Black Currant Jam
1 lb. red currants ( I used black currants)
1 lb. powdered sugar (I used cane sugar)
Heat paper towel-dried black currants & sugar in large pot, stirring constantly. Boil for 8 -10 minutes. Strain black currants through a fine sieve or cheesecloth, mashing them with a wooden spoon to extract juice.
Pour into warmed canning jars.
Slide a piece of wax paper dipped in brandy, cut to size, on top of jam.
Put on Ball jar lid, then rim. Store in cool, dark place. Refrigerate after opening
-Recipe from Eliza Acton - from Summer Cooking by Elizabeth David
It’s the start of canning season in the heartland. On farms, in towns, even wee apartments, any locale with good soil and an agrarian state of mind the graniteware water bath canners are dusted off and dwarfing stove tops, gearing up for the most productive enterprise of summer--putting up jams, jellies, tomatoes, relishes, pickles, applesauce, etc. It’s hot, messy work but the end product fills a home with a primeval connection to the Fertile Crescent.
My canner has not been used in over 20 years yet we optimistically instructed movers to pack and unpack it four times since its Grand Forks, North Dakota heyday. And what a heyday it was. No other place we’ve lived have myriad friends routinely showed up on our doorstep in July, August and early September with five-gallon buckets filled with tomatoes, corn, squash, cucumbers, green peppers or crabapples. All this bounty was at most 10 minutes from its field of origin. We had our own garden vegetables and fruits, too. Plus, we went potato gleaning in September, after the combines swept through the fields. Imagine the calories burned just corralling all this food. Those were the days.
Summertime in the Valley
Abundance, suddenly thrust upon us, reveals one of those sweet human graces: people are hardwired not to waste good food. If the most popular summertime pastime in the Red River Valley was gardening (tied with fishing and golf ) then the second was finding donees for the flourishing veggies. Which led naturally to a third essential job: Canning.
I’ve not canned a single jar of anything since leaving the Valley because I presumed it was simply a given that one also grew what goes into the jars, or at least know the person who did. I can think of just two North Dakotans who still can their own produce, grown on their own farm, the Letvin’s near Kief.
All my presumptions changed last week while savoring Elizabeth David’s Summer Cooking. Her recipes on canning reminded me of the productive row of currant bushes that flanked our sunny deck in Grand Forks, and the quarts of berries Anna picked for us each July. Somehow a catalyst took hold of me, reading David debate the merits of removing currant stems, or not, when suddenly I thought...why don’t I just buy black currants!
My homemade half pint jars of black currant jam
Bought them I did, at the Middleburg, Virginia farmer’s market. The farmer at the table I got them at gave me convoluted lefts and rights turns, just off the Plains Road on how to get to his farm so at least the berries haven’t been shipped across country, although I suspect few currants are shipped anywhere. Who even knows what they look like?
My new-found flexibility has paid off for I’ve rediscovered how much BETTER tasting jam is when canned in small batches. The recipe I used is called Red Currant Jelly but mine turned out more like jam, possibly because i used cane sugar instead of powdered or my straining left much to be desired or American currants are different than English. David mentions that English currants are inferior to the French, which have more flavor!) Whatever the distinctions the taste is nonetheless dazzling. If my blog included a taste-testing button you’d be dashing down to Walmart to pick up your own Ball jars as I speak...
1 cup plain, nonfat yogurt
1 tablespoon homemade black currant jam
1 tablespoon Turbinado or any fine sugar
1 teaspoon-1 tablespoon half & half
Whisk together all ingredients. Now savor the delicate taste & intense raspberry hue!
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