currant jelly
Currant Jelly Recipes
For those of you who love sweets, currant jelly is surely something you should have stocked in your kitchens.
Let's begin with the raw materials which are used to prepare this utterly delicious dessert, the currants. They are tiny fruits which are cultivated for various purposes and they grow on bushes in a cluster. They are mainly found in two species, the red currants (white currant) and the blackcurrants, which are dried to be used in various culinary recipes. They have a peculiar sweet sour taste.
They are berries and are native to western Europe in countries like Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands and Spain. The reason they are made into jellies is that they can be preserved and eaten later. So, here are some lip smacking recipes of red and black currant jelly...
Recipe
Both black and red currants are members of the gooseberry family and they ripen in mid-summer. They are full of fiber and pectins which are very healthy for our bodies. The best way to consume them is when they are about to ripe fully, but their nutrients can be preserved by preparing currant jelly which is very delicious, and usually eaten during breakfast and in various dessert recipes.
Red Currant Jelly Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 pounds fresh red currants
- 7 cups white sugar
- 1 cup water
- 4 fluid ounces liquid fruit pectin
- To start with cooking this delicious currant jelly recipe, you need to first crush the berries or currants so that they give out the juices.
- Place the currants in a large pot and mash them with any heavy object or a crusher.
- Then pour about 1 cup of water in this pot and place it on the medium heat. Bring it to boil and then simmer this mixture for about 10 minutes.
- Now strain this mixture through the jelly cloth so that the fruit skin and fiber is left as on the cloth, and juice is obtained. You can also use red currant juice if you want to skip this step and directly go the next one.
- Pour this juice into a large sauce pan and add in the sugar, boil it over high heat and then add the pectin immediately.
- Again boil it on high heat for about 30 seconds and then remove from the heat to skim off the foam from the top.
- You will need about ½ pint jars to fill in this jelly, so once you have let the jelly set for some time, pour it into these jars and make sure you wipe off the rim to keep it dry and away from moisture.
- 4 cups black currants
- Tool to crush the black currants
- 4 cups water
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- A jelly bag
- 6 sterilized jars
- The uniqueness of this jelly is that even if it is made from black currants, the color is rich violet making it one of the most exotic types of jellies prepared.
- Wash the black currants and add them to a sauce pan with 4 cups of water.
- Place the pan on medium heat and bring it to boil for about 5 minutes, cover and then simmer it for another 25 minutes, so that the juices are let loose.
- Crush them while heating and make sure it gets crushed well. Then place this pulp in the jelly bags and squeeze out about 4 cups of juice.
- Add granulated sugar and water in the juice, and dissolve it while heating it on high flame.
- Bring it to boil for about 30 minutes, and then remove from flame to drain out the foam.
- After you prepare the jelly, pour it out in the jars and preserve them at room temperature.