Thursday, July 18, 2013

Red currant jam


Here is a sneak peek at a recipe from 66 Square Feet - A Delicious Life.

I love red currants. It wasn't always that way, but it is that way, now.

This recipe has less sugar than most. I like to taste the fruit in the jam.

2 1/4 lbs/1 kg red currants, rinsed and stripped from stalks
1 lb/500gr sugar
(In other words...half as much sugar as fruit)
Juice of one lemon

Cover the fruit with the sugar and stir gently until mixed in. Set over low at heat at first, stirring from time to time to prevent sticking. As liquid starts to form, turn heat high. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Keep at a gentle roil. Add lemon juice after about 8 minutes.

To test for set: hold a large metal spoon sideways, dip into the hot jam liquid and allow to drip back into the pot off the long side of the spoon. When two slower drips form, from both sides of the spoon, running towards the middle, it has reached setting point.

(Official setting point for jams is 220'F.)

Take off heat and allow to cool a little. Pour into sterilized glass jars.

3 comments:

  1. Hi,

    We just finished making ours! Will have to try to remember next year to try this method with less sugar. It is yummo, did black currant as well, tastes like fortress black currant drink from home as we had quiet a lot left over from hooch making (crème de cassis), trying this both ways with gin as you make it - and with brandy the slow method storing for two months then all the straining etc. Two months plus just seems like such a long time!

    Lisa, London

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  2. funny, i made my currant jam, in germany, just a few days before you did. my gf's family had vast amounts of red currants this year and would just let the currants dry on the bush, which makes my head hurt. i had to pick them & do *something* with it. it is easy to get sugar, and a large pot, on a stove. old jars do just fine, for the freezer.

    then i had to say good-bye to it.

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