Sbiten is an undeservedly forgotten Slavic drink. Once it was much more popular than tea and coffee. Its main advantage is a natural, rich and useful composition. Sbiten gives strength, fills the body with vitamins, helps to recover from serious illnesses and is very simple to cook at home.
Home Sbiten - General Cooking Principles
All types of drink can be divided into winter, summer and alcoholic options. A warming sbiten will help protect against colds and give warmth. Cold versions of the drink will be enjoyed on a hot day, will be a wonderful summer treat. Alcohol drinks were served at the festive table. The constant ingredient of any kind is fresh bee honey.
What else can be added:
• ginger;
• cinnamon;
• star anise;
• cloves;
• different berries;
• herbs.
Sbiten is prepared in various ways, but most often with cooking. Alcoholic versions of the drink take time to ferment, often they add hops. Before use, the broth is always filtered, sometimes supplemented with lemon. Shelf life directly depends on the recipe. If the drink is hot, then it is advisable to drink it within an hour. Cold food stores are stored for several days. The Slavs procured alcohol versions for the future, kept them in the cellars for several months, and brought them to the festive feast.
Sbiten "Honey" at home (winter version)
A traditional Slavic recipe for warming honey at home. A classic drink is prepared only with a real cinnamon stick and fresh ginger, it is better not to use dry spices from a bag.
Ingredients
• litere of water;
• 150 grams of honey;
• 50 grams of sugar;
• 5 pieces of cardamom;
• lemon;
• cinnamon stick;
• star anise star;
• a slice of ginger root.
Cooking
1. Combine water with sugar. Sometimes they immediately lay honey, but if you want to preserve all the useful substances. It’s better not to do it yet. In general, sugar can not be added, but the classic drink is very sweet, sometimes this amount of food goes up to 150 grams. We pour a little bit.
2. We put the ginger root cut by thin plates, first remove the thin skin.
3. Remove the zest from the lemon, add the peel to the saucepan.
4. We fall asleep all other spices, put on the stove.
5. Bring to a boil over high heat, then cover, reduce heat and simmer for about one hour.
6. Turn off the stove, let the drink stand for another 15 minutes.
7. Cut the lemon in half, squeeze the juice from one part of the citrus into a drink, stir.
8. We spread honey, just the liquid has cooled slightly.
9. Filter the sbiten, pour into mugs, add slices of fresh lemon. Since this is a winter version of the drink, we serve it hot.
Homemade Cranberries
A variant of a refreshing homemade cranberry jam. Although hot, this drink is also very tasty. Cranberries can be taken fresh, frozen, grated.
Ingredients
• 200 g cranberries;
• litere of water;
• two tablespoons of honey;
• clove bud;
• a pinch of nutmeg.
Cooking
1. Pour boiled water over cranberries if the berries are whole. If they are already frayed, then just lay in the pan. We also lay whole berries, pound with a pestle.
2. Add water, you can immediately take boiling water, throw the cloves.
3. Put on fire, bring to a boil, boil for a couple of minutes.
4. Insist cranberries for about half an hour.
5. We filter the broth through cheesecloth, carefully squeeze the cranberries.
6. We throw in a decoction a pinch of nutmeg.
7. Let the drink cool to 60 degrees so as not to ruin the vitamins in honey.
8. Add honey, stir until dissolved.
9. Cool or use warm. If desired, for greater sweetness, you can introduce sugar or add a couple of spoons of honey.
Sbiten "Honey" at home with prunes
One of the brightest options for honey selling. The taste will directly depend on the quality of prunes. Choose good, unprocessed dried fruits.
Ingredients
• 100 g of prunes;
• 10 pieces. rose hips;
• 1 clove;
• 1.5 liters of water;
• 4 tbsp. l honey;
• 5 g of fresh ginger.
Cooking
1. Rinse the prunes, put in a pot of water, put on the stove.
2. Break the washed rosehip, add after the prunes.
3. Introduce the chopped ginger root, add one clove. It's minimum. If you like clove aroma, then you can throw up to five stars.
4. Cook it all for about half an hour, but do not let it simmer actively, cook over low heat with a low boil.
5. Turn off the stove and wrap the pan in a warm blanket, imitating a thermos. In the old days, they simply put a dish on a warm stove.
6. Leave for two hours.
7. Stir the sbiten so that the dried fruits give the taste as much as possible. We filter.
8. You can add more honey or sugar if sweets are few.
9. The drink is universal, you can drink it immediately in the form of heat or cool in the refrigerator.
Homemade convent "Monastic"
Once a very popular recipe for home slaughter, in which fresh hop cones were added. It is believed that it was invented by the monks, hence the name appeared.
Ingredients
• 1 kg of honey;
• 20 g of hop cones;
• 100 ml of tea leaves;
• 3 liters of water;
• an asterisk an anise star.
Cooking
1. Combine honey with water, put on a stove.
2. Put the hops in a gauze bag, put star anise and one stone thoroughly washed with soap in it. Throw in the pan.
3. Brew the drink for 2 hours with a slight boil.
4. Remove from heat, cool to a warm state.
5. Brew strong tea from 1 tbsp. l tea leaves and 120 ml of water.
6. Strain, about 100 ml should come out. Combine with the main broth.
7. Pour into a fermentation tank with a water lock, which is used in the preparation of wine.
8. Remove the sbiten in a dark and cool place until the fermentation ends.
9. Using a transparent tube, remove the drink from the precipitate, pour into clean bottles, and seal. Leave in the basement for ripening for a month.
Sbiten honey at home with an orange
A very spicy version of honey whipped, which is simply cooked at home. Citrus juice is not needed, only the zest. It can be prepared for future use, dried, used at any time.
Ingredients
• 5 tablespoons of honey;
• 1 tbsp. l zest;
• 2 liters of water;
• 2 cloves;
• 2-3 cm of ginger root;
• 1 vanilla pod;
• 1 cinnamon.
Cooking
1. Cut ginger into thin plates or grate, pour into a saucepan.
2. Add fresh or dried zest, in the second embodiment, the amount can be halved.
3. Throw the vanilla pod, throw the cinnamon stick. It can be broken into several parts.
4. Add a couple of clove stars. If there are star anise, then it can be laid.
5. Fill with water, put honey and send it all to the stove.
6. After boiling, simmer on the stove for two hours. Be sure to cover so that the liquid does not evaporate.
7. Ready sbiten strain, use hot. If necessary, you can reheat.
Homemade buckthorn with sea buckthorn and calendula
Another very fragrant and tasty version of homemade slimming. To make the drink saturated, it is best to use ripe sea buckthorn. This drink can be consumed hot and cold.
Ingredients
• 200 g of sea buckthorn berries;
• 150 g of liquid honey;
• 10 g of ginger root;
• 1.6 liters of water;
• 1 tbsp. l oregano;
• 1 tbsp. l calendula
• 2-3 cloves;
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks.
Cooking
1. Put the berries of sea buckthorn in a pan. If they are frozen, then thaw a little. Mash the pusher.
2. Add water to the drink, put on the stove, boil for ten minutes.
3. Add chopped ginger.
4. To fill up all herbs and spices, something can be removed or added more to your liking. Stir, turn off the stove.
5. Cover the pan, leave for half an hour to make the broth more saturated.
6. Strain, squeeze the herbal cake with berries.
7. Add honey to the still hot liquid, stir until it is completely dissolved.
Sbiten "Honey" at home with mint and apples
A delicious and once-popular recipe for honey whipped. At home, it was often cooked with peppermint. But if desired, this ingredient can be excluded or replaced with lemon balm.
Ingredients
• 2 apples;
• 150 g of honey;
• 1 tsp chopped peppermint (can be dry);
• 4 cloves;
• 7 glasses of water;
• 1 cm of ginger root;
• cinnamon stick;
• 0.5 lemons.
Cooking
1. Cut the apples into quarters. You do not need to remove seeds or throw away stubs. We throw it into the pan.
2. Add prescription water.
3. Thinly cut the ginger root, add to the total mass.
4. Spread the cloves with mint and cinnamon.
5. Remove a little zest, add to the pan.
6. Boil together 15 minutes after boiling water. The same amount of time is given to the sbiten stand.
7. We filter. We introduce liquid honey into the drink.
8. Lemon, which was left without zest, cut into pieces, put into glasses.
9. Fill with hot sbitn and enjoy yourself!
Home Sbiten - Useful Tips and Tricks
• Ginger root is very easily and quickly cleaned of the gray skin with an ordinary teaspoon, it briskly passes through all the bumps.
• If there is an allergy to honey, the drink should never be consumed. Also, it should not be given to young children under three years of age.
• If pieces of grass, ginger or other products float in a drink, then it is not very pleasant to consume it. Therefore, you need to filter the sbiten through several layers of gauze or use a small strainer.
• Often, confusion is confused with mead, which was also a very popular drink among the Slavs. But in reality they are prepared using completely different technologies.
• If you don’t like the cloying taste of biten, you can add a little lemon juice to it.
