Bilberries are very acidic and it’s rarely used in cooking process. However, instead of using vinegar, you should consider using bilberry as the souring agent, if it’s available in your area. Bilberries have deeper coloration, so you can use it to change the color of your sauces or desserts. Bilberries have black color with violet hue. When you use the bilberry juice for sauce or desserts, it will add magenta and pinkish color. Bilberries can be difficult to find in some areas, because they are challenging to farm. Often, bilberries are obtained from wild, undomesticated crops, where they thrive naturally. Nonetheless, you can get frozen bilberries all year long. Bilberries are ideal for drinks, tarts and jellies. In Italy and France, bilberries are used as the base for liquors. When using bilberries in cooking process, you should consider how much sourness that you want to add.
Lemon or vinegar can be used as souring agent for meat sauce. Alternatively, you can use bilberry juice to make the sauce taste a bit sour and fruity. You should know about the acidity level of bilberry. It should be comparable to lemon, but you should try to add a little bilberry juice at first. Lemon is also used when cooking salmon, along with salt and pepper. Again, you may use bilberry, instead of lemon. Compared to lemon, you may introduce new taste when adding bilberry. Avoid adding too much bilberry juice, because you may end up making the lemon taste too sour.Bilberry fruits become mature right after pollination. They are relatively small at about 1 centimeter across and with round shape. Bilberry reaches maturity around August with black bluish shade. Each bilberry fruit could have up to 40 seeds.
So, if you plan to use bilberry for the cooking process, you should get fresh bilberry around July and August. It is possible to freeze bilberry fruits, so you can use them during winter. By adding bilberry as an ingredient, you should get plenty of health benefits. Anthocyanins are present at high amount, resulting in the very dark purple color of bilberry fruits. Nutrients in bilberry can directly improve the health of our eyes to prevent retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration, dry eyes, cataracts and glaucoma. Anthocyanin is known for its ability to curb inflammation, making cardiovascular diseases and inflammatory bowel syndrome less likely to happen.
Although bilberry can be beneficial for your health, it’s not replacement for any medication. It doesn’t mean that by eating more bilberries, you can be cured of your diseases. However, by adding anthocyanin and other antioxidant-rich ingredients in your diet, you can prevent many dangerous diseases. You can find bilberries powdered, dried, frozen and fresh. You may also find packaged bilberries jam that you can use for baking and making desserts. As an example, you may add powdered bilberries or jam for smoothie. You can also use bilberries jam to make sauces. You should use creativity when using bilberry as one of the ingredients. The sourness of bilberries should properly enhance the flavour of your dishes.
