Ever wondered how to make black currant jam? Me neither, until we had black currant bush in the garden. Eating raw berries are not very enjoyable for me, since they are very sour even when they are ripe. So making a jam was natural choice how to process them.

This recipe is for future reference how to make one, so I don’t need to search for recipe next time.

Ingredients

  • 1 kg black currant (without stems)
  • 1 kg sugar (cane sugar if you are hippie)

Note: The sugar-to-berries ratio is 1:1 so if you have different amount of black currant, you know what to do.

You also need

  • pot
  • wooden spoon
  • blender
  • glass jars

How to

  • blend the berries in da pot (how much is up to you)
  • add sugar
  • bring to boil and keep boiling for approx. 1 hour
  • stir occasionally

After the 1-hour boiling period has passed, you need to make a jam-ness (haha) test: Take teaspoon of boiling jam, put it on the small plate, and after it cools down (5-10 mins), check the consistency. If it is jam-enough, you are good. If not, you are fucked, and you need to add small amount of citric acid. But you should be ok, since black-currant is naturally high in pectin which is responsible for making jams jelly-like. When making jams from other fruit, you usually need to add it, but not in the case of black currant.

Making a jam-ness test. Is it jelly enough?

So now, if you passed jam-ness test, you should get rid of the foam on the top of the pot before putting into glass jars, since the trapped air could spoil your good-ness over time.

Glass jars have to be super clean, so you do not infect your top-shit jam - wash jars with boiling water prior to canning.

Result

Congratz, you are now master of jam. Some photos below - they are not instagram-grade fancy photos, but fuck that, they do the job.

Boiling the good stuff
Yummy with professional label