Hinnomaki Red is perhaps the worst as it comes to sprawl and laying down. It’s not an upright one even with no crop in many cases.
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I use a food mill. Works perfectly, all taste no seeds. Currants are packed with seeds. Once the seeds are removed (I cook them with seeds and stems) all is easily removed by the food mill and you get skin, color and taste. Perfect.
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@mrsg47
I also boil seeds and stems, then swirl thru a colander which removed all seeds as well, with more effort than a food mill.
Sure are!
I started with 8 cups of currants with seeds, ended up with 3 1/2 cups of juice, and even less since I boiled more for a thicker juice for jelly.
Not sure if I needed the extra boiling (rolling boil), maybe pectin would stiffen up juice?
Any advice on pectin addition or amount of boiling would be appreciated.
Thanks
Fran
there is usually plenty of pectin in currants. I once made a smoothie of 1/3 currants and the rest pear. 10 minutes later it was pudding.
so your thinking currants may not need pectin, esp if boiled to a rolling boil?
the mix did seem to stiffen without pectin.
Until I figure out the next step, I froze the juice (slightly thick from boiling) for the time being so at this point it still doesn’t have any sugar.
in my experience currants don’t need added pectin. I think if you add sufficient currants to other fruits, the currants can even act like a large enough pectin source. (especially talking about redcourants here)
although there could be variance between varieties.
i tend not to boil stuff, until just before botteling. Boiling it before botteling makes it keep longer. But boiling for a long time can affect flavor somewhat
Most fruits don’t need added pectin. Currants are especially high in pectin. Adding commercial pectin does take a lot of the guesswork out, though, and gives you a wider margin of error.
I’m curious about your experience with seediness. With the upfront caveat that I only have one variety each of red and white currants, and I’ve only gotten a handful of fruit so far, I’ve found them to be not much seedier than blackberries. It sounds like that might be the exception?
for me red(and White) currants are much seedier than blackberry’s.
The seeds are both larger and a larger % of harvested fruit is seed.
I don’t mind the seeds in either though. And think their healthy, so i never taker the effort of removing them. Also quite often the seeds contain extra pectin. So removing them might increase the need for adding pectin.
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@mrsg47 @oscar
I just realized that my reference point for blackberries are the wild ones that I pick, which are much seedier than the domesticated ones. Foraging wild fruits definitely changes your perspective on what counts as ‘seedy.’ Anyway, I guess I’m happy with the level of seeds in my currants.
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I agree…lots more seeds.
I prefer to leave seeds, but my niece had some of my currants, then a few days later had to go to dentist. A currant seed lodged in her gum causing inflammation.
And seeds get stuck in my teeth.
I must have porous teeth.
So without pectin, does juice while still hot, before pouring into jar have a bit of thickness (viscosity)?
By throwing away seeds, I lose about half of potential jelly amt, which is disappointing
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It should. The best measure is the spoon test. Keep some metal spoons in the freezer, and you place a little of your jam/jelly on the spoon and stick it back in the freezer for a few minutes. When the jam/jelly is cool (but not too cold), you’ll see what the texture will be like. If it’s too runny, you need to boil a little longer.
The other thing worth mentioning is you often need a bit more sugar and may need to add some lemon juice or citric acid if you don’t add pectin.
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Thanks Jay!
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seems people boil these before running through a food mill to remove seeds
I do not mind seeds in fruit
IF one wanted to sell of trade seeds would the seeds come out easy BEfore boiling in food mill?
Asking indirectly I want seeds?
Also I know cuttings start easy I love seeing what comes up from seeds , but I could offer money for cuttings as well?
I did find goose berries wild, but Only a couple on it,
recently I found one bush, but young only one cane in a prairie field
(used to be farm land I believe since everything around it is, and stores now maybe a farmers )
Also per pounds of fruit if one fermented these
How many seeds fall to the bottom, during fermentation per pounds of fruit?
Does anyone know How many seeds make up a gram?
(juneberry 80 seeds must be more for these)
Great looking jam.
Maybe if selling have a sample of the jam on cracker with peanut butter
IS this sold at a farmers Market
People still want to be home might have time to look into it
or are out of work best time to introduce people to New stuff.
Always good to leave a little something for the birds,
and Animals at least that is what I have been taught.
i leave the seeds in mine also. alot of the health benefits are in the seeds. i also like the added texture it gives the jam.
I harvest stems and all, boil it to separate the juice from the rest, and run it through a sieve lined with cheesecloth. (wet the cheesecloth, first.) Then i make jelly.
It makes fabulous jelly. I never add pectin. I’ve accidentally made it too stiff, never too runny.
The birds eat almost all of mine, but my sister has more than they will eat, and i harvested a large pot of currants at her place.
Black currants don’t need pectin, and making red and white currant jelly was different. I had to add a bit more sugar than I like for it to set up. Didn’t ever use pectin.
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My first attempt to make black currant jam came out tasty , but like a jelly bean in consistency! The next attempt I added windfall apples and pears, plus a few odd berries. It came out fabulous.
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I made jam with the currants I picked off my one red currant bush, plus a few ripe jostas and a couple raspberries not fit for serving to guests. Not really enough to bother canning but I wanted to send a little bit home with family who are visiting now so I canned four little jars.
We prefer jam without seeds so we ran it through my Squeeze-o after cooking it down. There are still some seeds but not many. I feel like my currants have way more seeds than ones I have bought in the past.
Lunch was some soft bread from H-mart with butter and fresh, hot jam. Yum.
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