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Black Currant Jam
Remove the currants from the stalks, taking care that they are quite clean and fully ripe. The currants should be gathered in dry weather. Put them in a preserving-pot with powdered white sugar in the proportion of one pound of sugar to a pound of currants. Set the pan over the fire and boil, stirring occasionally to prevent burning; cook for half an hour and remove the scum as it rises, then take the pan from the fire and when the jam has cooled a little, put it into pots. When quite cold lay over the pots pieces of white paper soaked in brandy, and cover so as to keep them air-tight.
A plain equal-weights preserve that needs almost nothing but attention to the pan and a modern way of sealing the jars. Blackcurrants are so high in pectin and acid that a set is nearly automatic; the real questions are sugar, seal and where to find the fruit.
- "Powdered white sugar"In this period that means finely granulated or caster sugar, not modern confectioners' sugar, which is cut with cornstarch and will cloud the jam. Ordinary granulated sugar works perfectly well.
- Equal weightsOne pound of sugar to one pound of stemmed fruit is the classic blackcurrant ratio and it is what makes the preserve keep. Cutting the sugar substantially will give a softer, shorter-lived jam.
- The preserving-potA wide, heavy, non-reactive pan — stainless or enamelled — with far more headroom than you think you need. Blackcurrant jam climbs the sides as it boils. Unlined iron can darken the fruit.
- Stemming the fruitStrip the currants from their stalks by running a fork down each cluster, or pull the strigs through the tines. A stray stem or two is harmless; a handful is not.
- Judging the setHalf an hour is a fair guide, but go by temperature: 220F at sea level, or a spoonful chilled on a cold saucer that wrinkles when pushed. Blackcurrants are pectin-rich enough that overcooking is the more likely error, and it gives a stiff, dulled jam.
- ScumSkim as directed, or stir in a small knob of butter at the end of the boil, which collapses most of the foam without affecting keeping.
- Brandy paper and the sealThe spirit-soaked paper was a mould deterrent, not a seal, and neither it nor "cover so as to keep them air-tight" meets current practice. Ladle the jam hot into sterilised jars and process in a boiling water bath, or simply refrigerate and use within a few weeks.
- Sourcing blackcurrantsFresh ones are seasonal and regional in the United States; frozen currants work as well as fresh here and can go into the pan without thawing, allowing a few extra minutes.
- YieldA pound of fruit with a pound of sugar gives roughly three cups of jam, about three half-pint jars.
Blackcurrants were a kitchen-garden staple across Britain and northern Europe long before Oscar Tschirky set this down in his 1896 book, valued as much for the medicinal reputation of the fruit — currant jam stirred into hot water for a sore throat — as for the breakfast table. The equal-weights method with a brandied paper over the pot is straight out of the English domestic tradition that American hotel kitchens still leaned on at the end of the century, and its appearance here reflects a Waldorf pantry stocked to European expectations. Blackcurrants have since become uncommon in the United States: cultivation of Ribes was widely restricted in the early twentieth century because the plants host white pine blister rust, a policy generally traced to federal action around 1911 and only relaxed state by state in recent decades. A reader in 1896 would have had no trouble finding the fruit; a reader now often does.