Blackcurrant usually gives a plentiful harvest. Often the housewives question what to do with an excess of berries. You can grind them with sugar or cook ordinary jam, but you can show originality and cook something new, for example, royal jelly. We offer detailed instructions for preparing this dish in different variations.
What you need to create a dish
Making blackcurrant jelly is easy, but the process takes some time. You can cook it in the evening and leave it filtered overnight. It turns out much more tender than blackcurrant jam.
Royal jelly has a rich vitamin composition, so you can use it to strengthen the immune system. It turns out very fragrant, transparent, red. For cooking you will need:
- black currant (2 kg);
- 1.5 liters of water;
- 500 grams of granulated sugar for every 500 ml of blackcurrant juice.
Cooking process
Sort and thoroughly rinse the black currant, dry it, put it in a volumetric pan with a thick bottom. Add water and cook until the berries are soft. It takes about 20 minutes.
Strain the liquid through the milk filter. This will take a lot of time from you: at least three hours. You can leave the berries filtered for the whole night.
Royal currant jelly at this stage of preparation can stain the working area. Berry juice is washed very poorly, so be careful. Keep a bowl of currant away from any bright surfaces. As soon as the juice stops dripping from the filter, measure its amount.
Calculate the required number of berries for your juice. Put the juice and sugar in the jam pan and mix until the grains dissolve.
Bring to a boil and cook for about 9 minutes, then take a short break for five minutes. Cook the royal jelly further by fractional boiling for 7 and 9 minutes. Ready jelly should immediately harden on a saucer, so test it by taking a few drops.
In addition, you can use the cold plate method. To do this, put 2-3 saucers in the freezer while you boil the juice and sugar. When testing jelly, remove one of them and pour a teaspoon of the hot mixture on it. Wait a couple of minutes and swipe the jelly with your finger. If its surface wrinkles, the jam is ready.
Pour the jelly into sterilized jars, seal and follow the usual canning procedure.
Whole Berry Option
Royal jelly can also be cooked with whole berries. For this option you will need:
- 1 kg of fresh blackcurrant, washed, without stems and branches.
- 1 kg of sugar sand.
- 125 ml of water.
- Tablespoon vegetable oil.
Cooking jam with whole berries
Wash the black currants in cold running water to remove any dirt or sand. Remove the stems and all unripe berries. Put the currants in a large pot, add sugar, water and butter.
If you first put the berries in a pan, and then everything else, the jam will not boil. Bring the prepared mixture to a boil and mix gently. Cook for five minutes, taking as many breaks. Do not mix the mixture again so that the berries do not crack. So you get a royal food jelly with whole berries.
Sterilize the jars and pour the cooked product into them, close the lids and refrigerate.
Currant and Strawberry Option
Some housewives pour blackcurrant jam into glasses. Royal jelly with this storage method looks especially impressive, since its transparent red color is most clearly visible. To get new notes in the taste and for a more saturated color of the product, you can add strawberries to the currant.
You will need:
- 1.5 kg of strawberries (washed and peeled).
- 1.5 kg of black currant.
- 2 glasses of water.
- Juice of 1 lemon.
- 2.5 kg of granulated sugar.
Cooking jelly from currants and strawberries
Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over low heat. Continue to cook over high enough heat, gently stirring. Then pass the mixture through a metal sieve to separate the syrup. Place it in a pan, place on the stove and continue cooking for approximately ten minutes. Check for preparedness using the cold saucer method.
Once you are sure that the royal jelly is ready, pour it into clean, sterilized jars and immediately close with metal lids. The jam will be stored for at least a year if you place it in a cool, dry, dark place.
Raspberry variant
The above is a recipe for making jam with strawberries, which will allow you to get a beautiful treat. You can also do this with raspberries. So you cook the most beautiful, reddish-pink jelly, which will be fragrant, tasty and very healthy.
To prepare such a treat you will need:
- 5 cups fresh raspberries.
- 2.5 cups of black currant.
- 2 glasses of cold water.
- 1 cup boiling water.
- 7 glasses of sugar.
- 1 pack of liquid pectin.
Cooking jelly from currants and raspberries
In a large pot, place raspberries, currants and pour 2 cups of water to make jelly juice. Bring to a boil over low heat and leave to cook for 15-20 minutes, periodically stirring with a wooden spoon and rubbing the berries on the sides of the pan to squeeze the juice out of them.
Remove the pan from the stove as soon as the berries are boiled. Place a strainer over a deep container. Cover it with gauze and strain through it a mixture of berries. You should have 3 cups of berry juice. You will need four of them for jelly, so take boiling water and slowly pour it into squeezed fruit puree to get some more juice out of it.
While the berries are squeezed, fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Sterilize a few small cans. Place the lids in a small pot of water and bring to a boil.
Pour 4 cups of squeezed juice into the washed pan. Add sugar and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook for about ten minutes. Remove from the stove and slowly add the liquid pectin, constantly stirring the mixture. Pour jelly into the jars, leaving some free space on top. Cover with lids. Sterilize for 10 minutes.
According to reviews, royal currant and raspberry jelly can be stored without a refrigerator for more than a year. Also, many housewives note that it is in this combination of berries that it turns out to achieve a bright red color and transparency. In addition, the raspberry aroma nicely complements the sourness of the currant.
Option with mint
The combination of blackcurrant and fresh mint allows you to use jam not only as a dessert, but also as a sauce for meat, fish. In addition, you can make a cream of such royal jelly that will perfectly complement any sweet dish.
You will need the following products:
- 500 grams of black currant.
- A bunch of mint.
- 500 grams of granulated sugar.
- Half a lemon.
- 5-10 mint leaves, finely chopped.
Cooking jelly with mint
Wash the currants and put it together with a bunch of mint in a pot of water. Bring to a boil slowly. Stir and squeeze the berries with a spoon to crush them.
Remove the pan from the stove and cool slightly. Gently pour the mixture into a clean cotton bag, place it over a large pot and leave overnight. Do not squeeze the bag and do not mix its contents, the liquid must flow out by itself.
When all the juice has drained out, mix it with sugar and juice squeezed from half a lemon. Place the saucepan in a small fire and cook until the sugar has dissolved.
Then bring to a strong boil and boil for 10-15 minutes. Check for preparedness using the cold saucer method. Remove from the stove and mix with finely chopped mint leaves.
Cool the royal jelly. Then pour it into sterilized jars. Keep in the refrigerator.
A variant of two types of currants
As noted above, various dessert creams can be made from berry jelly with an acidic taste. Often black currants are mixed with other berries of a bright color to make the jam more beautiful. However, many undeservedly forget about red currants, which has a pleasant color and pronounced sourness. At the same time, reviews about the cream of royal jelly, cooked from two types of currants, are very positive. How to cook this delicacy?
It will require the following:
- The same amount of black and red currants.
- Granulated sugar - 500 ml for every 500 ml of juice.
Cook jam from different currants
Place the mixture of black and red currants in a large pot and pour enough water to cover the berries. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1-2 hours, stirring in a circular motion. Remove the pan from the stove and put the resulting mixture in a clean cloth bag with a large spoon. Place it on a metal sieve mounted above the pan and do not touch for several hours.
Wash and sterilize the jars.
Once all the berry juice has flowed out, measure its quantity. Calculate how much sugar you need and add it to the juice. Put on the fire, bring to a boil and cook until the jelly becomes thick. Remove the foam from the surface and pour the jam into prepared jars. Close the jars tightly with lids and cool the jelly completely. Then place in a cool place to store. This jelly can be stored for at least a year.
Reviews
All housewives like this jelly. In their reviews, they offer a wide variety of recipes for making such a blackcurrant dessert, because each mistress has her own secrets. But at the same time, everyone agrees that jelly is much more tender than jam, since in the latter blackcurrant berries are tough. In jelly, they are not, so it is suitable even for babies.
As a disadvantage, it is indicated that during cooking, less vitamins are preserved in jelly than in blackcurrant berries, grated with sugar.