Topic: White currant jam?

[Alex133]

White currant bush on my new plot - hadn't realised how stunning they are and would look gorgeous suspended in jam. Has anyone got a recipe for this? 

[brownowl23]

no but im waiting with baited breath for someone to post one. Ive got 4 buishes of them and never know what to do with them. Although white currant and gin sorbet was good last year.

[brownowl23]

actually ive had a search and an apparently quite expensive frech preserve is Bar- le-duc jelly/jam made with currants.

There are toe methods here. I have to say I may try the second, im edefinately not faffing with the first.

Bar-le-duc Currants Recipe

Take currants of large size, one by one, and with tiny embroidery scissors carefully cut the skin on one side, making a slit of perhaps one-fourth an inch. Through this, with a sharp needle, remove the seeds, one at a time, to preserve the shape of the fruit. Take the weight of the fruit in strained honey, and when hot, add the prepared fruit. Let simmer three or four minutes. Carefully skim out the fruit. Reduce the syrup, at a gentle simmer, to the desired consistency. Pour over the fruit. Then store as jelly.

OR

Bar-le-Duc (currant) Jelly

1 quart currants
1/3 cup water
1 lb. sugar

Wash and pick over the currants. Drain and
put into a saucepan with the water. Cook for
several minutes until the fruit is tender.
Add the sugar and continue cooking until the
syrup jells. Pour into hot jars and seal

[jennym]

Whitecurrant and gooseberry jam (I call this the champagne of jams)
Cover equal quantities of whitecurrants and green gooseberries with water plus an extra inch in the pan, bring to boil and then turn heat right down and simmer until skins are soft enough to rub away when tested between thumb and finger.
Weigh the mix. Add equal weight of sugar, heat and stir to dissolve, then bring up to rolling boil, turn down the heat to about midway and cook until the jam curtains with a jagged drip when dripped from a cool ladle. Then jar.

Whitecurrant jelly - good with meats and oily fish.
Cover whitecurrants with water plus an extra inch in the pan, bring to boil and then turn heat right down and simmer until skins are soft enough to rub away when tested between thumb and finger. Allow to cool. Strain through a fine sieve (or jelly bag if you must) allowing the sieve or bag to stay dripping for at least an hour, and weigh the juice, discarding the skin and pips. Add equal quantity of sugar , heat and stir to dissolve, then bring up to rolling boil until the jelly curtains with a ragged drip when dripped from a cool ladle. Then jar. Don't shake or stir the jars while the jelly is cooling.

One proviso - some whitecurrants are good for cooking, being a bit sharp, but some are for dessert purposes - they taste sweet raw - they won't make good jam or jelly if they are very ripe.

[Alex133]

White currant & gooseberry jam sounds nice & will make if not enough currants on their own - will just experiment if I do. Can't imagine anyone getting their embroidery scissors out and cutting slits in each currant! Not so keen on jelly as mainly eat soft set jam for breakfast (& often lunch) ladled over Greek yogurt.

[valmarg]

I made some a couple of years ago, but I can't remember if I had a specific recipe, or if I made white, blackcurrant jam. ;D  I can't think I had a specific recipe, mainly because I can't think which book it is in, but I'll have to wrack my brain. ;D

White currants are quite a bit sweeter than black, and may need more pectin to get a good set.  I use lemon juice rather than Certo.

It really is worth the effort, even if it does look like frogspawn jam, it tastes desicious. ;D

valmarg

[zigzig]

weigh the fruit.
Match that weight with sugar leave the sugar aside

For every 1lb of fruit use 50mls of water (about half a cup)

.........................

Heat the fruit and water until boiling point is reached leave for 6 mins to continuously boil.


Add the sugar and regain boiling point then let rapid boil for 10 mins.

At this stage you can decide if you want jelly or jam.


If you want jelly. then you need to pass the mulch through some sort of strainer.

Pretty basic I know but it does work.

[Alex133]

Thanks zigzig that sounds nice and simple.

[antsinmipants]

This is great news as I have one bush full of Whitecurrants and was wondering what to do with them. I think you just gave my missus yet another job ;D

[alibaz]

Message for JennyM - about your gooseberry and whitecurrant jam. It may have been useful if you'd have said that you need to be an experienced jam maker to follow this 'recipe'. I followed your instructions and ended up adding 4lbs sugar to 2lbs fruit because of the weight of the added water and now have something so sweet its inedible. Wasted all my first ever crop of gooseberries and whitecurrants.

[Jayb]

Hi Alibaz, welcome to A4A 

[Silverleaf]

I found an unhappy-looking neglected whitecurrant plant in a pot last week, it had been lost in an overgrown part of the garden and I'd forgotten it was there.

I'm thinking of planting it out and trying to coax it back into shape, but I'm wondering if it's worth it. I've never tasted whitecurrants but I'm not keen on blackcurrants (I like the sharpness but not the bitterness). Do whitecurrants taste significantly different?

[realfood]

White currants taste the same as redcurrants. Blackcurrants are a different species and taste quite different. If you add some redcurrants to the white currants, you will get a pink preserve.

I make red and whitecurrant jelly. Pick strigs of fruit(no need to strip the berries), wash, put into pan, crush with a tattie masher, bring to boil and simmer for 15 mins. Strain through a jelly bag.
Use the juice with your favourite jelly recipe. Devine!!

[Silverleaf]

Oh I like redcurrant jelly. I'll have to have a go then! Thanks. :)

[jennym]

Hello Alibaz,
I'm so sorry you didn't have success with your jam.
To be honest, I've never used small quantities of fruit like 2lb in a pan with water - I am sorry, I just didn't think to mention that.

For a small quantity  I'd probably cook the fruit & soften the skins by microwaving washed, moist fruit with a cover on the container, and only when skins are soft and I've weighed it, I'd then add the sugar.

I just re-read the recipe I posted. For larege quantites, in a large pan, I'm fairly sure it's ok 

I'm not sure how, if you started with 2lbs of fruit, added an inch of water to cover, cooked until soft, and then weighed it, you'd end up with a mix that weighed 4lbs before you added the sugar. I would have expected the weight overall to decrease by about 50% of the original fruit weight.
Maybe you covered the pan? or used a pressure cooker? I'm sorry again, I didn't think to say to use an open pan and let the water evaporate. In a large pan, an inch of water will disappear in no time.

[artichoke]

I confirm that white currant jelly tastes much like red currant, with the advantage that birds, who strip redcurrants given a chance, appear not to see the white currants so well and mostly leave them alone. The jelly even goes a bit pink while boiling with the sugar, and sets very well. Nice sharp taste for going with meat.

I like to drip the simmered fruit through a sieve which makes a slightly cloudy jelly, and wastes less of the fruit. As I am not trying to win a WI competition, I like to remove the skins and seeds, but not all the pulp. Like jennym I add almost no water at the start, just enough to encourage the fruit to simmer without burning. Then 1lb of sugar to 1lb of strained juice, but I actually use less than that because I like it as sharp as possible without sacrificing the set.