14 July 2008

currant jelly

I planted a red currant bush at my parents' house when I was a kid. Naturally, its most fruitful time has been since I've no longer been there. My parents dropped off about two pounds, so I made jelly (referring to Jane Grigson's Fruit Book as well as the preserving manual Putting Food By) :



Ingredients: just equal parts (weight) currants and sugar.

Grigson says to boil hard, then boil for 8 minutes. Sounds vague. I do like that she leaves the fruit whole (even suggests not taking out stalks) and then straining it. Putting Food By suggests making currants juice, then making jelly. That seemed to troublesome. But they direct one to boil until 8ºF above boiling.

I boiled the currants and sugar until they were at 220ºF, whisking at one point to make sure that the fruit was all broken. I strained it through a sieve and got 5 ½ pint jars. [n.b.: hot water bath for 6 mins.] It's tart and deep, deep red.

2 comments:

  1. This sounds delicious!


    I am stopping by to invite you to participate in the The Carnival of Home Preserving.

    It is a Carnival to Share Recipes and How-To's for Canning, Freezing, Dehydrating (drying), and Root Cellaring of Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs.

    The first edition is posted if you would like to come visit:

    Carnival of Home Preserving - July 14, 2008 Edition

    http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/07/carnival-of-home-preserving-july-14.html

    Submit your blog post (new or one of your archived ones that meets the above description) to the next edition of carnival of home preserving using the carnival submission form.

    The Deadline to Submit is every Sunday 6pm EST

    The Carnival posted by that Monday on the respective Host's blog.

    Everyone is welcome to join in (beginners and experienced alike).

    Laura

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  2. Yummy!


    Thank you for participating this week's Carnival of Home Preserving!

    The post is live if you haven't seen it already.

    http://laurawilliamsmusings.blogspot.com/2008/07/carnival-of-home-preserving-jul-21-2008.html


    Be sure to submit one for next week's edition. Jennifer at QuiverFull Family is hosting.

    Feel free to share the link to this week's edition of the carnival to get the word out to others and bring in more participants.

    Happy Preserving!

    Laura

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