I picked just under 1.5kg of blackcurrants, and cleaned them. Blackcurrants, as an uncooked fruit, smell horrid. There's nothing pleasant about their smell, it's just awful.
I got this bit over with quickly.
Fortunately, cooked blackcurrants are a different (metaphoric) kettle of fish. Once they've cooked and burst, they turn this beautiful pinkish-red colour, and the smell is incredible. Quite sweet, yet tart. Exactly how you'd expect them to taste.
I cooked them for about 15 minutes, until all the little fruits had disappeared and there was this wonderful liquid, the consistency of a coulis.
Then came the sugar. 1.3kg of granulated sugar went into the pan.
I will be diabetic by the time I reach retirement.
I put the jam on a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved.
When I first started this business, I was testing my jam-making skills in the kitchen, and I made a small batch of strawberry jam and obviously didn't let the sugar dissolve completely and ended up with this crystallised mess. So if you are making jam, let the sugar dissolve completely.
Once that has happened, it's time to turn up the heat.
I heated up the jam until it was boiling, and kept stirring so that it didn't stick to the bottom of the pan and burn, because then the whole batch is ultimately ruined.
Once 10-15 minutes has gone by, it was time to start testing for the setting point.
Lots of people say to put plates in the freezer to get them cold to test for the testing point, which is a great idea if you want to run back and forth to the freezer. I, however, do not.
I do it like this, which I think is just pure genius.
To test for setting point, I placed half a teaspoon of jam on the inside shelf of my fridge (the glass shelves) and leave it for a few moments. Once a few moments have passed, I gave it a squidge with my finger, and it felt like jam. If it didn't feel like jam, I would have let the jam boil for a further 5 minutes and then do the test again.
I let it cool for a few minutes, so that it was scaldingly hot, and a cling-film like sheen covered the top. Perfect. I sterilised some jars (I washed them in boiling hot soapy water, and then dried them in the oven which was heated on a low setting - you can sterilise them in a dishwasher but I don't have one) and then ladled the jam into the jars and screwed the lids on.
There we go. Blackcurrant jam.
P.S Don't forget to clean the jam tests in your fridge.
