Russian cuisine is difficult to confuse with any other cuisine in the world, thanks to the originality of the dishes and drinks included in its composition. In this article we will talk about a true national product - Russian kvass. We will talk about a real homemade drink, and not about a kvass surrogate, which is increasingly being sold in stores. Homemade intoxicating drink has more than 150 recipes, some of which have a centuries-old history. Completely different products are used as raw materials for kvass: bread, yeast, beets, birch and apple sap, dried fruits, sprouted wheat, carrots, cabbage pickle, cumin, ginger, hops, etc.
Thanks to its composition, kvass is perhaps the best way to quench your thirst. After a glass of intoxicating homemade drink, you will feel a surge of strength and increased performance. Homemade kvass helps the stomach better cope with the digestion of too fatty foods. Digestion processes improve and appetite awakens. This drink helps restore normal fluid-salt balance in the body.
The content of vitamins, microelements and essential organic acids has a beneficial effect on the general condition of the body and on the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract in particular.
In Rus', homemade kvass was considered a real healing drug that helped restore strength after a serious illness and endure hardships during famine. Some old sources indicate that homemade intoxicating drink has a beneficial effect on male potency.
Is it possible to drink kvass if you are overweight and what is its calorie content? The number of calories in kvass directly depends on the amount of sugar it contains. The absence of fat contributes to the most effective weight loss. Kvass is certainly useful for weight loss and is included in a number of diets. If the drink is used as an aid to body shaping and getting rid of excess fat, you should choose recipes with a minimal amount of sugar or without it at all. Beet kvass is optimal for those losing weight, which can become the main product on fasting days.
Let's take a look at several recipes on how to make kvass at home.
Sourdough ingredients:
Ingredients for kvass:
Preparation.
There are drinks that were made in ancient times and continue to be made today. The hero of our article is honorary kvass! We will tell you about its benefits and the secrets of its creation, and provide popular recipes for this product.
Kvass kills pathogenic bacteria and improves intestinal function
There are about 400 types of drink. It's hard to find someone who doesn't like this refreshing liquid. In Rus', both kings and poor people drank it. It was believed that it increases strength, improves digestion and quenches thirst well. Let's get to know our hero better.
Doing this is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. The process, of course, drags on for several days, but most of this time the product is created itself. Your job is small.
Let's look at how to make kvass at home.
After several days of fermentation (no more than four), be sure to place the drink in the refrigerator. Otherwise, the fermentation process will continue, and you will get full-fledged alcohol, and not what you originally planned. Do not forget to remove the starter in time.
Store the liquid for no more than a week; after this period, it is not recommended to use it.
We can talk about the benefits of homemade bread kvass for a very long time. We list the main positive properties:
This type of drink has its undeniable advantages. It has no specific taste and is not harmful to health. After all, no one will argue that yeast is not the healthiest ingredient, and it is better if it is not present in this proven liquid. Let's look at how kvass is produced without yeast at home.
Ingredients:
Perhaps someone will be surprised to read that raisins do not need to be washed. Therefore, it is worth leaving an explanation here: the so-called wild yeast remains on the surface of the raisins. They will help our product begin fermentation. They should not be washed off.
Step-by-step preparation:
You will get excellent homemade bread kvass without yeast. Store it in a cool place for no more than five days.
You can use the remaining starter three more times. It should be stored in the refrigerator for no more than a day.
Choose good bread! The quality and taste of the resulting drink depends on it.
Sometimes it is also called “village”. It has a fairly simple method of preparation.
Ingredients for homemade rye flour kvass:
The first step is to update the starter. To do this, you should add a tablespoon to it. flour and two sugars.
Mix everything. Place in a warm place.
Bring 2.5 liters of water to a boil. Pour two hundred grams of flour and one hundred grams of granulated sugar into a container.
Add hot water gradually (until the consistency of liquid sour cream). Then add some more water and stir. Add the remaining water, and then mix everything well again.
Cover the container with a lid and wrap it in something warm. When the mixture has cooled to 30 degrees, add the previously prepared starter to the liquid. Stir and cover with a lid.
Send to a dark and warm room for six hours. Wait for bubbles and foam to appear.
Leaven:
Kvass for a three-liter jar:
Steps:
a) infusion of water; b) infusion in heat; c) straining; d) kvass wort for reuse; e) pouring into a bottle and sending it into the cold; e) ready-made drink
This is the favorite drink of many. It has a wonderful aroma and taste. It is better to make it in combination with honey.
We will provide you with a recipe for kvass made from oats and honey at home:
Surprisingly, beet kvass also exists, and we will tell you how to prepare it at home.
Recipe:
Before summer has even given us its warmth, we are already reaching for different drinks. For me, there is nothing better than kvass, it’s delicious and perfectly quenches thirst, especially if it’s real homemade kvass. And if you are interested in the question - how to make kvass at home, then you are at the right time, in the right place.
I decided to offer you a selection of interesting recipes for this delicious drink, choose the one that you like.
This is not always a quick process, but in any case, making homemade kvass is not difficult - there are a minimum of ingredients and low labor costs. And then the kvass is made on its own, without our intervention, we just have to wait for the tasty result.
Kvass was made in ancient times and is still made today. And it gained such popularity not only as a drink that quenches thirst, but also as a drink that is beneficial for our body. In Rus', everyone drank kvass, both poor people and rich people, they believed that it added strength and energy, and was good for digestion.
But for it to be truly useful, you need to know the intricacies of making kvass at home.
Kvass without yeast, also called double-fermented kvass, is one of the most correct recipes, the one that our grandmothers and great-grandmothers prepared. In it, fermented milk fermentation predominates over alcoholic fermentation; accordingly, a balance of nutrients and vitamins is maintained, which makes it useful for our body.
Ingredients:
How to make yeast-free kvass:
It is important to know that if you don’t really like the taste of the first kvass, this does not mean that the recipe is bad, this is normal. The real taste appears during subsequent fermentations and the older the kvass, the tastier it is.
Watch the video for another recipe for kvass without yeast; it is made without leaven and therefore the process is a little faster.
This recipe is very popular in home cooking - the yeast accelerates the ripening of the drink and the kvass turns out very tasty. If anyone is bothered by the smell of yeast, then it will only be felt in young kvass. Yes, and we will use yeast only once, then we will add sourdough and the smell of yeast will go away.
Ingredients:
How to make homemade kvass with yeast:
We leave half of the swollen crackers as a starter and make the next kvass using it; there is no need to make yeast starter, but otherwise we prepare it the same way.
Kvass from store-bought kvass wort is a simpler option for preparing a delicious summer drink. To make kvass that tastes good, you need to buy a good concentrate, for example, prepared according to GOST 28538-90. If there is no such marking, pay attention to the composition of the wort so that it is natural without unnecessary additives. It’s good when the wort contains different types of malt, for example barley and rye, then the kvass has a richer taste.
Ingredients:
How to make kvass yourself from store-bought wort:
Flour kvass is a real Russian drink, it is also called rustic. This recipe is also popular for its ease of preparation and also because this drink perfectly quenches thirst, is excellent as small kvass, and in terms of usefulness it is ahead of all types of kvass.
Ingredients:
Method for preparing flour kvass:
If you replace sugar with honey, then such kvass will be healthier and tastier.
The grounds that have settled to the bottom will serve as leaven. But she needs to be revived. After decanting the kvass, add a little flour, sugar, warm water and leave for a couple of days. In the refrigerator, kvass grounds made from rye flour retain their qualities for quite a long time.
These were recipes for bread kvass, but there are many other interesting recipes, for example. I have already talked about its beneficial properties, as well as the method of preparation; we really like this kvass.
If you have the opportunity to collect birch sap, you can prepare kvass based on it.
This is where I will probably finish the conversation about how to make kvass at home, choose the recipe you like and enjoy the tasty and healthy drink.
As it turned out, there are a lot of recipes for kvass; they make such a drink from berries, chicory, ginger, rice, cleansing beet kvass, healthy kvass from celandine. So the topic is inexhaustible and maybe we will return to it with new experiments.
Elena Kasatova. See you by the fireplace.
There are whole legends about the beneficial properties of kvass. Real kvass and metabolism in the human body inhibit pathogenic microflora. This drink increases performance, it is used to prevent vitamin deficiency, since kvass contains many microelements (magnesium, calcium, lactic acid and phosphorus), vitamins (groups B, E), and amino acids.
Kvass for the treatment of the nervous system, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, as well as for improving mood due to the presence of amino acids, calcium, magnesium and B vitamins in the drink. Bread kvass for eye diseases, improves and strengthens teeth, is often used in diets to reduce weight, helps secretion of gastric juice. Kvass with the addition of beets has a choleretic effect, it restores liver cells and is used for arrhythmia.
To make real homemade kvass, you will need the following ingredients:
- loaf (500-700 grams);
- a handful of raisins;
- 60 grams of yeast;
- a glass of granulated sugar;
- 8 liters of purified water.
The yeast must be fresh, and the bread for the wort must be rye. It is recommended to store kvass in a cool place. The finished drink should be consumed within two to three days; if stored for a long time, it loses its taste and becomes sour.
Cut Borodino rye bread into slices, place on a baking sheet or frying pan and place in a heated oven to dry. The darker the crackers turn out, the darker the kvass. Be careful not to burn the bread, otherwise the drink will taste bitter. Take a large enamel pan and pour 8 liters of pre-purified water into it, put it on the fire, and boil. Place a glass of granulated sugar and fried crackers into the water and cool. As a result, the water should be slightly warm.
Scoop the cooled water from the pan into a bowl and dissolve the yeast in it. Then pour back into the pan, stir with a wooden spoon to distribute the yeast evenly. Tie the top of the pan with gauze or cloth and put it in a dark place for two days to ferment.
After the time has passed, strain the kvass through several layers of gauze; if desired, you can add a little more granulated sugar. Pour the sweetened and strained drink into three-liter jars, throw a small handful of raisins into each. Cover the jars with saucers and place in the refrigerator for a day.
The utensils for preparing kvass must be enamel or glass; an aluminum pan oxidizes, so you cannot cook wort in it.
A sediment should form at the bottom of the jar. Carefully pour the kvass through a strainer into clean jars, trying not to stir up the sediment. Place the raisins back into the kvass. Real
Russian kvass saved a lot of people.
Folk saying
It's hot... I'm thirsty... I don't want regular water, but sweet lemonades make me sick, and they don't help with thirst, but I just want to drink more... Shouldn't we drink kvass?
It is very easy to prepare kvass at home; you can see this for yourself by trying to prepare kvass according to our recipes. Moreover, wort for kvass can be bought at any grocery store.
Kvass at home can be different: on kvass wort, on rye bread, honey, fruit, berry... You can simply drink it in the heat, without fear for your figure and without thinking about the consequences, and it is also used to prepare okroshka, which is so beloved by many in the summer.
The fastest and easiest way to prepare kvass is with ready-made wort. It usually consists of sugar, rye malt, yeast and ground crackers. It is desirable that the kvass concentrate contains no preservatives.
Homemade kvass from dry sourdough
Ingredients:
3 liters of water,
125 g dry kvass,
100 g sugar,
20 g raisins,
6 g dry yeast.
Preparation:
Boil water in a saucepan. Pour one and a half liters of hot kvass into dry kvass, close tightly and leave to steep for 3 hours. Then strain. Pour the remaining water into the infusion. In a small amount of warm water in a separate bowl, dilute the yeast, pour it into the kvass, add sugar, add raisins, cover the pan with gauze and place in a cool place for fermentation. After three days, strain the kvass again and bottle it. Store in the cold for no more than three days.
from dry sourdough and dry malt
To make kvass tasty, like in childhood, you can buy a bag of dry malt for dry kvass and prepare it like this: pour 3-4 tbsp into a three-liter jar. l. dry kvass and 2 tbsp. l. dry malt, ½ tbsp. sugar, half a pack of dry yeast and pour it all with a glass of warm water. Leave in a warm place for fermentation, and when the mass rises a little, add warm water. For better fermentation, add a crust of rye bread and a handful of raisins. When the kvass is ready, strain it, do not throw away the grounds. It can be used to prepare the next portion of the drink. Store the finished kvass in the refrigerator.
Kvass from concentrate (basic recipe)
Ingredients:
3 liters of boiled water,
2 tbsp. kvass concentrate,
150 g sugar,
½ tsp. dry yeast (or pressed, they work faster),
1-2 tsp. raisins (black).
Preparation:
Pour the kvass concentrate into a 3-liter jar, add sugar and 500 ml of water and stir thoroughly. Add the yeast, cover with a napkin and leave to ferment in a warm place for a couple of days. Taste the kvass, and when you are completely satisfied with it, pour it into plastic bottles, put 5-6 raisins in each, screw on the lids and leave again in a warm place to continue fermentation. When the bottles become hard, which indicates that the kvass is well carbonated, put them in the refrigerator. Open with caution!
You can diversify the basic recipe by adding various products to improve the taste and aroma of kvass: mint leaves, currants, berry and fruit juice, grated horseradish (the kvass turns out spicy, invigorating!) - everything is limited only by your gastronomic preferences.
Homebreadkvassby leaps and bounds
Ingredients:
2.5 liters of water,
250 g rye bread,
150 g sugar,
10 g fresh yeast,
a handful of raisins.
Preparation:
Dry the bread, cut into small cubes, in the oven on a baking sheet until golden brown. Boil water and cool to room temperature. Pour crackers into the prepared jar, fill them with water, cover the neck of the jar with gauze and place in a dark place to ferment for two days. Strain the finished wort through cheesecloth, squeeze out the crackers. Dissolve the yeast in a small amount of water. Then pour the filtered wort into a jar, add yeast, 100 g of sugar and stir. Loosely cover the jar with a lid and leave for 16 hours in a dark place at room temperature. Pour the finished kvass into bottles, add a little remaining sugar and raisins to each, close the bottles tightly and again leave them in a dark place at room temperature for fermentation and carbonation. Then put the kvass in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours and then consume it within three days.
Bread kvass without yeast
Ingredients:
3 liters of water,
250 g rye bread,
50 g sugar,
a handful of raisins.
Preparation:
As in the previous recipe, dry the diced bread in the oven. Moreover, the darker your crackers turn out, the more saturated dark color your kvass will turn out. Dissolve sugar in boiling water and cool. Place the crackers in an enamel or glass container prepared for fermentation, add raisins and fill everything with water with sugar dissolved in it. Infuse the kvass for 3-4 days, then strain, bottle and store in a cool place. Open bottles of ready-made kvass carefully, trying not to shake them.
By the way, you can use the remaining soaked crackers, in other words, the starter, several more times, replacing half with fresh crackers and adding sugar or honey.
And here is another option for making homemade kvass, used by our housewives for many years - with the addition of mint and blackcurrant leaves, very aromatic and refreshing.
Kvass "Babushkin"
Ingredients:
2.5 liters of water,
200 g rye crackers,
100 g sugar,
30 g raisins,
20 g yeast,
10 g mint,
8 black currant leaves.
Preparation:
Dissolve the yeast in a glass of warm water. Pour boiling water over rye crackers and leave for 3 hours. Strain the wort obtained in this way through several layers of cheesecloth, add sugar, yeast, mint and blackcurrant leaves. Leave for 10-12 hours, covered with a clean napkin. When your wort has fermented, strain it, bottle it, putting a few raisins in each bottle, seal it and put it in a cool place. In just three days you can enjoy delicious kvass.
The following several recipes contain yeast starter, which can be prepared as follows.
Yeast starter
Ingredients (per 1 liter jar):
black bread, cut into small cubes and dried in the oven,
60 g sugar,
15 g dry yeast,
water.
Preparation:
Place the crackers in a jar, filling it halfway, pour boiling water over the contents. The crackers will swell, which means the amount of water needs to be calculated so that you get a thick paste. Pour less water at first, then add more if necessary. Don’t despair if the starter is too runny, just add more breadcrumbs. Add sugar, stir until completely dissolved, then cover the jar with a clean napkin and let it cool to a temperature of 37-40°C. Add the yeast to the jar, mix well and leave the starter to ferment. Important fact: cover the jar with a napkin, not a plastic lid, as carbon dioxide is produced during the fermentation process. This starter is enough for you to make 10 liters of kvass.
Kvass rusks with horseradish root and honey
Ingredients:
2 liters of water,
300 g rye crackers,
50 g honey,
40 g horseradish root,
30 g sugar,
10 g yeast.
Preparation:
Pour hot water over the crackers and leave for 2 hours. Then rub them through a sieve, add yeast and sugar to the infusion and put them in a warm place for 10 hours. Add honey and chopped horseradish root to the finished kvass, leave for 2 hours, then strain and treat yourself to your health!
By the way, instead of crackers, you can use wheat bran or various types of flour to make kvass. Try it!
Kvass made from oatmeal
Ingredients:
3 liters of water,
750 g oat flour mixed with bran,
40 ml yeast starter.
Preparation:
Pour 2 liters of hot water into the flour mixed with bran and place in a warm place for 12 hours, then, as usual, strain and add the yeast starter and the rest of the water. Keep the infusion for 24 hours. Store the finished kvass in a cool place for no more than three days, although it will probably go away much sooner.
Homemade kvass made from wheat bran
Ingredients:
3 liters of water,
800 g wheat bran,
300 ml lemon juice,
70 g sugar,
25 g dry yeast.
Preparation:
Pour boiling water over the bran and keep on low heat for an hour. Then strain the broth, cool it and add yeast and sugar. Infuse in a warm place for 10-12 hours, then pour lemon juice into the infusion and stir.
Kvass made from rye flour with burnt sugar
Ingredients:
3 liters of water,
100 g rye flour,
35 g wheat flour,
100 g sugar,
15 g yeast,
15 g burnt sugar.
Preparation:
Pour rye flour with 50-70 ml of hot water and stir quickly until a homogeneous mass is formed, without lumps. In a separate bowl, boil the rest of the water, cool it a little and add the brewed flour into it. Dissolve the yeast in warm water, add wheat flour and stir. When the yeast begins to ferment, pour it into the rye infusion and add sugar. Leave it like this for 1 day, then add burnt sugar to the drink.
It’s easy to prepare the sugar: just burn the sugar in a dry frying pan until it melts and a dark color and caramel smell appear. The blacker the burnt sugar, the richer the color of your kvass. To prevent the burnt sugar from turning into coal candy, carefully pour hot water into the melted burnt sugar, literally drop by drop, to form a thick syrup. It can be poured into a bottle and stored in the refrigerator.
Red kvass
Ingredients:
3 liters of water,
250 g sugar,
3 tbsp. l. instant chicory,
a bunch of mint,
½ pack of dry yeast,
1 tsp. Sahara,
2 tbsp. l. water,
citric acid.
Preparation:
Pour water into a deep container, add sugar, chicory and mint. Boil and leave to cool. Add sugar and water to the yeast, stir and leave to cool. When the liquid with chicory has cooled to a temperature of 37-39°C, pour in the yeast mixture, stir and leave for 3 hours at room temperature. Some people like kvass with a mild taste, while others like it with a pronounced sharp taste, so after 2 hours, taste the drink. Maybe two hours will be enough for you. Add citric acid to the already aged drink to taste and refrigerate.
Apple-coffee kvass
Ingredients:
3 liters of warm boiled water,
1 liter clarified apple juice,
200 g sugar,
1 tsp. dry yeast,
2 tsp. instant coffee.
Preparation:
In a large saucepan, combine sugar and coffee, add yeast and stir. Then pour in warm water and juice. Wait until all the ingredients have dissolved and, loosely covering the pan with a lid, leave the mixture to ferment for 12 hours. When the appointed time is up, strain the kvass, bottle it and refrigerate.
Kvass "Invigorating"
Ingredients:
3 liters of warm boiled water,
200 g sugar,
35 g pressed yeast,
1 tbsp. l. chicory,
1 lemon with zest.
Preparation:
Grind the lemon or pass it through a meat grinder, wrap it in gauze, tie it and place it in a pan or bucket of water. Add yeast and sugar there and stir. While stirring, squeeze the bag of lemon several times and remove. When the ingredients have dispersed in the liquid, pour the resulting solution into bottles, screw on the caps tightly and leave in a warm place, for example, in the sun, for 2 hours. You can check if the drink is ready by pressing on the walls of the plastic bottles. The bottle is hard and it is no longer possible to press on the walls - which means the drink is ready. Remember that if you leave the drink in the sun, you will no longer get kvass, but mash. Place the bottles of finished kvass in the refrigerator, and take a sample the next day.
White kvass from whey
Ingredients:
1 liter of whey,
2 tbsp. l. Sahara,
10 g dry yeast,
orange peels and raisins - to taste.
Preparation:
The whey that remains after making homemade cottage cheese is the most valuable nutritious dietary product. White kvass with whey is one of the ways to turn a healthy product into a tasty one. Mix the yeast with sugar, pour in the whey and place in a warm place for 12 hours. Then pour the drink into bottles, after throwing a few orange peels and some washed and dried raisins into the bottom of each bottle. Close the bottles tightly and leave for 2 days for the drink to fully mature.
Many may be alarmed by the cloudiness of kvass, but for a homemade natural product this is a normal phenomenon. Sediment, by the way, is also an indicator of the natural origin of kvass.
Bon appetit and new culinary discoveries!
Larisa Shuftaykina