Many remember from childhood that in no case should you eat apricot pits, otherwise you can get poisoned! The bitter kernel contains hydrocyanic acid, which can cause serious damage to health. Due to an unfounded belief instilled at a young age, we often throw away an edible product that brings invaluable health benefits.

Even in ancient China, they knew what healing properties apricot seeds have. Bitter nuts were available only to imperial families. Today you can buy seeds in the market or in stores. But is this purchase safe?

We offer to understand what apricot pits are. Benefit and harm, what more?

Can you eat apricot kernels

Actually, this is one of the main doubts about apricot pits that needs to be dispelled. Their use is not only permissible, but necessary! At the same time, so that bitter seeds do not harm the body, remember the safe daily allowance - no more than 20 grams for adults (about 10 pieces), and 10 grams for children (about 5 pieces). It's all about hydrocyanic acid, which is part of the nuclei. Small doses are safe for health, and consumption of more than 40 grams of kernels will lead to serious intoxication.

It is a mistake to assume that blanks with whole apricot nucleoli are harmful. Thermal treatment neutralizes the effect of hydrocyanic acid, but does not completely eliminate it. You can eat any amount of apricot pulp from jam or compote, with nucleoli you should not exceed the norm of 10 pieces.

Apricot kernels description and composition

Apricot kernels - for them you will have to work hard to carefully extract the contents from a dense shell surrounded by sweet, fleshy pulp. By the way, due to the laboriousness of the process, in ancient China, only representatives of imperial families ate whole nucleoli. Outwardly, the seeds are similar to almonds, but differ significantly in taste, and most importantly, in properties.

Apricot kernels, like most nuts, have their own special taste. But the bitter taste and anti-cancer effect is the merit of amygdalin, which you will learn about a little later.

How to distinguish almonds from apricot kernels

Due to the resemblance, buyers sometimes fall for the tricks of sellers and buy apricot kernels at the price of almonds. Main differences:

• Apricot kernels are smaller in size, both in length and volume;
• The seeds have a rounded shape, while almonds, on the contrary, have a more pronounced sharp tip;
• The apricot kernel is slightly flattened on the sides. Almonds have a smooth, evenly tapering surface;

Nuts are also similar in taste. There are both varieties of apricots with sweet seeds, and bitter almonds - it is better to focus on the appearance. The most important difference is not in the cost of products. Overeating almonds will not lead to poisoning, but the nucleoli can, and quite severely. Therefore, it is so important to understand what is in front of you: apricot kernels or almonds.

Apricot tincture is a drink that is not so difficult to create at home, since the basic technologies and popular recipes are as simple as possible. As a result, you can get a fragrant alcoholic liquid, which, moreover, will have a beautiful rich shade. In order for the liqueur to be of really high quality, special attention should be paid to the choice of fruits. Any variety of fully ripened apricots is suitable for a drink, the main thing is to carefully sort them out, removing spoiled specimens, then wash all the remaining ones and let them dry. After that, you can proceed directly to the process of preparing fragrant alcohol.

Recipe for strong homemade apricot tincture with vodka or alcohol

Apricot tincture on vodka or alcohol is stronger than that obtained according to the previous recipe, and is prepared much faster and easier.

To create it, you need to take the following ingredients:

• 2 kg of ripe fruit.
• 2 kg of granulated sugar.
• 2 liters of ethyl alcohol 44% or high-quality vodka.

The first step is to wash the fruits, remove the seeds, the pulp, cut into quarters, place in a glass jar, pour vodka (alcohol), close the container with a lid, put in a warm place for 1 month.

Further, apricot tincture on alcohol or vodka according to this recipe requires careful filtration. To do this, the liquid must be passed through a gauze cut, folded four times. The purified tincture should be poured into a glass jar and sealed.

The pulp that remains after filtration should be filled with sugar in a jar and let it stand for 14 days in a warm room, not forgetting to shake the container with the contents daily. The resulting liquid should also be filtered according to the technology, as last time, additionally squeezing the pulp with your hands.

At the final stage, the recipe for homemade apricot tincture on alcohol or vodka involves mixing the resulting liquids in one vessel, which subsequently must be tightly covered with a lid and insisted for 7 days in a cool dark place before use.

Tincture on apricot kernels with vanillin

Such a drink is similar to a liqueur called Amaretto, a specific feature of which is an almond smell and the absence of any spices. Experts draw attention to the fact that you can not drink this alcohol in a dose exceeding 150 ml per day, because the fruit bones contain a small amount of hydrocyanic acid.

A tincture is being prepared on apricot kernels using the following products:

• 700 ml of vodka.
• 100 g of seed kernels.
• 1 g vanillin.
• 50 g of granulated sugar.

1. The kernels previously extracted from the seeds must be crushed, transferred to a glass jar, pour 500 ml of vodka, cork with a tight polyethylene lid, shake, leave in a bright room for 25 days.
2. The resulting infused liquid must be filtered through gauze, the ground kernels are squeezed out, poured again with the remaining 200 ml of vodka, shaken, left for a third of an hour, squeezed again.
3. Further, in order to get a strong tincture on apricot kernels, both liquids should be combined, passed through a cotton filter, add granulated sugar and vanillin there, close the glass vessel with a lid, shake and put for 4 days in a dark room.
4. The finished tincture must be filtered again, bottled and sent for storage in the space allocated for this. A tincture prepared on apricot kernels has one noticeable advantage - an unlimited shelf life.

Apricot jam tincture and walnut variant

A very simple and uncomplicated recipe for creating a delicious alcoholic drink involves the use of apricot jam. You should choose a product in which there is no mold on the surface. Otherwise, alcohol prepared from it will have a bad taste and an unpleasant smell. You need to take the following components:

• 0.5 kg of apricot jam.
• 0.5 l of high quality vodka.

Some distillers claim that another ingredient is needed - sugar. But if you and your guests, to whom you plan to offer alcohol tasting, do not treat the sweet tooth in the truest sense of the word, then you should refuse an additional sweetener, because the result will be a drink with a sugary aftertaste.

To prepare a tincture on homemade apricot jam, you need to transfer the latter into a container made of glass of a suitable size. Then you should pour vodka into it, mix everything gently, but thoroughly.

After that, the vessel must be corked with a plastic lid and let it brew for about 2 months in a dark room. Shake the contents of the container every three days.

After 2 months, the drink can be drained from the sediment, passed through a cotton filter several times until the tincture acquires the degree of transparency you need. After that, the drink is considered completely ready.

A variant of the tincture obtained from apricot jam with walnuts has a more piquant taste. It is prepared according to the technology described above, but in the end it has a richer taste and aromatic bouquet.

How to remove the bitterness that appeared in apricot tincture

Alcoholic masterpieces prepared at home often begin to taste bitter over time. Apricot-based tincture is no exception. Such a change in taste in a negative direction is often associated with the presence of fusel oils in the composition of home-made alcohol. Connoisseurs of homemade alcohol and masters of its preparation, through their own experiments, have identified several effective ways to eliminate bitterness.

One of the most popular methods for answering the question of how to remove the bitterness that appeared in apricot tincture is freezing. The finished drink should be poured into a container made of glass or metal, poisoned in the freezer and cooled until an ice crust appears on the surface. It is she who will absorb the whole range of harmful substances, therefore, by removing it, you can get rid of the unpleasant aftertaste.

If there is no space in the home freezer, you can use improvised means, which are the so-called "home filters":

• Activated carbon.
• Potassium permanganate.
• Baking soda.

Activated charcoal must be carefully crushed, wrapped in a piece of gauze folded several times, put in a watering can and finished alcohol should be passed through it. This method is considered to be the most common.

If potassium permanganate is chosen as a filter, then you need to take the powder in the following proportion: for 1 liter of infusion - 1 g of potassium permanganate. The required amount of the substance should be added to the finished drink and left to infuse for 3-5 hours. The powder will lead to the formation of a precipitate in which all harmful elements will be concentrated. The liquid must be filtered through a cotton-gauze filter. If it is not possible to wait several hours until the sediment appears naturally, it is necessary to heat the liquor mixed with potassium permanganate to a temperature of 70 ̊С and also strain it at the end.

In the case of soda, it will take 10 g of powder per 1 liter of alcohol to clean. The ingredients are mixed in one container, and the liquid is left alone for 30 minutes. After the specified time, it is shaken, and then filtered. All fusel oils precipitate, which, when filtered, remains on the cotton wool. You can drink this drink after 12 hours.

Use the above recipes to create unique homemade delights and surprise all the participants of the feast with extraordinary treats that are truly incomparable in taste, aroma and quality.

? Usually my husband and I don’t pick apricots, so we’ll eat a dozen from a tree per season. But this year a rich harvest - all the branches are hung, they decided to take it for jam. From all the trees the fruits are tasty, but from one that grows behind the fence, almost like wild, they are bitter. They look ripe - orange with pink streaks, but it is impossible to eat. What happened to the tree?

Anna Lapina, Gorodishchensky district.

Apricots can be bitter for several reasons, and all of them are mainly related to improper garden care. First, it is too plentiful watering. If you very often gave the plant moisture - watered it on purpose or arranged a “place for rinsing” in the hole and poured excess water into it, then the roots of the tree could simply rot. And this, of course, is not good. Apricots do not like waterlogged soil, due to problems with the roots, the fruits do not receive the necessary nutrition and lose their sweetness.

The second reason is the lack or excess of nitrogen fertilizer. That is why it is so important to apply the optimal amount of mineral fertilizers - do not regret, but do not overdo it. If your tree was almost wild, then it most likely lacks nitrogen. Less commonly, the cause of bitterness is in the apricot variety. Now there are many varieties, the taste of which varies from incredible sweetness to acidity that sets the teeth on edge.

And the last option is not harvested on time. Often, gardeners overexpose the fruits on the tree, which is also not good. In addition, bitterness can also appear during storage of fruits if you do not comply with the conditions - cold and darkness. For example, you can leave the harvested apricots in a bag on the refrigerator shelf. However, even there, they are unlikely to last longer than a couple of weeks - eat them or process them into jam.

By the way, about the jam. Housewives often complain that when preparing apricot jam, they got an inedible bitter substance as a result. First, you need to taste the berries before cooking. Bitterness could be in them even before cooking.

Secondly, many people still cook apricots with seeds. And this is inconvenient to use and quite unsafe. Of course, apricot kernel contains many useful substances and elements, but we must not forget that it also contains acids. They not only affect the taste, but are also toxic to humans. So do not be lazy, remove the bones.

Some housewives are in no hurry to get rid of bitter jam. If there were bones in the fruits, they are pulled out, and then the mass is digested with the addition of a new portion of sugar. The result of such work on errors depends on many factors, so it is impossible to predict whether the taste of jam will improve from repeated processing.

The call of zealous owners "Waste - into income!" does not always work, but not in the case of apricot pits. What we all ruthlessly throw away after enjoying the taste and aroma of the pulp of apricots, it turns out, should not be thrown away in any case. It's just stupid to throw away a lot of vitamins, minerals, valuable acids, coupled with a nutritious product with exquisite culinary properties.

Of course, many have heard that apricot pits are delicious and somewhat similar to this. But at the same time there is a strong opinion about their toxicity. Moreover, they are allegedly poisonous to such an extent that their use is fraught with death.

Therefore, the vast majority of apricot lovers prefer to throw away the seeds "away from sin."
In fact, apricot pits are not only possible, but also necessary to eat, while observing simple rules, which will be discussed later.

Did you know? For the first time in a cultural form, the apricot appeared, apparently, about three thousand years ago on the territory of modern Armenia or, according to another version, somewhere in the Tien Shan. More precisely, scientists today are not able to say.

Composition analysis

When you get acquainted with the huge taste, culinary, healing, cosmetic potential of this product, it becomes somehow uncomfortable at the thought that all this wealth most often ends up in the trash.

The kernels of the bones contain a whole bunch of vitamins, some of which are very rare. In addition to the common, and extensive, there are also more rare and.
But special attention is drawn to the specific inherent in this particular product, which is also called amygdalin. It is he who gives apricot kernels a characteristic bitter taste.

This product is saturated with microelements in the form, and.

Calorie content and nutritional value

The high content of fats and carbohydrates in the product predetermines its high calorie content and, accordingly, nutritional value. 100 g of apricot kernels contain more than 500 kcal. The experience of the inhabitants of the East shows that eating several nucleoli saturates the body with calories, as well as useful substances, so much that this is enough for several hours of human activity.

The unique and peculiarly balanced composition of the product allows it to really participate in the fight against inflammatory processes in the human immune and respiratory systems.
This is facilitated by its pronounced mucolytic capabilities, which help to actively thin the sputum and remove it from the body.

The ability of the product to counteract cramps and even eliminate hiccups has been recorded.

That insidious hydrocyanic acid, which makes so many people beware of eating the delicious core of apricot pits, is indeed present in them. However, it can bring truly fatal harm only with excessive consumption of the product - more than 40 g at a time.
Amygdalin, that is, vitamin B17, when it enters the body, releases this toxic hydrocyanic acid. There is more of it in the nucleolus, the bitterer it tastes.

Important! Drying the bones in the oven or boiling in a saucepan almost completely eliminates toxic substances in them, which decompose at high temperatures.

Since apricots are quite strong allergens, naturally, the contents of their seeds are contraindicated for people in whom this fruit causes allergic reactions.

Features of the use of apricot kernels

This product is not limited only by its taste, nutritional and medicinal properties. It is used, and especially the oil from it, and in cosmetics. That is, each of the consumers, depending on age, gender and state of health, is free to choose from this product the most preferable of its many possible qualities.

Traditional healers especially advise remedies with the addition of apricot kernels when eliminating problems in the human respiratory system.
To combat colds, pneumonia, bronchitis, laryngitis and tracheitis it is recommended to add 10 g of wild rosemary and knotweed to 20 g of nucleoli. All this is finely crushed, pour 200 ml of boiling water, leave for half an hour and strain with a fine sieve. The infusion should be taken 50 ml three times a day.

For the treatment of colds, elimination of spasms and fight against conjunctivitis you need 10 g of heavily crushed nucleoli, pour 100 ml of boiling water and leave for four hours. After straining, the agent should be used orally three times a day, 50 ml each. In the treatment of conjunctivitis, the solution is applied externally to the eyes using swabs soaked in it.

Will they help you lose weight?

High saturation with fats and carbohydrates and high calorie content make this product undesirable for overweight people.

But the contents of apricot nucleoli are extremely in demand by cosmetologists. They appreciated their unique composition, widely using the beneficial properties in the compositions of various creams and ointments to improve and rejuvenate the skin, as well as to keep the hair in good condition.

Actually, not the nucleoli themselves are used for this, but the oil extracted from them by cold pressing.

For face

apricot oil very useful for the skin of the face and in its pure form, however, it can also be used to make highly effective products for moisturizing, toning and rejuvenating the skin.

Purifying mask

A tablespoon of oatmeal ground in a coffee grinder is poured with two tablespoons of milk for five minutes, after which a teaspoon of apricot oil and the same amount of honey are added there.

Moisturizing mask

One small spoonful of oil must be added to a well-pounded egg yolk, mix the mixture thoroughly and apply it on the face along the massage lines for half an hour.

Moisturizing tonic

In 100 ml of mineral water without gas, add two teaspoons of oil and a spoonful of glycerin. This mixture is recommended to wipe the face in the morning and evening.

For hair

This oil is very suitable for maintaining healthy hair. It effectively nourishes the roots, makes hair shiny and silky. When washing them, the oil can simply be added to the shampoo.

Mask for dry hair

It is enough to add a few drops of lavender oil to a spoonful of oil, and then apply this mixture to your hair for half an hour before washing your hair.

Did you know? The apricot tree grows for a long time, bears fruit for almost forty years in a row and lives up to a hundred years.

Oily hair mask

Mix a tablespoon of butter and the same amount of warm milk with a teaspoon of honey.

Classic night mask

Heat the oil and rub it into the scalp, while massaging it. Then lightly oil the strands of hair, then collect the hair and cover the head with a towel.

Features of the choice and storage of the product, can apricot kernels go bad

When choosing bones, you should pay attention to their appearance and especially to the contents. They should not have traces of pests in the form of food moths. They should not be obtained from unripe fruits either, since in this case the nucleoli are shriveled and unsuitable for consumption.

You can store the pre-dried product both in the shell and in the cleaned form. The kernels are better stored in a thin shell in which they are located and which can be removed before use.

If apricot kernels were poured in a thick layer during drying, they can begin to mold, which irrevocably leads to their loss of consumer qualities. The seeds of unripe fruits can also completely deteriorate.

There are much more toxic substances in such a product than in fresh.

Harvesting the internal contents of ripe apricots is simple and unpretentious. Dividing these already ripened fruits in two, we take out the seeds from them and put them in a suitable container. Then wash thoroughly, removing the remaining fruit fibers from their surface, lay out on a tray or baking sheet in a single layer and leave to dry somewhere.
It is best to do this outdoors, but not in direct sunlight. They should be stored in glass or wooden containers without access to pests.

You can get the nucleoli from the bones and store them already. Some immediately roast them in the oven to eliminate toxic substances.

The unique taste and smell of apricot kernels have long attracted the attention of culinary specialists, who use them very widely and actively as additives to ice cream, creams, yogurts, cakes, syrups and pastries.

Chopped nucleoli have proven themselves especially well in housewives when cooking jam or jam. When these ingredients are added, the products acquire a very piquant taste and smell, which, according to the housewives, simply cannot be compared with anything.
This, indeed, potentially toxic product, subject to basic precautions, turns into a truly unique tool for cooking, cosmetology and medicine in terms of its useful qualities.