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Red Currant Jam
Pick from the stalks some ripe red currants, weight them, and to every pound of currants allow one pound of sugar; place the mixture on the stove, not over too hot a fire, stirring occasionally until it boils, and removing the scum as fast as it arises. Let the jam cool a little, put into jars, and cover when quite cool.
A bare-bones equal-weights preserve of the kind a hotel kitchen would run off in quantity during the short currant season. The original gives no time, no temperature and no yield, so the judgement is all in the setting point.
- The hinge: cook to the set, not to the clockRed currants are among the most pectin- and acid-rich fruits there are, so the jam sets fast e typically 8 to 12 minutes at a hard boil once the sugar has dissolved. Take it off at 220F (105C), or when a spoonful chilled on a cold saucer wrinkles when pushed. Pushed past that it turns dark and gummy.
- Equal weights means equal weightsOne pound of sugar to one pound of stemmed fruit is roughly 2 1/4 cups sugar to something like 3 1/2 to 4 cups currants, depending how they pack. Use a scale rather than volume; the ratio is what makes the preserve keep.
- "Not too hot a fire" at the startCurrants carry little free juice, so low heat until the sugar has drawn the liquid out and dissolved e then raise to a full rolling boil. Sugar that hits high heat undissolved scorches on the pan bottom.
- Picking from the stalksThe fine stems are tough and bitter. A dinner fork drawn down each strig strips the berries quickly. A few unripe green currants are no harm and add pectin.
- SkimmingThe pink foam is harmless, but it clouds the finished jam. Skim as directed, or stir in a small knob of butter at the end to disperse it.
- Sealing: use current practiceCovering jars "when quite cool" was standard when a paper round and a wax seal were the norm, and it leaves the surface open to mould. Fill sterilised jars while the jam is hot, and either refrigerate and use within a month or process in a boiling-water bath according to a current tested guide for jams.
Red currants were a staple of northern European and British kitchen gardens long before they were a market fruit, valued precisely for the quality this recipe exploits: they set almost by themselves, needing nothing but sugar and heat. A large hotel kitchen would have used currant preserves as a working ingredient as much as a breakfast one -- glazing fruit tarts, sharpening a sauce for venison or game birds, and standing in at a pinch for the redcurrant jelly called for in Cumberland sauce and in the sweet-sour deglazings of the period. The recipe's terseness is telling: the reader is assumed to know what a set looks like without being told how long to boil.