This is such a simple wartime recipe for a small quantity of delicious, velvety, deep-purple, mouthwatering blackcurrant jam. You HAVE to try it and so crazy-easy to attempt for your first go at making jam!
Fresh blackcurrants are preferable but to make it even easier I made this small-batch from frozen fruit perfectly! (In fact DON’T WAIT for fresh berries to come into the shops. It might be wise to buy some bags of frozen berries. Our British fruit pickers (over 90%) come from Eastern Europe each year performing vital services to our fruit harvesting industry. With our current ‘Coronavirus Pandemic’ situation, our normal guaranteed and reliable agricultural workers from overseas may be restricted from their normal annual travel to the UK which could be devastating for UK farmers if they cannot recruit enough British workers.)
Next time I go shopping (trying to restrict it to a maximum of once or twice a week for fresh produce), I’ll certainly be buying myself a bag or two of more frozen berries while they are available.
I enjoyed two slices of bread I made yesterday slathered in this ‘juicy assed jam’ with a nice cuppa tea and I recommend you do exactly the same.
It will make you smile.
Take care, stay safe, stay home
C xxxx
Blackcurrant Jam (makes 3 x 1 lb pots)
Ingredients
- 4 cups of frozen berries
- 3 cups of sugar
- 1/2 lemon squeezed (not vital)
- 1 teaspoon of pectin (not vital but I always add to all jams I make)
- Clean jam jars (rinse, heat in oven at 140C for 15 minutes)
- Clean lids (rinse, place in a small bowl, cover with hot pre-boiled water until ready to seal jars)
Method
- Put the 4 cups of frozen berries in a large thick-bottomed saucepan and put onto a medium heat.
- Stir until berries are defrosted and simmering gently (about 5 mins). Remove from heat.
- Mash with a potato masher a little so some of the berries burst to the consistency you like.
- Mix the sugar and pectin and add to the berry mix and stir until all mixed together.
- Add in the 1/2 squeezed lemon.
- Return to medium heat and keep stirring slowly adjusting the heat so as not to burn.
- You need to bring the mixture to a rolling boil, stirring all the time and maintain this for about 10 minutes until the setting point has been reached (105 C or 220 F). If you don’t have a thermometer drop 1/2 teaspoon onto a cold plate and if after a minute it thickens and becomes fairly firm instead of liquid then it has reached the setting point.
- Once the correct temperature has been reached, keep stirring and give the mixture another minute.
- Remove from heat and stir again.
- Remove hot jars from oven (see above)
- Using a ladle and funnel, add the hot jam mixture to the hot jars and twist on the clean hot lids.
- Set aside, the jar will be hot and will take at least a few hours to cool.
- Jam is ready to use once it has totally cooled down and unopened will keep for a year or two.
People have asked me where I have been getting my cute jars and labels. The links are below:
JARS: 24 jam/chutney jars with gingham printed lids
LABELS: Re-usable and removable labels for jars and containers with chalk pen.
CANNING FUNNELS: 2 sizes, stainless steel for all jam/chutney/relish making.
I have about 14 kg of black currents in the freezer from last year , I really must make some jam lol
Ooooo you lucky thing!!!!! How wonderful!!! I had to buy mine at 50 p per 100g!!!! xx
We had a very good crop of blackcurrants last year too. I did not have time to process them into jam so popped them in the freezer. Have some jam sugar left in the cupboard so will make some jam in the next few days. Just checked the store of homemade jams from last year and there are still 2 x pink grapefruit marmalade, 1 fig, 1 raspberry redcurrant and rose and 2 x tomato ginger and lemon.
oh my goodness, this looks AMAZING! I have never had currents but it looks tasty!
Thanks for showing how to make the jam, looks delicious.
To limit trips out for fresh food you could buy mostly longer storing veg: pumpkin (uncut), sweet potatoes, potatoes, onions, swedes etc….We store ours in the laundry where it’s very cool and I’ve easily stored pumpkin for 4 months after picking. I know it’s tricky Caroline as people cannot always afford to buy ahead. Frozen veg like broccoli have reasonably good nutrient content and can be cheaper than fresh.
If people have a big freezer they can also stew fresh fruit in single serve portions and knock up a bit of custard to go with it. Milk can be frozen for custard too. I am freezing milk in ice cube trays for our little cat as I can’t bear the thought of having to tell her we’ve run out! Also freezing lemon juice in the ice cube trays for hot lemon and honey should we need it.
Take care,
Madeleine.x
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I have a blackcurrant jam recipe from my favourite recipe Guru Marguerite Patten that is fool proof, her secret (according to the book) is to simmer the fruit (15-20 mins) and don’t add the sugar until thoroughly tender or the skin will be tough.
Simmer 1lb (450g) blackcurrants in 3/4 pint (75ml) water till the skins are tender (15-20 mins) then add 1 1/4 lbs (1.25kg) sugar then boil rapidly till setting point reached, cool and bottle in the usual way.
Another great tip from my Guru is for strawberry jam (which improves the colour immensely) is to use redcurrant juice in place of water, this works extremely well.
Simmer 1lb (450g) strawberries in 1/8 pint (12ml) raw redcurrant juice till fruit is tender (15 mins) then add 14oz (40g) sugar then boil rapidly till setting point reached, cool and bottle in the usual way.
I love the jam idea, but unfortunately the processing does not make this jam safe at room temperature. You would need to water bath can the jam in order to make it safe for long term storage in the cupboard.
The jam as made here will keep in the fridge, maybe for 2 months. But it should not be stored in the cupboard, for safety.
*please see the National Center for Home Food Preservation for canning info.
Also, heating jars in the oven could cause cracking, due to the dry heat. Heating them in simmering water.