In the Caucasus, a dogwood bush is a symbol of endurance. Its beneficial properties have been known since ancient times. Indeed, thanks to its composition, you will be able to keep your body in good shape all the long winter months. And if you came from a severe frost frozen and tired, dogwood tincture will bring you back to life, and the next day you won’t even remember what you used, even if you drank a little of this most valuable and delicious drink.
Description of the dogwood plant
People call the dogwood bush also turf and shaitan tree, it can also grow in the form of a tree. The name means "red" in Turkish. In nature, you can meet it only in the mountains of the Caucasus, but they began to cultivate it throughout southern Europe, even in France.
The height of the bush can reach 5 meters, the crown is sprawling or oval. Dogwood blooms with small golden flowers, collected in an umbrella of 15-20 pieces, in March-April. A feature of the plant is that the comfortable flowering temperature is15°C. But if it gets colder and the temperature drops below +8, the flowers close and wait. As soon as it warms up to a comfortable temperature, they continue their flowering.
The most valuable and healing part of the plant is the fruit. Juicy and fleshy oval-shaped drupe with a sweet and sour taste. If you have tried dogwood jam at least once, you will no longer confuse the taste and aroma with any other. And dogwood tincture has the same pronounced taste and aroma.
The legend of the dogwood appearance
There is a legend that Allah began to give each person a plant. Someone got a peach, someone got a cherry. And the cunning Shaitan grabbed a dogwood bush. Its logic was simple: it blooms early, one of the first, which means that the fruits will appear early. But how he miscalculated.
Already the summer was coming to an end, and the berries were still hard and astringent. Shaitan got angry and began to blow a flame on the bush, trying to burn it. The berries turned bright red but remained sour and firm.
"Muck, not a plant," Shaitan growled. - "Take it to yourself!" And in late autumn, he bit his elbows, because people began to collect juicy and ripe berries from the bush. In retaliation for having so missed himself, he cast a spell on the bush, forcing it to bear fruit even more. Now if the dogwood gives a rich harvest, wait for a fierce, frosty winter.
But frosts are not terrible if the whole crop is harvested and dogwood tincture is ready, which will warm the body and soul.
Dogwood berry: composition andcalories
The berries contain proteins and fats, as well as easily digestible carbohydrates, dietary fibers that normalize digestion, and fruit acids (including the rare succinic acid), flavonoids and essential oils, phytoncides.
A large amount of vitamin C will help strengthen the immune system, and you can easily cope with any cold and flu, this vitamin is also involved in hematopoiesis, because with its deficiency, iron is very poorly absorbed. There is also vitamin P (rutin) in the berry. And how many macro- and microelements are in the fruits of dogwood, which are so necessary for the body! Iron and calcium, sodium and potassium, phosphorus and magnesium, sulfur. Without them, any human organ cannot function normally.
Does not threaten you and get better if you eat dogwood in reasonable quantities, because the calorie content of 100 grams is only 45 kcal.
When dogwood tincture is prepared, all useful substances are preserved and transferred to alcohol or vodka. It depends on what you insist on. So what diseases can dogwood tincture help cure?
Useful properties of dogwood berries
The berry contains more ascorbic acid than blackcurrant. And phytoncides have antibacterial properties, being a natural antibiotic. Eat berries regularly and you will protect your body from various viruses and bacteria. And besides this, phytoncides help remove s alts of heavy metals and other substances that poison the human body.
If you have problems with the digestive tract, then dogwood can be prescribed for you. After all, berries have the following effect:
- improve appetite;
- solve the problem of indigestion;
- normalize the level of acidity;
- remove heartburn.
Dogwood will be useful for those who are struggling with being overweight, as well as for those who follow the figure. With the help of berries, you can normalize metabolic processes, including fat. Tonic properties - another of the properties of dogwood berries.
If you have problems with the circulatory system, then you simply must use dogwood. After all, with its help you can solve the following problems:
- normalize blood composition by increasing hemoglobin;
- strengthen weak vessel walls;
- normalize blood pressure.
In diabetes, dogwood is also useful. After all, it lowers blood sugar levels and enhances the secretion of enzymes by the pancreas.
In the Middle Ages, they already knew the ability of dogwood to treat such terrible ailments as typhus and dysentery. But in those days, these diseases claimed many human lives.
The astringent properties of the berry help to solve problems such as diarrhea and diarrhoea.
Naturally, the most useful substances are found in fresh berries, but even after cooking there is still a lot left. And what a great taste and aroma of various dogwood tinctures and liqueurs! And at the same time, all useful properties are preserved.
How to cook kizilovka
Cornel tincture on vodka in the common people is called dogwood, it is easy to prepare. For this you will need:
- half a kilo of ripe dogwood;
- 750g vodka.
Sort and rinse the fruits under running water, place in a 2-liter jar and use a pusher to turn into gruel, which is poured with vodka and placed in a place inaccessible to sunlight for a month. Strain the resulting tincture through cheesecloth. Very often, even after filtering, a precipitate remains, which you can get rid of by passing the tincture through cheesecloth.
This is the easiest recipe for dogwood tincture on vodka. If you add 100 g of sugar there, the acid from the berries will become softer. The result is a 25 percent dogwood liqueur. It is more gently drunk, but the body receives much more calories from it.
Alcohol tincture
A strong drink that will instantly warm you up if you come home very cold is dogwood tincture with alcohol. It is done easily. Washed dogwood berries are placed in a container until it stops, the remaining space is filled with 96% alcohol. After about three months, the dogwood tincture is ready, it's time to take the first sample.
With this method, all the useful properties of dogwood are preserved. To increase the therapeutic effect, alcohol tincture can be sweetened with honey, but not more than one tablespoon per liter.
Moonshine Tincture
Cornel tincture on moonshine is also very original and tastes good. Her recipe is also simple, and the properties are preserved. For its preparation you will need:
- 800 ml homemade moonshine 50° proof;
- 600gripe fruits;
- 150 grams of granulated sugar.
We sort, wash and dry the berries, put them in a suitable size container, fill with moonshine, cork tightly, shake and place in a dark place. It would be nice to occasionally shake.
After 3 weeks, the extract should be passed through gauze to remove cake and bones from the drink. Add sugar to the solution and leave alone for another seven days.
The resulting drink is easy to drink, the absence of a hangover the next day is guaranteed.
Original dogwood snack
You have the recipe for dogwood tincture, it remains only to figure out what to eat to make it tasty and good for he alth. You can cook Polish "olives" from green dogwood berries. There are cases in history when Jewish traders in Poland mixed such "olives" with real ones, making a big profit. So, we take green dogwood fruits and place them in a glass container, add oak leaves, thyme and garlic cloves to taste. Pour all this with brine at the rate of 10 g of s alt per liter of water and leave for 4 weeks.
After a month, drain the water, and keep the berries for several minutes in boiling water, and then put them back in a jar and pour boiling vegetable oil (better if it is olive oil) with herbs that you prefer. Poles made with thyme. Now it remains only to wait a couple of weeks until the dogwood berries become spicy. The appetizer is ready, it's time to surprise your friends.
