You get plenty of pulp.
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Hey @mrsg47 ! My family was thinking of you last night as we made our black currant jam using your recipe above. I told my three girls about how you moved to paradise in France, showed them some of your market pictures and your most recent apricots.
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What great photos and pretty gal! Now is that the best black currant jam ever? I bet it is!!! Great going that is quite the harvest. Excellent!
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Mine are ready. I need to try this the mrsg47 way, instead of picking off all of the stems.
I’m wondering if the colander attachment for my kitchenaid, or some setup of my masticating juicer can perform the separation you do using your food mill.
That would save a bunch of hassle.
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I noticed that blueberry stems can sneak through my KitchenAid attachment, maybe 10% of them. Also, not quite enough skin comes through for my tastes.
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They separate best in a food mill that is bowl shaped, after they are cooked, not before.
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You’re referring to this seller?
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I’m talking about one of these:
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No its the name of the Manufacturer. Als OXO is very good.
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that should do it. The picture of the food mill is on my original post in this thread.
Thanks, I did see your food mill picture before posting earlier.
Do you let the cooked berries cool before going through the food mill? Is the 1:1 sugar by weight or volume, or maybe that is about equivalent.
BTW, I’ve found that 220 F can set very firm. But maybe that’s in part a function of the starting sugar ratio.
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Murky - years ago -1975, in fact- my mother sent us “In a Pickle or a Jam” by Vicki Wilder (Creative Home Library, Meredith 1971) which we’ve found very useful. She gives this on set temperatures on page 12:
"Setting point is reached when the temperature reads 200-222 degrees; however, these temperatures vary with altitude.
She goes on to say that at sea level it’s 222, at 2000 feet is 217, at 5000 feet it’s 212, 207 at 7500 feet, and if you should happen to be making jam at 30,000 feet it would be 165! I’m at 3200 feet and interpolate about 214 degrees, which seems to work. It’s too bad that local apricots are always ripe in the hottest weeks of the year.
What I do have trouble with is getting a good read with the thermometer, and since I’m never quite positive I fall back on the drops on a cold plate or sheeting off the spoon for insurance.
(The only pectin I use is a grated apple, preferably on the slightly underripe side, with a good glug of lemon juice. Sugar to taste -varies with fruit- with four pounds of fruit.)
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Apparently I’m at 600 feet FWIW.
heres mine. 4c washed currants, 1.5c sugar, 1tbs lemon juice, pinch salt. heat on med high boil for 5 min. turn down heat. i use a immersion blender to purée. crank back up on high until temp is 220. pour in warm jars. process. its not as sweet but how i like my b. currant jam. ive used 2c b. currant and 2 c aronia and its very good as well.
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In searching for the KitchenAid Sieve attachment, I discovered it is now considered vintage hardware. 
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It was hard to find, and expensive, several years ago. I bought it new old stock from Ebay, I think.
A coworker said that his family had used them to make seedless blackberry jam.
It did not work well on my Columbia Star blackberries, maybe raw, I don’t remember.
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Aha! I recently followed this recipe with some red currant and while the taste came out well, the consistency was very firm. Being that I’m cooking at 5280 feet, this now makes a lot of sense. Thanks for that tidbit.
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When I read your comment I wonder “is he in Denver or maybe Butte, MT?”) So I clicked on your profile and sure 'nuff, Denver.
Before I learned this I cooked up some plum jame that turned out to be fruit leather -one big, pint chunk of fruit leather!
Good news: you can dig it out, thin it over heat with water, bring it back to a boil and reseal, and you’re good to go.
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My recipe for white currant jam:
5 quarts of rinsed White Imperial currants
1 package standard sure-jell pectin
1 1/2 cups of water
7 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp butter
- Freeze the white currants solid and remove the stems. You may have to re-freeze them a couple of times before you are finished.
- Crush the currants with a potato masher. The one I use is a flat plate with square holes, not a wire-type.
- Add water and bring to a hard boil using med-high heat, stirring often with the potato masher. The run up to the boil is a good time to mash any berries you missed.
- Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Ladle the berries into a stainless wire mesh strainer, and press the pulp/juice until it is difficult to press out any more.
- Run the extract through the wire mesh a second time.
- Measure out 6 1/2 cups of extract, and add it to a stainless stock pot. If there is less than 6 1/2 cups of extract, top it off with water. It should be pretty close to 6 1/2 cups.
- Slowly add the pectin, while stirring constantly.
- Add butter and bring to a hard boil over med-high heat.
- Add sugar and return to a hard boil for 1 minute.
- Fill sterilized jars, secure lids, and turn them upside down for 10 minutes.
- Turn the jars upright, and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Clean the exterior of the jars and store.
I do not do a separate pasteurization step.
The flavor is like green grape and yellow raspberry with a good citrus tanginess. No citrus aromatics. The intensity makes me think of sweet and sour candy. I think white currant juice would make a great substitution for lemon juice in most jam recipes. I am hoping to make blueberry white currant jam next year, even if it is a small batch.
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No, I let them get to almost room temp so I don’t burn myself.
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