Home › The Principles of Cookery › Currant Jam, Red and White
Currant Jam, Red and White
Take some fine ripe red or white currants; let them be gathered on a dry day, and be sure that they are fresh and free from dirt. Strip them from the stalks, and put them with an equal weight of finely-pounded loaf sugar into a preserving-pan. Let them remain on the fire exactly nine minutes after boiling. Pour the jam into jars, and cover it with brandied papers, and put over these tissue-paper dipped in gum. There is no economy in using a smaller proportion of sugar, as the jam requires to boil so much longer that the quantity is reduced sufficiently to make the difference. Probable cost, when plentiful, 4d. per quart. Sufficient, one pint of fruit for one pound and a quarter of jam.
A plain full-sugar jam from a fruit so rich in pectin and acid that it needs nothing added to set. The nine-minute rule works because of that, but check the set rather than trusting the clock on a modern hob.
- The hinge: don't overboilRedcurrants are among the highest-pectin fruits in the kitchen, and with equal sugar they will reach a set very fast. Boil hard and start testing at about seven minutes; 220F/105C on a sugar thermometer, or a wrinkle on a chilled saucer, is the point. Past that the jam turns dark and stiff and loses the fresh acidity that is the whole reason to make it.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a solid cone, broken up and pounded for use. Ordinary granulated or preserving sugar is the direct equivalent; there is no need for jam sugar, which carries added pectin.
- Preserving-panThe recipe does not say what it was made of; period preserving pans were typically wide, heavy copper or brass. Use a wide stainless steel or enamelled pan with plenty of headroom — currant jam foams up sharply. Avoid bare aluminium or unlined copper with this much fruit acid.
- Equal weight, and whyWeigh the stripped fruit and match it with sugar. The note about false economy is correct: less sugar means longer boiling, more evaporation, and no more finished jam, plus a shorter keeping life.
- Stripping the fruitRun the strigs through the tines of a fork over a bowl, or freeze the bunches briefly and the berries come away cleanly. A few small stalks will not ruin the jam but they are unpleasant to eat.
- White currantsWhite currants are a pale cultivar of the same species, milder and less coloured, and are rarely sold now outside markets and gardens. Redcurrants behave identically in the pan.
- Brandied papers and gummed tissueA disc of paper soaked in brandy laid on the hot jam, then tissue brushed with gum (the recipe does not say which) stretched over the rim — a seal that discouraged surface mould. Modern practice is to fill sterilised jars while the jam is near boiling and seal at once with new two-piece or lug lids; refrigerate after opening.
- YieldThe book's own figure: one pint of fruit gives about one and a quarter pounds of jam, so two or three half-pound jars. The cost of 4d. a quart dates the entry more than it helps the shopping.
Currants are a British garden fruit that ripens in a narrow window in high summer and does not keep long fresh. Redcurrants earned their place in Victorian storerooms precisely because they set so readily: before commercial pectin was available, cooks relied on naturally pectin-rich fruit, and currant juice was sometimes added to less reliable fruits such as strawberries or cherries to help them jell. The brandied paper and gummed tissue closure described here was common household practice in the nineteenth century, and belongs to the era before screw-band lids and reliable vacuum sealing; the alcohol and the taut paper together helped keep mould off a surface that was never actually airtight.