Blackcurrent jam

I have made my first visit to the garden of my good friends in Horsens, while they were away on Summer vacation, to pick both black currant as well as white current, which I afterwards have turned into jam in form of this black currant jam and rhubarb & white currant jam.

I used my jam book to locate a this recipe on black currant jam. As other suggestions on black currant you can also have a look at these suggestions (classic blackcurrant jam with twist of balcamico, blackcurrant jam with liquorice lemon and blackcurrant jam).

After the first filling of the jam into the jam glasses; I noticed that the jam did not gel. I think it was, because I had not boiled enough of the water in connection with the first boiling of black currant and water, where I boiled these two ingredients under lid.

Therefore I decided to empty all the jam glasses into the cooking pot and boil the jam again to remove more water from the jam to increase the dry matter, so the natural pectin of the black currant to gel the jam. And this project worked out very well for me, as after the second boiling them black currant jam did gelled in the jam glasses.

Blackcurrant jam: - 6 glasses

• 800 g black currant
• 675 ml water
• 1.12 kg sugar

1. Prepare the blackcurrants by washing the blackcurrant, removing the berries from the strings, removing leaves and removing the dead flower end.
2. Place the blackcurrants in a large cooking pan and pour in the water. Bring the fruit to the boil, and let fruit simmer gently, until the fruit is tender, approx 25-30 minutes. REMEMBER to boil the fruit without the lid on the cooking pot.
3. Prepare the jam glasses either by heating up in the oven or adding boiling water to them.
4. Add the sugar into the fruit mass and stir until it is dissolved.
5. Bring the jam to a rolling boil and boil hard until the setting point is reached. Stir the jam frequently.
6. Test of set after 5 minutes using the flake test.
7. When the setting point is reached, remove the pan from the heat and leave it to stand for 5 minutes. As the jam settles, push any scums from the surface of the pan to the side and remove it with a metal spoon. The purpose for the waiting step is well to build viscosity in jam, so the fruit pieces will be trapped inside the jam inside of be going to the top of jam.
8. Gently stir the jam after the resting time and pour it into the prepared glasses, fill the glasses up to the brim. Remove any scum for the surface of the jam using a tea spoon. Close the glass with a lid.
9. Leave the glass upright and disturbed to cool and set.
10. Store at ambient temperature.