It is an absolute pain to have to stem currants but if you don't the stems will leave a "grassy" taste in juice, jelly or seedless jams.

They're too much work to have the final product be anything less than wonderful.

Carol

arghhhh, Carol, I was afraid of this. Okay, will sit and stem. Boy, I have 20 quarts of them tiny things!

Marie

You have my sympathy, Marie. Last summer I picked a bounty of currants at the neighbor's. I don't know how many pounds but too many to be wise because then I had to deal with them.

The best was raspberry-currant preserves, followed by plain currant preserves, then currant lemon jelly and currant liqueur. Plenty of jelly and liqueur left, but the preserves went lickety-split.

Carol

Marie, I am jealous! If only I wasn't going to Halifax for my sister's wedding this weekend, I would offer to come out and help you stem currants in return for taking some home. I picked a bunch of red raspberries, and was thinking the raspberry-currant jams & preserves were sounding SO lovely, but can't find fresh red currants here. (OK, I could probably find them a BIT closer than your place, like maybe the Belleville farmer's market a half-hour away, but doing it with you would be WAY more fun!)

Anyway, clearly I will need to put in some bushes and do my own, too! Do you have a variety to recommend for our climate?

Zabby

Have you heard the tip to run a fork down the stem to get them off? I haven't tried it.

Hi Zabby

I would much rather prefer doing it with you too. Come to think of it, you have yet to come and visit, drop by sometimes. Actually, I got my bushes from someone who was getting rid of theirs so I have no names but they grow fine. I am sure a good nursery would be able to tell you or maybe there is a section on this site with knowledgeable people.

I sure have gained new respect for people at the market selling the currants and their prices sure don't look so steep to me anymore. I went picking today again, at a friend's place but this time, I picked without the stems. A bit longer but I won't have to handle them twice. His bushes were dry and not looking too good and there is a lot of dry stuff falling as I am picking so I think I will rinse the best I can and make jelly with those.

Yes Carol, I guess it's a case of being careful what you are wishing for. Like getting lots of cherries would be good right about now but pitting them would not be as nice lol.

And Melly, I have heard of that trick too but I don't think it would be faster than by hand, it's just a matter of doing it.

Carol, would you mind sharing on that raspberry currant preserve recipe please, sounds yummy. I have the Ball book now and about 50 canning books, so if the recipe comes from a book, just let me know which, short of the jam lady's book and small batch preserving, I think I have most of them.

Marie

It comes from "Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine" by Madelaine Bullwinkel. It's my favorite preserves book, barring Christine Ferber's.

Her recipes focus on maintaining as much of the integrity of the fruit as possible, minimal use of commercial pectin (sometimes a tablespoon added to a low-pectin fruit) and reducing the sugar.

I love her recipes. The raspberry-currant recipe "floats" the raspberries in currant juice. Lovely set, gorgeous color, incredible flavor and texture.

The only qualifier is her recipes are small-batch labor-intensive, so I don't know how cost-effective they would be if you wanted to sell the preserves. It would take a real gourmet to pay the price. But they are exceptional.

Her spiced blueberry preserves are fabulous.

Carol

Thank you Carol, I do own that book. I have tried a few recipes in it that I liked too. I will definitely try it, it sounds so yummy. As far as prices are concerned, I am not too worried. I got the fruits for free so it cuts my cost somewhat, even if labor intensive, but people always pay more for rarer fruits without batting an eye. My raspberry jam is more expensive than others due to raspberry costs, and it still sells like hotcakes. I will try the blueberry one too, I am swamped in blueberries now, I know a grower who sells all he gets stuck with to me for really cheap, so I can bake blueberry pies all winter lol.

Marie

I haven't run across anyone who didn't love the spiced blueberry preserves and the raspberry-currant.

I even used the blueberry preserves as a layer in a streusel-bundt cake. That went over well.

And you're right, of course. If you can get the fruit free, that definitely changes the equation.

Carol

It is OT, but I took my SIL to Maastricht yesterday (the closes "big" town to us, about 30 minutes). In the window of a fancy pasty shop they had all sorts of jars of Christine Ferber's jams. Including currant. They were different varieties than I dragged back in my luggage from Paris. I didn't buy any yesterday because we were kinda taking a walking tour/shopping tour of the city and I didn't want to have to carry them for a few hours. We like to go there for market day, so I'll probably go back when I have my wheelie market basket with me. (See how European I've become, snicker snicker.)

Iam just dying to have some currant plants in my yard...hopefully this fall.

The fork technique IS quicker than hand picking in my experience (and I've had quite a lot as I grow red currants. They enjoy the British climate). Using a fork also prevents squashing the berries which is inevitable when using your fingers unless you do it VERY slowly and carefully. I always pick the whole cluster of currants because even though you have to handle them twice you can sit down to do the second procedure! They will continue to ripen after harvesting, like tomatoes, so it doesn't matter if some are not red when you pick them, as long as they are beginning to blush. Red currants keep fairly well in the fridge for up to a week if they are picked dry.

For jelly, which is going to be strained anyway, I snip of as much stem as I can with scissors but find that a little bit left on does not really matter.

If currants are rare in your area can I recommend again the redcurrant shortbread that I told Melly about last year? You only need half a pound of currants for it.

Carol

I looked at my book and there is no recipe for Raspberry currant preserve, might she have more than one, or reedited it? I found a preserve recipe for blackberry and currant preserve with cassis liqueur, which I assume is not the right one. I have the spiced blueberry however. Could you please let me have the raspberry currant one, I would love to try it. A friend whose berries I also picked gave me ten bags of frozen currants from last year, on top of my close to 20 lbs and I would love to try different things, but yours sounds really yummy.

thank you
Marie

It's called Raspberry Red Currant Preserves, p. 174 in my edition. If you don't find it in your edition (mine is copyright 2005), post again and I'll be happy to provide the recipe.

Carol

I must have a different edition as well. Page 174 of my book is zucchini bread. I only have raspberry preserves that use red currant juice and raspberries.

Actually, Melly, that's the one I made that I liked so well. I prefer that it uses only the juice because currants are so seedy.

But there's no reason we couldn't take a conventional raspberry preserve and make it half-and-half with currants. That would be a great combination.

However, I've also made plain currant preserves from a different recipe and they were excellent too.

Currant Preserves

Categories : Canning & Preserving Jams & Jellies

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 quarts currants, red/white -- (fresh red)
1 cup currant juice
7 cups sugar -- divided
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Combine currants and juice in a large saucepot. Add lemon juice and, if desired, bag of lemon seeds and pulp. (Currants are high-pectin, so I didn't this time.) Stir in 4 cups sugar; cook 5 minutes. Let stand 12 hours or overnight in a cool place.

Add remaining sugar. Bring slowly to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook rapidly almost to gelling point, about 30 minutes. As mixture thickens, stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary.

Let preserves sit 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to distribute fruit. Ladle into prepped jars, leaving 1/4" headspace. Adjust caps. Process 10 minutes BWB.

Description: "These preserves turned out gorgeous."
Yield: "5 half-pints"

I loved this next recipe. The jars went really fast. I made a note to myself to try this technique with peach chunks and raspberry juice.

Raspberry Red Currant Preserves

Categories : Canning & Preserving Jams & Jellies

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
2 cups red currant juice -- (strained from 2 1/2 pounds)
2 pounds raspberries
3 tablespoons lemon juice -- divided
3 1/4 cups sugar -- divided

Extract juice from currants. (For conventional method, refer to Bullwinkel p. 101). Rinse currants and remove stems. Place in steam juicer and steam until pulp has lost body and color. (Do not steam with stems; juice will have a "grassy" flavor.

Combine raspberries and currant juice in an 8-quart non-reactive pan. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and simmer 10 minutes. Strain juices for 15 minutes. Reserve berries. Measure the juice and either reduce or add water to measure 3 cups.

Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice to the strained fruit juices in a clean 8-quart pan. Cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and add 3 cups sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, allowing liquid to ragain a boil each time before adding more. Cook to the jell point. This will happen within 5 minutes.

Stir reserved berries into the hot jelly and steep 15 minutes. Add remaining tablespoon of lemon juice. Cover pan and bring to a boil. Uncover and stir in remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Keep at a boil until jell temp is restored, about 5 minutes.

Pour preserves into a 2-quart glass measure. Let preserves sit for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to redistribute the berries. BWB 10 minutes.

Description: "These are delectable and beautiful. A Madelaine Bullwinkel recipe."
Yield: "5 cups"

Carol

Did you change the name of the recipe? In my addition, the same recipe is just called red raspberry jam. Funny!

No, that's the name the recipe is listed under in my copy. Isn't that odd? No wonder we were having trouble finding it.

Carol

I've never done currents, but I would expect that the Roma (formerly Villaware) with the berry screen would extract all the juice without any seeds or stems.

But wouldn't that be a seedless pulp, not a juice?

Carol

I think that any pulp would push through the fine holes and and the seeds along with anything else that is firm, would be pushed out the end where its run through a second time to extract all the rest. I do this with tomatoes and raspberries too, but use two different sized screens.

We sneaked into in the yard yesterday of my friend that moved. (The house if for sale and uninhabited.) We picked about 5 pounds of white currants. I couldn't stand to let them go to waste. Also picked some more rhubarb. Unfortunately, the yellow plums were already rotting on the tree but the purple ones weren't quite ready yet. They will probably ripen while we are on vacation since we are actually supposed to have a warm day or two. We had a family destemming with a fork party last night. I am taking about a pound to a friend who is a chef and the rest went into the freezer.

Last year I ran the red currants through the strainer attachment of my kitchenaid. It is definitely a pulp rather than a juice. It made a nice jam though. I plan to use the steam juicer on the white currants and just make jelly with them. I think that will be the easiest way to go.

Thank you Carol

in my book, I do have a raspberry preserve but without any currants. I don't have that recipe at all, but my edition dates back to 1984. I wish cooks would publish new books instead of reediting old one with different recipes! I am anal when it comes to collecting and it bugs me to know there are recipes out there that I don't have lol!

Marie

The Kitchen Aid machine offers a limited amount or screens (if any). The Roma strainer has an optional, very fine holed screen specifically to get juice and pulp from small seedy berries.

You know what makes it even stranger, Marie? My copy is listed as a "first edition" with no reference whatsoever to earlier editions or revisions. In fact, I checked the copyright carefully thinking something there would provide a clue to this inconsistency. Nothing.

Carol

Mine has a copyright date of 1984 also. The red raspberry jam in question is on page 40 of my book.

Okay guys, so I finally tried this. First, I cooked the berries in a pot in the oven, but juiced them through a Jack Lalanne juicing machine (gift to myself, from an infomercial and this machine is great)so I got juice and pulp. I looked into my book again and the recipe is under raspberry jam, sure enough, but it is a bit different. Anyway here it is:

2 cups currant juice
2 lbs raspberry
5 1/2 cups sugar

Bring fruit to boil, add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, cook to jelling.

I doubled the quantities, the juice with pulp of my currants, fresh raspberries, added 3tbsps of lemon juice to the doubled recipe and added all the sugar at once. It cooked fast, about 10 minutes, jelled wonderfully and it tastes out of this world. Yield of the double recipe 15 half pints. I love raspberry jam but this is even better, I am very happy, so I used up all my fresh raspberries and came up with 70 jars of this stuff. Wow! Thanks Carol for making me aware of it, it's amazing!

Marie

Thank you, Marie. I added your notes to my copy of the recipe (in MasterCook files). I agree. Is that not an amazing combination? Fabulous taste and gorgeous to boot. As soon as I tasted this it moved immediately into my "favorites" category.

I hope next summer to obtain lots of currants. Last summer I didn't make nearly enough and this summer I made none, so I'll definitely be ready.

Carol

Ah, raspberry-currant jam, that is one of the first kinds I ever made, that is not counting the currant jelly I helped my mom make as a child. Delicious indeed. I need to hack at some trees that shade my currant bushes so that I get more currants. Most of our bushes are in the shade because they were planted by birds. I do have some black rapsberry-gooseberry preserve and that is fantastic also.

I planted a black currant bush this spring, had a fair amount of fruit for a new bush, but I just ate it directly. Makes me hungry just thinking about it. Thanks for the fork tip.

Marcia