How to make currant jam for the winter
Jam products
Red or black currants, or both - 1 kilogram (1 liter can and another 1/4 liter can)
Sugar - 500-750 grams
How to make currant jam
1. Select ripe, dense berries for jam. To correctly measure the amount of currants, you can use a liter jar. In 1 liter jar 750-800 grams of berries.
2. Peel the currants from twigs and leaves, rinse (if you use homemade berries and are sure that the currants were not sprayed with chemicals, then you do not need to wash).
3. Put the currants in a saucepan, pour in 50 milliliters of water and put on fire.
4. Bring the berry to a boil with constant stirring over low heat.
5. Using a potato grinder, crush the berries (gently, the berries will splash).
6. Boil the mixture for 2 minutes and remove from heat.
7. Place the sieve on a saucepan, put some of the berries in a sieve with a tablespoon or slotted spoon, crush with a spoon or slotted spoon.
8. Wipe the whole mixture so that no cake and bones get into the jam - then you can cook compote from it or brew it with tea.
9. Squeeze the cake over a sieve with your hands, after putting on plastic gloves.
10. Strain the berries again.
11. Pour the strained jam base into a saucepan, put on fire.
12. Add sugar, cook jam for 30 minutes, stirring constantly and dripping jam on a saucer to check readiness.
Pour hot jam into sterilized jars, cool in a blanket and put away for storage.
Currant jam in a bread maker
1. Put the grated currants into a bread maker, cover with sugar and mix.
2. Cook the jam in a bread maker on the "Jam" mode for 1-1.5 hours.
Making delicious jam
Cooking currant jam is a truly Russian entertainment. Currants - both red and black (and more often both at the same time) - reproduce in every second summer cottage, it is unpretentious to the conditions, therefore, after wintering, the bushes bloom again and again. Almost the entire July is the season for currant picking, in the North of Russia the season begins a little later.The question arises, which currant is better suited for jam - red or black. We answer: choose any to taste, you can both at once and even with the addition of white (it tastes the same as red).
Of course, the simplest currant preparation is to grind the berry with sugar, and for long-term storage in any conditions, it is enough to cook whole berry jam... But it is currant jam that is ideal as a filling for cakes and rolls, for pancakes and just spread on cookies. It's all about the consistency - if for jam currants are cooked with whole berries, which are felt in the finished dessert, then for jam, berry cake (skin and seeds of berries) is removed, and due to sugar and its own gelatin, the jam acquires a homogeneous consistency and - elastic enough to a jar of jam held a spoon.
To get rid of the seeds when making jam, rub the currants through a sieve. It will be quite simple to do this if the berry is preheated in the oven or blanched: pour it into a colander and put it in a saucepan with boiling water for 2 minutes. If the red currant seeds are too small and pass through the sieve, you can use gauze by folding it several times.
By the way, you don't need to use gelatin to make currant jam, because the berries contain natural gelling agents.And do not be intimidated by the liquid consistency of the jam during cooking: after the dessert has cooled down, it will acquire a thick consistency.
There is a myth that there are no vitamins in jam, but this is just a myth. Even after prolonged cooking, vitamins that are resistant to high temperatures remain in currant jam: P, which strengthens the walls of blood vessels and vitamin K, which increases blood clotting, potassium, which is useful for the heart muscle, and pectin, which promotes the removal of harmful substances.
Currant jam without cooking - is it worth it?
Making currant jam without cooking will be more difficult, because scroll the berries and then grind them with sugar until a homogeneous consistency is an occupation for people of rare diligence or powerful gadgets. In addition, currant jam prepared without boiling will be with seeds. Keep in mind that more sugar is required for jam without boiling, which means the taste will be less berry and more cloying. In addition, there is a high probability that the grated berry will become sugared during storage. Note also: if there are problems with the gastrointestinal tract, it is better to use boiled berries.