There are many drinks to quench your thirst on a hot day. A worthy place among them is kvass. This drink has always been popular and in demand.
Kvass not only helps to freshen up in the summer heat. The components that it contains contribute to improving the condition with reduced immunity, vitamin deficiency and dysbiosis.
Today kvass filled the shelves of stores, selling the drink in the open air. This is not bad if not for one “but”: purchased kvass can be dangerous. Unscrupulous manufacturers add a lot of harmful chemical elements to the drink that simply mimic the taste of the drink. It is not known what water they use in their production: clean or from a tap.
Therefore, it is better not to take risks and prepare kvass yourself. Moreover, the technology is very simple. It will allow you to easily and with pleasure make kvass tasty and healthy.
Dark kvass - general principles of cooking
Kvass is made from the simplest ingredients: bread crumbs, fruits, vegetables and berries. Dried fruits, malt, and yeast are also used. In the drink you can add odorous herbs, honey.
To obtain dark kvass, rye bread is most often used.
It must be cut into small pieces and dried for several minutes in the oven, heated to 160-180 degrees. Crackers need to be well fried. They must have an intense brown color to give a dark shade to kvass.
Crackers should not be allowed to burn. Otherwise, we get kvass with a bitter taste.
Next, you can begin to prepare the yeast. For this process, you will need a clean liter jar, crackers, yeast, water and sugar.
Use boiling water. This is done in order to draw the color from the crackers and get a dark kvass.
There are recipes for making kvass dark at home without sourdough. They suggest the use of yeast and chicory, or yeast and kvass wort concentrate.
Kvass ripens for several days in a dark place at room temperature. Then you need to filter it and pour it either in bottles or in a jug.
Drinkware must be kept in the refrigerator.
To prepare kvass, you will need a large glass container, cotton napkins or gauze, a sieve and a long wooden spoon.
The water used in the cooking process must be either boiled or purified.
Recipe 1. How to make kvass dark at home
Ingredients:
• half rye bread;
• seven tablespoons sugar;
• a pinch of dry yeast;
• a handful of raisins;
• water.
Cooking method:
First you need to prepare the leaven.
Cut rye bread into small pieces and dry in the oven until an intense brown color.
Pour three handfuls of crackers into a liter jar, add two tablespoons of sugar and pour half the jar with boiling water.
We get a porridge of bread. By consistency, it should be neither thick nor liquid.
After the bread mixture has cooled, pour dry yeast into it. Mix again.
Cover the jar with a light cotton towel. We leave in a warm room for a couple of days. At this time, the fermentation process takes place inside the vessel.
Gas is released and a kvass smell is felt. He is pretty nice.
After two days, the ferment should ferment. You can start cooking kvass.
We take a can of three liters. Pour into it three handfuls of crackers.
Add four tablespoons of sugar. Pour boiling water into the jar for 2/3 of the volume.
Add a little water a little to prevent the jar from breaking.
Leave the bread mixture to cool. She must be warm.
Add the leaven. Transfer the jar to heat for fermentation and leave for a day or two.
As the mixture begins to foam, it needs to be mixed periodically.
Place a small sieve on a bowl. We put a double layer of gauze on it and filter the kvass.
We leave the thick bread, as it can be used to prepare the second portion of kvass.
The resulting drink is poured into a three-liter jar.
Add a handful of raisins to the drink.
Dissolve a tablespoon of sugar in warm water and pour into kvass. Gently stir with a spoon.
Cover the jar with kvass with a napkin and leave for another day. After that, we send it to the refrigerator. Be sure to cover the jar with a lid.
Recipe 2. Dark kvass with chicory
Ingredients:
• five tablespoons ground chicory;
• two teaspoons yeast
• 800 gr. sugar;
• two teaspoons citric acid;
• four mint leaves;
• 10 liters of water.
Cooking method:
Pour four liters of water into an enameled bucket and boil.
Pour sugar, chicory and mint leaves into boiling water. Mix and leave for half an hour.
Fill six liters of cold water. Mix again.
Then you need to measure the temperature of the water. It must not be higher than 38 degrees.
Pour yeast and stir.
We leave a bucket with kvass for two hours. There is no need to cover it.
Two hours later, foam appeared on the surface of the kvass. It must be removed with a spoon.
Add citric acid. We arm ourselves with a large wooden boat and stir well.
Kvass should be poured into a glass dish and left in the refrigerator overnight.
The next morning you can enjoy the ready-made dark kvass.
Recipe 3. Dark kvass on kvass wort concentrate
Ingredients:
• 180 gr. sugar;
• a teaspoon of dry yeast;
• water;
• two tablespoons of kvass wort concentrate.
Cooking method:
Pour three liters of water into a saucepan. Heat it until it boils.
Pour water into a four-liter jar and wait until it cools to room temperature.
Pour sugar and yeast into the bowl.
We put the fermented wort concentrate and mix everything well.
Cover with a lid and leave in the corner of the kitchen table for twelve hours.
We pour kvass into bottles, twist the lids and leave it in the refrigerator for another twelve hours.
Recipe 4. How to make kvass dark at home without yeast
Ingredients:
• 300 gr. rye bread;
• three liters of boiled water;
• 30 gr. unwashed raisins;
• 130 gr. sugar immediately and 50 gr. after fermentation.
Cooking method:
Cut the bread into small pieces. Cooking crackers in the oven. They should not be overdried.
Crackers are poured into a prepared container with a capacity of at least four liters. Put the raisins.
In a saucepan with boiled and chilled water, we breed 130 grams of sugar. After it is completely dissolved, pour the sweet syrup into a bowl with crackers. Mix everything with a wooden spoon.
Cover the neck of the vessel with gauze and tie. Transfer to a dark and warm place. We leave it there for two days.
Put the remaining sugar in a large and clean container.
Pour fermented kvass into it through gauze. Shake several times so that the sugar dissolves faster.
In bottles prepared for kvass, put three or four raisins. Fill the dishes with kvass and close tightly.
Bottles must stand for at least ten hours. To do this, choose a place dark and warm. Kvass will be filled with carbon dioxide.
Transfer the finished drink to the refrigerator. After it cools down a bit there, you can begin the tasting.
Recipe 5. Dark kvass with rye malt and sourdough
Ingredients:
• four tablespoons rye sourdough;
• three liters of water;
• half a glass of toasted rye malt;
• seven tablespoons sugar;
• one dining room raisins;
• ½ teaspoon cumin and coriander.
For sourdough:
• Rye flour;
• 0.05 L of water.
Cooking method:
The process of preparing kvass should begin with leaven. Without it, the drink will not work.
We prepare a clean plastic tray and pour three tablespoons of rye flour into it. Pour some water and mix until a consistency that resembles thick sour cream.
We cover the tray and place it in the corner of the kitchen for the night.
The next morning, add three tablespoons of flour and mix. If the concentration is too thick, add some more water.
The procedure with the addition of flour must be repeated over the next four days, that is, four more times.
The result is a yeast-free yeast that can be used not only for making dark kvass, but also for baking bread.
Next, we begin to prepare a drink.
Lightly fry the malt in a pan and grind it in a mortar.
Pour it into a liter container. Add sugar, cumin and coriander.
Pour boiling water and insist for about two hours.
In a three-liter jar we pour rye sourdough.
We filter the malt infusion and also send it in a glass container.
Pour raisins.
Add pure water to the neck of the jar.
Cover with gauze and send to a warm place.
In the summer, the drink ripens in a day.
Drain the kvass from the sediment, filter and leave for a couple of hours, so that it settles.
The drink can be bottled in plastic and sent to the refrigerator.
Ready kvass quenches thirst well, has a pleasant acidity and sharpness.
Recipe 6. How to make kvass dark at home in a rustic way
Ingredients:
For sourdough:
• one teaspoonful dry yeast and sugar;
• 0.4 l of warm water.
Kvass:
• three tablespoons each. with a hill of dry kvass and sugar;
• one dining room kvass wort concentrate;
• five handfuls of rye crackers;
• one dining room raisins of the dark.
Cooking method:
Pour yeast and sugar into a clean half-liter jar.
Fill with warm water, cover with a napkin and leave for 48 hours.
The mixture should be stirred approximately three times a day.
We mix the prepared sourdough and pour into a jar with a capacity of three liters.
Pour dry kvass, sugar and kvass wort.
Rye crackers and raisins are also added to the jar.
Fill the jar with water, leaving eight centimeters to the neck.
Cover with a napkin and leave for 72 hours.
Pour kvass through a gauze filter into a clean jug. We send it to the refrigerator.
How to make kvass dark at home - tricks and tips
- To not bake rye crackers in the oven, add slices of white bread to the baking sheet. By their condition, it will be possible to determine how the black bread dried out.
- To prepare dark kvass, you need to use glass or enameled dishes. Metal containers are not suitable, because the oxidation process cannot be allowed.
- Borodino bread is most suitable for tasty kvass. It has a lot of delicious seasonings.
- In order not to spoil the kitchen, put a jar of leaven on a plate.
- Dishes with ready-made kvass should be opened carefully - foam may leak out, because the drink is carbonated.
We pour the drink into bottles or jars, but do not completely pour it. Leave room for foam and bubbles.
