Yields for Jellies - 450g/1lb sugar will make 1 1/3 lbs of jelly.
Redcurrant Jelly
900g/2lb redcurrants
Redcurrants have to be cooked with very little if any water to preserve the flavour- so
300ml/ ½ pint water if the fruit is very firm and slightly under ripe.
150ml/ ¼ pint if moderately ripe, and none if very ripe.
(If in doubt use less)
Method
Simmer until very tender. (I pressed mine with a potato masher when it was tender to make sure all the fruit and juice was squashed out).
The next bit made scary reading – diagrams of wooden frames with home made or shop bought jelly bag contraptions! So I improvised as I am miles from anywhere so no’ kitchen shop or fabric shop’ to buy the necessary muslin.
The next step is to strain the juice through a suspended jelly bag. The bag has to be boiled to sterilise it and allowed to dry.
I have a pharmacy near me, so I bought a roll of sterilised gauze for cuts etc but you can buy it in squares too.
I used a large plastic jug (3pt) size, and used a plastic mesh sieve (which I use for flour) which rested nicely inside the jug.) In the sieve, place a piece of the gauze so that it came up the sides. If using a metal flour sieve, you would need to use two layers of gauze.
Carefully pour the currants and juice into your strainer (jelly bag) and leave to drip through. If you get impatient and squash it or poke it to speed up the process it will go cloudy so won’t look so pretty. I piled mine up in the strainer and at first it goes through quite quickly, then I added the rest that hadn’t fitted in, and covered it with a plastic plate to keep it protected and left it overnight.
Once totally strained and the fruit it dry – discard the fruit and measure the amount of juice you have.
Use 450g/1lb sugar to 600ml/1 pint juice. If you like a sweeter jelly you can use an extra 50g/2 oz sugar to a pint of juice.
Heat the juice on a low heat, add the sugar and stir until dissolved then boil rapidly until setting point is reached.
I used my thermometer that I use in soap making (washed of course)
Setting point for jellies is 104c-105c. I did it to 105c and no problems. I have made gooseberry jellies now too.
Tips
If you warm up the sugar in the microwave for a couple of minutes it melts really quickly when you add it to the juice so cuts down on time!
You can run a fork along the stems and just pull off the currants - as you are straining it - you can leave the stalks.
Not a very clever photo - sorry- it is so clear that you can read lettering through it. Just needs the labels and pretty material hats now
