i just ordered 2 juilet cherry bushes from honey berry USA for spring planting. in the meantime when the cherries are onsale next summer , I’m going to buy a bunch to make some jam. 
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i knew i would like the jam as i like the ripe berries right from the bush! gave some of it to my neighbor and he loves it too! also gave him a rooted cutting.
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i was thinking of adding a red currant bush.
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I love the taste of cherries, that is part of it for me. I do like the black currant, very unique and very good too. [quote=“moose71, post:102, topic:11783, full:true”]
i was thinking of adding a red currant bush.
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I mix my cherries with red currants in the jam, but that was more to do with not having enough cherries, it worked though! Red currants are not as good as black for most people. If you want I’ll send you jam, I didn’t make the cherry jam yet, but can make it anytime. I’m going to need red currants this year too. Last year I had two Carmine Jewel plants, I gave one away. I’ll throw in the tayberry/wyeberry too.
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Whats your recipe for CJ preserves?
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I tried many methods and i developed a formula that works for most fruits. When I look for recipes I’m only looking at ingredients. I have my own way to make jam set. I can get a loose set to a strong set depending on fruit. Loose sets will still be stiff enough if refrigerated, it’s not that loose. I don’t even test set anymore it is so reliable. If fruit is basic, I follow other recipes like for figs. For all berries and tree fruits my method works well, but a few failures have occurred, working those out still.
It works well for CJ, you get a good set. I use 4 cups of prepared fruit, once you process fruit, you need 4 cups. I have only made it with red currants, not by itself.
Tart Cherry-Red Currant preserves.
3 cups of prepared cherries including any juice you can save.
1 cup of prepared red currants
2/3 cups of Apple Juice
1/4 cup of lime juice.
2 1/4 cups of sugar
1 package of no sugar Sure Gel pectin (The pink box)
Prep cherries (pitting), leave as whole as possible. You need 3 cups
I prep currants by adding about 2 cups of currants to a sauce pan, adding 1/3 cup apple juice, on low heat, break currants up with a potato masher until a liquid. Strain currants with fine sieve or food mill. I use a pestle to push as much pulp through as possible. Reserve 1 cup. I like using a sieve, and they make very fine meshed ones, it’s easy, only takes a minute, and all seeds are gone, currants, blackberries, raspberries etc. A food mill is too much work, but can be used.
Combine currants and cherries
add 1/3 cup apple juice
1/4 cup lime or lemon juice
Mix pectin with 1/4 cup sugar
Begin heating on high and add pectin slowly., whisking helps. Constantly slow stir till a rolling boil appears.
Add the remaining 2 cups of sugar, stir constantly, bring back to a rolling boil and hold for one minute and never stop stirring. If it looks to over boil lift off heat till you get it under control and back on stirring the whole time.
After one minute remove from heat and test gel set by putting a spoonful of the jam on a refrigerated plate, tip to make it run, if good, it will stop running and gel in place. Keep stirring until boiling stops, then test for set.
If it doesn’t set follow label instructions on sure Gel for 2nd try. This should not happen, if it does, you didn’t follow directions.
Put in your jars. This recipe is good for canning, but not official redbook. I have tested pH and it is low enough. Why the lime is added. I boil for only 5 minutes in water canner. Jars and rings are boiled for 12 minutes before being used. after 12 minutes I shut off heat and add lids. I feel 12 minutes of boiling can compromise the seal on lids, which then makes the boiling pointless.Leave lids in water until you need them.
I use a corning wear stove top dish with a metal bottom on the outside only. The acid does not react to porcelain and porcelain heats evenly and holds heat forever. A metal sauce pan is much cooler at the top than bottom, plus acid react to metal, never use aluminum! . I attribute good, constant reliable sets of jam to this porcelain sauce pan. I will never use anything else.
Heating jams and reducing them until they set destroys all vitamins, and other large molecules. In my method you only boil the solution for at most under 10 minutes 1 minute set, 30 seconds to cool 5 minute water bath. Less destruction of complex nutritious molecules such as vitamins.
Yet it’s processed enough to store at room temp for a year or so. (if water bathed and sealed in canning jars).
You can use any combination of fruit as long as you have 4 cups of prepared fruit. I have not tested it with 4 cups of cherries only. It should work.
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I have experimented with varying amounts of sugar to black currants with good results. They all worked, although my wife definitely prefers more sugar than currants, as in four cups currants and five cups sugar. I think trying four cups aronia and six cups sugar (with or without pectin, I don’t know if aronia has pectin already) would give you a base line. If it is too sour to enjoy on toast, it might make a great base for a sauce to put on lamb, pork or duck.
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My method for making currant jam is even less technical.
4 cups currants in heavy bottom pot, mashed with heavy spoon (leaves some whole.) Add one tablespoon butter to cut foaming, one packet pectin and five cups sugar. Cook to dissolve sugar and then bring to boil two minutes. Pour into warmed clean jars and cap with sterilized lids. Wait to hear 'em ping and store.
I know black currants have their own pectin, but to release it in sufficient quantity takes a longer cooking time with the fruit before hand, and I have yet to try that. Pectin has been an easy and cost effective item. This process takes about 20 minutes with clean-up. (Yeah, impatient youth!)
That is basically what I do with any jam I make - no canning bath. In ten years since I began making my own jam only one jar of plum jam had any mold develop. The wet cloth I used to wipe jar edges might not have been as clean as needed that time.
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I canned some currant jam. I think it is about 50/50 sugar by weight. I boiled until 220 degrees. No pectin, and canned in a hot water bath.
It set too firm, like membrillo. Next time I think I’ll add a little water 
I may try recooking a jar of it with some water and see if I can get it to set again a little softer.
I’ve been enjoying it with whole milk cream top vanilla yogurt.
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Yeah I don’t like all the sugar, I prefer the jam to be tart if possible,
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same here.
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Since aronia are ripe at the same time as my Asian plums, I pick a bunch of aronia berries, like 12, then I take off any remaining stems and put them in my mouth, but I don’t eat them. Then I walk over to the plum tree and put the plum in my mouth. I chew them together, and remove the pit. Together, I think they taste really good. Way better than aronia by itself,and probably a bit better than plum by itself. Think about all those antioxidants and nutrition. No added sugar.
John S
PDX OR
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Make it raw! Just blend in any proportion with sugar and freeze. It comes out nice and thick, but not too thick. I usually smash berries with potato musher with a little sugar, then separate skins using sieve, ( my has very bitter skin) and add sugar to the taste, then put in small jars and freeze. Pure vitamins!
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Let me introduce a variety of currant Bryansk selection Selechenskaya 2. With a purely sweet taste and very large berries. It is enough to type in google selechenskaya 2 or Селеченская 2 to learn more.
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Looks good- is it available in the US? The only thing I saw was seeds being sold on Ebay.
I did find this interesting paper, which mentions that it may not have as many of the beneficial chemicals (ascorbic acid and anthocyanins) as other cultivars. Maybe the healthy stuff comes with the bad taste (when fresh).
The cultivars Izyumnaya, Selechenskaya, Selechenskaya-2, Poezija, Guliver and more had good flavour and large berries, but not high contents of the measured bioactive components; they can be recommended for larger tests for suitability for commercial growing of dessert berries.
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i do mine exactly the same way! try a mixed berry jam. i put currants, raspberries and strawberries or currants raspberry and aronia. both are excellent! going to try one with blueberry next year.
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I’ve heard that too. i like the stronger tasting ones like consort. i even eat them fresh.
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It’s right. But agree that in wild grapes or wild pears the same vitamins more than in the modern variety but nevertheless you buy a varietal sweet grapes or pear. Black currant breeding is only at the very beginning and Selechenskaya 2 is one of the first sweet varieties. In addition, it is an intense type. This means erect branches and necessarily cut out last year’s shoots. There is still a concept as a dry break and not fallibility.
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so are you saying this cultivars self prunes older canes?
were did you purchase this cultivar Bob? I’ve never heard of it before.