scope of application of this product is much wider.
Artificial honey can be consumed by adults, children, and even pregnant women and nursing mothers. The recommended dose is one teaspoon three times a day, washed down with water, herbal tea or rosehip decoction. You can add elderberry honey directly to your tea. This is an excellent sugar substitute.
Recipe for artificial linden honey
No less valuable than elderberries, this tree is usually dried, after which it can be brewed into tea, which has a beneficial effect on the nervous system, helps with flu and colds, and diseases of the digestive system. Similar action has artificial honey made from linden.
The picked flowers need to be separated from the leaves and compacted tightly into a jar (3 liters). After this, they need to be placed in a pan and filled with water (1.5 l). Boil after boiling for 20 minutes, then set aside and let cool completely and brew for 6 hours. Then strain the broth, add the same amount of sugar as there were flowers (3 l). Boil honey for 2 hours until thickened. 20 minutes before the end of cooking, pour in the juice of half a lemon. Pour honey into jars and store in a cool, dark place indefinitely.
Linden honey can be added to tea or taken a teaspoon daily to prevent disease and strengthen the immune system.
Homemade acacia honey
You can also make a sweet treat from white acacia flowers. Artificial honey has a beautiful pinkish-brown color and a very pleasant taste. To prepare it you will need a liter jar of acacia flowers, the same amount of water, 2.5 kg of sugar and the juice of half a lemon.
Before making honey, many housewives wonder whether acacia flowers need to be washed or not. On the one hand, water will rid the inflorescences of dust and insects that may be inside, but on the other hand, you can lose most of the valuable pollen. That's why best option- it is better not to wash, but you should also collect flowers not at the side of the roads, but in places where there is no road dust.
In general, the process of preparing honey is similar to how it is prepared from elderberry. The flowers are poured with water, boiled for 10-15 minutes, and then allowed to brew for 12-14 hours. After this, the broth is filtered and boiled with sugar until thickened for two hours. At the end of cooking, add lemon juice and pour into jars. Cool well before use. It is good to add to tea, purified water or rosehip decoction.
The fact that elderberry decorates yards with its blooms in the spring, and the fact that one bush bears up to 50 thousand fruits, is just one plus of the plant. And the fact that both flowers and berries can be used for treatment and prevention various diseases- second.
Of the three known species elderberry – red, black and grassy – medicinal properties has a black one.
It has a diaphoretic, expectorant, laxative, and also tonic effect when certain diseases properly prepared elderberry.
Any grandmother in the village knows and will be happy to tell you what elderberry helps with. Moreover, he will also give you a good kilogram of berries or ready-made jam.
So, what specific diseases do the fruits and color of this simple plant help with?
Elderberry color: medicinal properties
Elderberry promotes:
- rapid healing of wounds;
- eliminates intestinal colic;
- used in the treatment of the kidneys and genitourinary system;
- at vascular diseases reduces capillary fragility;
- soothes and cools skin with sunburn.
Eat a whole series very serious and unpleasant diseases that are “afraid” of elderberry and noticeably recede when this folk healer is included in the treatment process: 
- pneumonia and bronchitis;
- diabetes mellitus;
- anemia;
- neuroses;
- heart failure;
- epilepsy;
- cystitis.
In the old days when cosmetics were in short supply, rural beauties were not very upset by this fact, since from childhood they were well aware of the benefits of elderberry for their appearance.
Firstly, elderberry teas and decoctions improve complexion and burn fat perfectly.
Secondly, elderberry prevents the occurrence spider veins and serves wonderful prophylactic from varicose veins.
Thirdly, elderberry is an excellent antidepressant. A female beauty, like health, depend 99.9% on the state of the nervous system.
Recipes for using elderberry in folk medicine are very simple: it is either tea, jam, or raw berries, ground with sugar or mixed with honey.
The best elderberry recipes
- Raw jam
For 1 kg of elderberries take 1.5 kg of sugar. Grind the berries in a meat grinder, add sugar, place in clean, dry jars, and cover with plastic lids. Keep refrigerated.
Take 1 tbsp an hour before meals. spoon.
- Tea "Simpler than Simple"
For 1 glass of boiling water – 1 tbsp. spoon of elderflowers. Leave for 20 minutes, then strain. Drink 4 times a day for 15 minutes. before meals.
- Elderflower honey
To prepare honey from elderflower flowers, you need to collect 300 ml. fresh elderberry flowers. Pour a liter of boiling water over the flowers. Leave for 6 hours, covered with a lid and a towel. Add water to the strained infusion to 1 liter, add 3 kg of sugar, boil, remove the foam with a wooden spoon. Reduce heat, cook for 4 hours. At the end of cooking, add 1 tsp. citric acid. Pour into jars and store covered. This honey is added to tea for any cold and taken for preventive purposes, taking 4 tsp. during the day. Flower honey good remedy from skin pigmentation, itching and pain in the liver area.
- Tincture against ARVI
If you are sick with ARVI or something related to the respiratory system, you need to infuse a tablespoon of flowers in 250 ml for half an hour. boiling water Strain and consume half a glass half an hour before meals, 3 times during the day. The same recipe for a choleretic agent.
- Against arthritis and rheumatism
For arthritis, rheumatism and similar diseases apply a compress, and also put elderflower flowers with the addition of chamomile (hot) on the sore joints or take baths.
- For radiculitis
For radiculitis - 1.5 tbsp. l. Brew elderflower flowers for an hour in a half-liter thermos. Drink the strained decoction - half a glass before meals, 4 times. Course - 10-12 days.
- Decoction for sand in the kidneys
The decoction is used to determine sand in the kidneys. Take 20g of dried flowers per glass of boiling water. 10 min. boiling in a water bath. Dosage: 1/3 glass before meals.
- Calming Brew
For headaches, bad sleep For neuralgia, you need to brew a teaspoon of dried flowers with a glass of boiling water. After 20 minutes, strain (you can add honey). Drink a quarter glass 3 times a day before meals. 
- Baths against female diseases
Decoctions and infusions of black elderberry flowers can be used to douche and make baths for gynecological diseases (pour 25 g of flowers into 0.5 liters of boiling water, leave for 20 minutes).
- For hair loss
Mix a large spoonful of elderberry buds and flowers (1:1), boil over low heat for 5 minutes in 250 ml. water. Once a day, rub the decoction into the hair roots.
