Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Eating and Drinking => Cooking, Storing and Preserving => Topic started by: mumofstig on July 12, 2018, 14:50

Title: Red currant jelly
Post by: mumofstig on July 12, 2018, 14:50

I made a big batch this morning following recipe from this site, but please tell me it mellows a bit before winter  ???
Right now it is so sour it feels like it is stripping the enamel from my teeth  :ohmy: Although it does look really pretty in its jars, I couldn't possibly share it around as it is  :nowink:

Title: Re: Red currant jelly
Post by: sunshineband on July 12, 2018, 14:53

I always find it very sharp when I've made it, and then by Christmas somehow It I OK... but not quite as you describe. Maybe the fruit is more sour this year? :( ???

I've only got as far as the juice so far (it is in the fridge in a big jug) so fingers crossed

Title: Re: Red currant jelly
Post by: lemonstar on July 20, 2018, 13:02

I made some redcurrant and raspberry jam using a recipe in the Bake-Off book 500g of each fruit and 1kg of pectin sugar and while it tastes fine - it is a bit rubbery and I wished I'd put the raspberries through my whirly-gigg thing my sister in France bought me https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stainless-Vegetables-Rond%C3%B2-Diameter-composed/dp/B01N68GC53/ref=sr_1_46?ie=UTF8&qid=1532086031&sr=8-46&keywords=vegetable+puree (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stainless-Vegetables-Rond%C3%B2-Diameter-composed/dp/B01N68GC53/ref=sr_1_46?ie=UTF8&qid=1532086031&sr=8-46&keywords=vegetable+puree). The jam is sweet enough (but crunchy - esp at the top where all the seeds have drifted - it is less rubbery and seedy the lower you go in the 1kg jar - I have 2 to get through). I knew redcurrants have a high pectin content - I thought the Bake-Off recipe would have taken that into account better - next time I'll use maybe 60% pectin sugar and make up the rest with caster perhaps. Next The whirly-gigg gets over 25% more juice out of the redcurrants that I did before my trying to mash them through a sieve. 760g of juice from 1100g of redcurrants.

I read redcurrant goes well with port in a jelly but I couldn't see any recipes that spelled out exactly what type of port you should use.

I just made redcurrant ice cream and it's not bad at all. I used this recipe http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/31450/redcurrant-ice-cream.aspx (http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/31450/redcurrant-ice-cream.aspx) and used an Andrew James ice-cream maker. I pre-whisked the whipping cream too much so I couldn't pour in the maker - I'm making more today and will try not whisking at all this time as the original recipe was for making without an ice-cream maker.

Title: Re: Red currant jelly
Post by: mumofstig on July 20, 2018, 13:40

I use recipes from an old Marguerite Patten recipe book and she says redcurrants have plenty of pectin in so need no help to set, and they are often added to other jams to aid setting. So I'd only use ordinary sugar if I were you :)

The set on mine was great, the jelly is clear and beginning to mellow, already :D

Title: Re: Red currant jelly
Post by: snowdrops on July 20, 2018, 16:22

I never add pe tin, rely8ng on lemon juice where necessary. As for seeds I sieve red,black & white currants,also blackberries as I just don’t like the pips. If I’m making a jelly & want it to be clear, I put the stewed fruit through the jelly bag, then rested the remains with half the water again, perhaps adding more fresh fruit, sieve the lot & use that as a seedless jam