making blackcurrant jam

jennyo

I have been lucky enough to get loads of blackcurrants, and have made some jam with some of them tonight, but loads more to go. I have obviously taken all the stalks off, but I also removed the little bit on the end which was originally the flower, is this necessary ?

piglet6

We bought a house with an enormous blackcurrant bush in situ several years ago, and determind-ly made jam/jelly for several years (for the last couple of years, we have not been around to grab them in time and the birds beat us to the fruit!! ).

We take off the stalks and the end bits when making jam. It takes time but we were warned that leaving them on would make the results "bitter" (and we have been too scared to try this and risk our crop so have no idea whether this is in fact true or not...?!). The one year we were pushed for time and decided to sieve the whole lot through a fine muslin after the event in order to edit out the nasty bits, saving prep time in the earlier stages, it took forever because it was so thick (and I mean hours and hours...!!!!! :rotfl:). Whether this was because of the natural "gelling agents" present in the fruit I have no idea, but it certainly took much, much longer (with additional manual "mashing" of fruit to get it through the muslin!) so we haven't done it again since. The very smooth jelly was delicious, but much more labour-intensive in the end than the normal jam which we had made in the past, so we haven't repeated the experience!!

Hopefully somebody will be along tomorrow with more experience, but from our own jam-making, I would say that the time spent taking off all the excess bits and pieces is time well spent in the long run!!

P x

Penelope_Penguin

jennyo wrote: »

I also removed the little bit on the end which was originally the flower, is this necessary ?

No, it isn't It drives you bonkers and makes no difference to the quality of the finished jam.

thriftlady_2

Completely unecessary as Penny says. If you make blackcurrant jelly you won't need to remove the stalks either;)

torbrex

I do blackcurrant jam every year using berries from a bush in my garden, I agree with PP, it would drive you crazy to try to remove everything from the berries.

For good jam & jelly
Place 2lb of berries in pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil slowly and as soon as the whole pan is boiling remove from heat and allow to cool then pass through a sieve.
Jam
Put berries back into pan with 4x1lb jars of water and bring to the boil for about 10 minutes then add 4lbs 0f sugar and a tablespoon of lemon juice and stir gently until the sugar melts, bring back to the boil for 30 mins until jam sets on testing.
If you add a few small pieces of unsalted butter when cooling this helps to keep the berries soft.
Jelly
Measure the juice and add the same volume of sugar and bring slowly to the boil and test every 10 mins until setting point.

Sorry its all in 'old money' but thats how I get my results.
If you dont want to bother making jelly, you can just add extra water to the jam instructions and carry on from there.

shandypants5

I used THIS recipie at the weekend.

Its dead easy, uses a microwave so is really quick and the jam is REALLY nice:D

We left all the flower bits on too, we just picked off any stalks and bits of leaves that got into the bowl.
Cant taste any bitterness at all.

angeltreats

I made some the other day, I took the stalk off but left the little flower bit at the other end and it was absolutely fine and definitely not bitter. Marguerite Patten said it was unnecessary to bother taking it off, and if it's good enough for Marguerite it's good enough for me

jennyo

Thanks guys for all your replies, and lovely recipes, I'll leave them on for this evenings batch. Had some of last nights on my toast this morning, yum. Half the batch is going back to my friend whose bush it was, thats why I really want to get it right.

jennyo

An update, I made some more jam yesterday evening and didn't remove the flower bits, it tastes just as good as the stuff that took hours to prepare, more ready to make this evening, then just got to wait for some plums to arrive, fingers crossed. Thanks again for all your help.

Primrose

I never remove the dried flower end from my blackcurrants either. Life is too short for this ........and dusting ! I freeze most of my blackcurrants and mix them with other soft fruits (raspberries, strawberries, plums) to make either mixed fruit compotes, or simmer them down together and use the juice for making fruit syrups, which are nice with boiling water and a slice of lemon in winter, particularly when you've got a cold.

jennyo

Thanks Primrose, some nice ideas there.