How to cook delicious red currant jam for the winter? Cooking features, important tips and tricks. TOP 6 best step-by-step recipes for red currant jam.
Red currant jam is a healthy and tasty treat for the winter, which is made from red juicy sour berries of the Gooseberry family. Thanks to sugar, the acidity of the fruits decreases, and they become convenient for consumption. This delicacy can be added to baked goods as a filling, sweets and in various dishes.
Features of making red currant jam
Juicy berry jam is quite simple to prepare, but some of the nuances of cooking are still worth considering. Fruits should be of the same size and ripe. If the berries are unripe, then they will cook longer, which is why the total mass will turn out to be overcooked.
To rinse the berries without crushing them, you can dip them in a large bowl of cool water. All debris will float to the surface. Then you need to pour the currants into a colander, let the liquid drain.
In order to cook a delicacy from frozen berries, they must be defrosted in advance at room temperature, sprinkled with granulated sugar.
Before boiling red currant jam, you need to take care of preparing suitable dishes. Choose a thick-bottomed stainless steel bowl or pot for cooking. The container should be bulky and wide. If it is enamel, there should be no scratches or chips on it. It is better to refuse aluminum and copper.
Note! Red currants, especially well-ripened and large, contain a large amount of pectin, due to which the jam thickens naturally even with minimal heat treatment.
Here are some helpful tips on how to make red currant jam:
- If you need to preserve the integrity of the berries, then do not cook large volumes of the product at a time, try not to crush or stir the fruits.
- To make delicious red currant jam, do not cook it for too long, as it will lose its beneficial properties, taste and aroma.
- Do not forget to constantly skim off the froth from the jam: it contains various debris, and it can shorten the shelf life of the product.
- Red currants go well with other berries and fruits, especially black currants, gooseberries and citrus fruits.
- The taste of the dessert can be varied with various spices and herbs. For example, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, mint will do.
- Don't be afraid to make raw jam blanks. Thanks to the acid and granulated sugar contained in the berries, it can be stored for quite a long time.
All jars and containers in which the jam is supposed to be stored must be sterilized - this will increase the shelf life of the finished product. The same goes for the lids. This can be done in any convenient way - steamed, in a microwave or oven. Do not neglect this advice, whether it is red currant jam for the winter or "raw" without cooking.
For long-term storage of jam, choose a dark, dry room with an air temperature of no more than 15 degrees. A cellar, closed cabinet or refrigerator is ideal.
TOP 6 recipes for making red currant jam
To make the jam perfect, you need to choose the right way of cooking. The recipes below are pretty straightforward and easy to use - anyone, even a novice cook, can handle them, but at the same time they are varied and interesting. By choosing the right recipe, you can create a delicious treat for every taste.
Five-minute red currant jam
The secret of this simple red currant jam is that thanks to short-term heat treatment, most of the nutrients are retained in it. The berries remain intact, and the syrup is not too runny.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 284 kcal.
- Servings - 6
- Cooking time - 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- Currant - 1 kg
- Sugar - 1 kg
- Water - 200 ml
Step-by-step cooking of red currant jam for five minutes:
- Thoroughly rinse the berries, remove excess debris, such as leaves, twigs, stalks.
- Transfer them to a waffle towel to dry.
- Pour water in the specified amount into a heat-resistant thick-walled dish and heat it over moderate heat. Add granulated sugar and cook the syrup. Stir thoroughly to make the syrup clear.
- We fall asleep the berries, reduce the gas and cook for about 5 minutes. Also, during the cooking process, you need to remove the foam that appears. You do not need to stir the berries to keep them whole.
- We pour the workpiece into previously prepared sterile jars and roll up the lids. Five-minute red currant jam is ready!
Red currant jelly jam
This red currant jelly is cooked in less than 10 minutes and is naturally jelly-like without the addition of gelatin or other thickeners. There are no bones in this dessert, making it ideal for soaking cakes, spreading on bread and toast, as well as filling for pancakes and pies. Its texture is very delicate and airy, and its color is bright ruby.
Ingredients:
- Red currant - 1 kg
- Granulated sugar - 1 kg
- Water - 0.5 l
Step by step preparation of red currant jelly:
- Rinse the berry, sort it out, remove the debris. You can leave the ponytails - they will not interfere.
- Pour the fruits into a heat-resistant container and put on low heat. Pour in water. If the berry is juicy and gives off a lot of juice, then you can do without adding water.
- Cook the contents of the dish for about 5 minutes, stirring and removing the froth. Turn off the gas.
- The resulting mass must be rubbed through a fine iron sieve. After the procedure, a semi-dry cake should remain on the sieve.
- Pour sugar into puree from berries, put on gas. Cook for about 2 minutes and stir to dissolve all the sugar.
- Pour the mixture into a glass container. As it cools, the jam will become thicker.
Thick red currant jam
To make a thick red currant jam, it is important to avoid adding water. The berry should let the juice in, in which it will be cooked. The delicacy is thick and sweet. You can add a little less sugar if you don't like treats that are too sweet.
Ingredients:
- Currant - 500 g
- Sugar - 500 g
Step by step preparation of thick red currant jam:
- The berry is washed well, cuttings and spoiled fruits are removed.
- Sugar is poured into the currants, the whole mass is thoroughly mixed and put into the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, and preferably overnight, so that a lot of juice is released.
- The sweet berry mass is cooked over high heat until boiling, then at low temperature - about 5 minutes.
- The thick mass is poured into cans and rolled up.
Advice! This blank is obtained with whole berries, but there is an equally common way of making red currant jam thick. To do this, you need to crush the berries, mix with sugar and also boil for about 6 minutes.
Red currant jam with oranges
Such red currant jam with orange turns out to be very aromatic and thick. In order not to boil the fruits for too long, you will have to do without adding water. Instead of the latter, berry juice will act, which we get by lightly pressing the berries. This is an excellent vitamin preparation option for the cold season and seasons of colds.
Ingredients:
- Red currant - 3 kg
- Sugar - 2.5 kg
- Oranges - 2 pcs.
Step-by-step preparation of red currant jam with oranges:
- Prepare the berries by sorting, washing and drying.
- Pour the currants into a saucepan, mix with sugar, and crush it a little with a crush, so that the juice necessary for cooking is released.
- Wash the oranges thoroughly with a brush and soda, pour over boiling water. Cut into small pieces, remove seeds, puree with a meat grinder.
- Put the saucepan with berries on the fire and bring to a boil.
- Then add the orange paste. Cook everything for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Red currant jam with gooseberries
Gooseberries taste well with red currants, as they are from the same family. It has a denser texture and requires a longer cooking time, so it must be puréed first. On the contrary, the currant remains intact and floats in a thick fragrant gooseberry mass.
Ingredients:
- Red currant - 200 g
- Sugar - 200 g
- Water - 100 ml
- Gooseberry - 400 g
Step by step preparation of red currant and gooseberry jam:
- Rinse the berries well in different containers, fold them onto a metal sieve so that excess water is glass, remove the tails (cut off with nail scissors).
- Process the gooseberries with a blender, add sugar and water, put on fire and bring to a boil. Cook for about 15 minutes.
- Add currants, mix and boil at the same temperature for another 7-8 minutes.
- Pour hot red currant and gooseberry jam into jars, roll up, wrap with a towel and wait for it to cool, then put it in a cool dark place for storage.
Red currant jam without cooking
Such red currant jam without cooking is prepared by simply grinding the fruit with sugar. The taste of the berries does not change during storage and remains the same as if the currants had just been picked and mixed with sugar. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the shelf life of the workpiece is usually less than that of the thermally processed product, and therefore an increased amount of sugar is added to it, and all cans must be sterilized without fail.
Ingredients:
- Red currant - 1 kg
- Sugar - 1.5 kg
Step-by-step preparation of red currant jam without cooking:
- We wash the berries well, sort through, removing spoiled specimens, garbage, leaves. Lay out on a towel so that excess moisture disappears.
- Let's pass the fruits through a meat grinder or use a blender for chopping.
- Add sugar and stir well to dissolve it all.
- We lay out the workpiece in sterilized jars and put it in the refrigerator for storage until use.
Advice! For a similar recipe for red currant jam, it is better to choose the most ripe, large and juicy fruits that will give more juice.
