Blackcurrant jam: thick, tangy, sets by itself in a quarter of an hour
The most forgiving jam there is: blackcurrants carry so much pectin and acid that they set on their own after a dozen minutes of boiling, with no added pectin and no lemon. First cooked briefly in a little water so the skins soften, then hard with the sugar. A kilo of fruit makes five small jars of dark, intense jam for winter.
Your own work in that: 55 min.
- Stripping the stems 20 min
- Softening the skins 10 min
- Boiling with sugar 15 min
- Jars 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneStrip the currants from the stems
Strip the currants: quickest with the tines of a fork, pulling each string through them over a bowl. Discard green and shrivelled berries. Put a small saucer in the freezer for the test.
Ingredients: 1000 g blackcurrants · 200 ml water · 700 g sugar
TipThe odd dry tail on a berry doesn't matter, it cooks away. The stems themselves must go: in jam they are like splinters.
With a fork, string by stringRinse
Rinse the currants in a sieve under running water and drain. Weigh them: the recipe counts on a kilo of clean fruit.
Rinsed, drained, weighedSoften the skins in water
Bring the currants and water to the boil in a wide pot and cook 10 minutes, stirring, until the skins burst and soften and the juice turns deep purple. This step comes before the sugar because sugar toughens skins: added too early it leaves hard husks in the jam.
TipPrefer a smooth jam without skins? After this step push the mass through a sieve and continue with the sugar; you get slightly less.
Ten minutes without sugar, skins softeningAdd the sugar and boil hard
Add the sugar, stir until dissolved and boil over high heat, stirring often because blackcurrant likes to catch, 10–15 minutes. Skim the foam. Blackcurrant is very high in pectin, so it sets fast: start testing from the tenth minute.
Sugar, high heat, frequent stirringThe saucer test
Drop a little jam onto the cold saucer, wait 30 seconds and push it with a finger: if the surface wrinkles, it is done. Don't boil longer 'to be safe': overcooked blackcurrant jam turns as firm as a jelly for slicing.
TipBlackcurrant is the opposite of strawberry: there the problem is too little pectin, here too much. Better to take it off a minute early than a minute late.
It wrinkles: off the heat at onceInto jars
Pour the hot jam into five scalded, hot jars (about 250 ml) to the brim, wipe the threads, screw the lids on tightly and stand upside down for 10 minutes. Turn upright and leave to cool. Sealed jars (lid pulled down) keep up to a year in a cool pantry; a jar that hasn't sealed goes in the fridge and gets eaten first. For bread, for crepes, a teaspoon in tea instead of lemon.
Hot into hot, upside down
Before you start
Less sugar
500 g sugar per kilo: sharper, still sets thanks to the pectin. Then pasteurise the jars 10 minutes and eat within six months.
With redcurrants
Half and half with redcurrants: lighter, sharper, less intense. Redcurrants are also very high in pectin, so start testing from the eighth minute.
The jam set hard
Boiled too long. Warm the contents of the jar with 2–3 tablespoons of water, stirring, and use straight away; it doesn't go back in the jar.