I’m growing black currents, but it is just the first year and I only had a few to taste after the birds had their share.
But I saw black currants at the farmers market and had to pick up a quart. I got busy and put them in the freezer for now, but I’m looking for suggestions on a quick and easy recipe to enjoy them.
@Alan, I think I remember you sharing a quick currant preserves recipe (no canning involved) on GW, but couldn’t find it.
I’m also interested in muffins, if black currants are good for that, or other suggestions.
So what are peoples’ favorite black currant recipes?
I just heat them up enough to melt as much raw sugar with them as needed to sweeten them to taste while crushing them with a fork. Once they have sweetness and then cooled they are ready to use for preserves. They have their own pectin and should be thick enough to spread on bread once cooled.
I freeze them in bags in small enough quantities to use up in a month- with all their flavor a little goes a long way.
The thing some people don’ like about them is they take a lot of sugar to get to sweetness, but that doesn’t stop folks from using cranberries which are bland compared to black currants.
I picked a gallon of them yesterday. The sweetest were from Russian seedlings Lee Reich sent me.
I pretty much did what Alan said above, but I added water and used it as syrup on waffles. I used a cup of fruit, 3/4 cup water, and a little more than a 1/2 cup of sugar. I went through three batches and already miss it. I might buy some frozen currants online just so I don’t have to wait til next year.
I hope to next year, finally get enough to process in some way. My daughter and I both love to eat them fresh so the 1 or 2 quarts my young black currants bore we ate directly.
I found a few on a young nearly forgotten plant today. They were pretty sweet so I decided to measure and they registered 20 brix.
That’s pretty good even for a table grape, and I’m sure they can get sweeter. Of course they also have a load of acid and flavor. That’s why we like to eat them so much.
I suspect Alan, you either pick them earlier, have a cultivar that isn’t as sweet, or by “sweetness” you mean sweet/tart balance, or maybe net sweetness if there is such a thing. I know you know this stuff. Its just sometimes a guess when I interpret what folks say.
In general talk, I think most Americans think of sweet and tart as opposites, maybe because many fruits lose their acidity as they sweeten up. But lemonade is probably so sweet it is off the range of my refractometer and most folks would call it sour (as in not sweet). It is both. When people say they’d prefer a fruit be sweeter, sometimes I don’t know if they mean less tart, or more sugar.
Murky, I think it is more than acid with black currants, maybe there is some tannin in the mix but it takes a lot of sugar to make preserves out of them that taste reasonably sweet.
I let them get dead ripe on the plant before harvesting them and a couple of the varieties I grow are sweet right off the plant. I lose track of which ones are which but I do like the sweeter ones for fresh eating more. For cooking it doesn’t make too much difference. I much prefer the larger fruited ones for easier picking and less skin to pulp.
One great way to enjoy them is to take a pint of them and a half gallon of fresh pressed apple cider and blend the currants with some of the cider with a blender, strain it and mix it with the rest of the cider. I’ve never tasted a more delicious and nutritious beverage.
Vitamin C, A and loads of potassium, but most of all, just plain delicious.
I had the impression that with most fruits cooking them takes away the astringency. But yes, black currants have more than their share of astringency until dead ripe.
Both my daughter and I seem to have a pretty high tolerance for astringency in fresh fruit.
I just wanted to report back that we made a small batch of @Alan’s simple preserves, although we added a little water. The taste is great, but still a bit of a bitter kick at the end. I’m not sure if that was because they weren’t dead ripe when picked, the variety or perhaps they needed to be cooked more. Any thoughts? I’m happy to cook them longer, but I didn’t want to water down the overall taste by cooking it too long.
I’ve got the majority of the currants still frozen, so we’ll try again, although that Fluffy Bunny recipe for sauce for Thanksgiving is sounding pretty good as well.
I agree there should be no bitter taste. I simply use equal parts of berries (once they’ve been simmered, and broken down through a food mill) to equal parts of sugar and thats it. Do the cold dish test for doneness them process for 15 minutes in a hot water bathe. Beautiful jam. Everyone loves it, who wouldn’t?
Murky, Alan, others : any recommendations for Black currents that are sweet and good eating fresh? My first current was White Blanka. I gave it to my neighbor to feed his chickens. They liked it much better than me. Time to try my luck with black currents.
Hi, gee those chickens are living high on the hog! White, red and pink currant are primarily for jelly and tarts. Not many currants are sweet enough without sugar. Black currants have a very strong taste and really need sugar. They make the best jam. I suggest you go to the supermarket buy a small jar and try these things before you plant more!
i have 2 bushes right full of berries! got just a handful last year. they are consort and very strong but i like it. going to do the cider and jam as well as compotes.
I simmer them with a little water and vanilla sugar to taste (which is a ton). When they taste right, I’m ready to be done, and before carmelizing, I zip them with an immersion blender.
Its either jam or sauce depending on the time and how much water was added. I really like it with vanilla or honey whole milk yogurt or icecream. Good for waffles no matter consistency, toast, or PB@J when thick enough to be called jam.
a quart is probably about the right amount to freeze and thaw 2-3x to really bust up the cell walls, then put in a strainer bag, then set into a gallon of apple juice with cote de blancs yeast (or go wild fermentation if you want to play around a bit) for black currant cider.
currants do really well with store apple juice to increase acidity, giving the cider acidity and a musky berry flavor, although they don’t do as much for the lacking tannins.
I attended (and sang at) a Renaissance Faire this weekend. At the alehouse I got a glass of black currant mead. (In case you don’t already know, mead is diluted & fermented honey.)
The finest mead I have ever enjoyed: dry, complex, dusky in color & currant flavors. When I asked for another the next day it was sold out: another measure of how good it was.
I have made mead several times, adding sour cherry or cranberry juice to the mix & a range of yeasts for varying results. I will now whiz a quart of black currants in the blender to be put in a gallon jug with honey & a high alcohol tolerant yeast to see how close I can get to that mead. (Did not learn what outfit brewed it.) Once I dial that recipe in, that may become a necessary goal annually!