Homemade currant jelly

How does summer taste

When you see them together like this, you may hardly believe at first glance, how closely related they are to each other. They all are currants, small round globules in bright red, but also shimmering white, almost transparent. And in between, there are also deep black. And a handful of gooseberries. They are clearly thicker and pale green. They all belong to the “gooseberry family”. Our friend Andreas knows things like this. He has a large garden, which he cares for carefully. And he harvests huge amounts of fruit. At the moment it is currants. More than he could ever eat. And that’s why he brought us a whole basket of them yesterday.

Red and black currants are probably real garden classics. The whites are less common. And you can hardly find them on the market or at the fruit stall. Perhaps because they still look a little immature in direct comparison with their red and black siblings due to their shimmering delicacy. Whereby this first impression is deceptive. They actually taste much sweeter than the slightly sour red ones, and than the rather bitter black fruits.

The aromatic small fruits are quite sensitive to pressure, and thus, they should not be left lying around for so long after harvesting. After a rather extensive “raw material quality testing” (tasty!, pure, without sugar or cream) we started our work this morning: Homemade currant jelly. With a few gooseberries in between. That makes for a very special aroma. Very quickly made, and really tasty. Here is the recipe:

Home made currant jelly

You need:

Currants and sugar in a ratio of 2 : 1 to maintain the slightly sour character. If you like it sweeter (or have a lot of bright red berries), you can also use the mixing ratio 1 : 1.
A small “shot” of apple juice

The juice of a lemon (based on 3.0 kg of fruit). This results in a bright red color of the jelly

• First: Wash the currants thoroughly on their “grapes”, and then pluck them from the stems. To be honest,  we think this is quite a tedious job. Because there are quite a few berries hanging from such a stem. And the much quoted trick of pulling the stem between the prongs of a fork to loosen the fruit doesn’t work so well for us. Maybe the exercise makes the master here, or it simply remains a little more time-consuming.
• Second: Put the berries in a pot and crush lightly. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes until the fruit bursts and the skins come off. Leave the lid on the pot so that as little liquid as possible evaporates.
• Third: Remove the pot from the stove and puree the berries with a hand blender.
• Fourth: To remove the kernels and skins, carefully press the berry jam over a bowl through a sieve.
• Fifth: Place the fine, smooth currant juice in a large pot, add sugar and lemon. Bring to the boil.
• Sixth: Decant the currant jelly into jars immediately after cooking, close the jar lid with rubber, glass lid and clamps. Boil down.
• Seventh: For the jelly to have the perfect consistency, it should rest for about three to four weeks before consumption.
• Eight: Do not take the recommended four-week “rest period”. This won’t work anyway. We know this from experience.

Enjoy!