A glut of blackcurrrants is not an easy thing to get rid of! I stopped picking blackcurrants at my Mother in laws allotment when we just about filled the tub we were using and I started to get worried that there was only so much blackcurrant jam one could eat, especially when my husband announced that he didn’t like blackcurrant jam! Picking blackcurrants is a bit of a pain, so many tiny berries attached to little stalks, after a while I perfected the art of pulling the berries downwards off their little stalks, thus saving much picking over later when I got home. I needn’t have bothered as I later decided that it would be much easier to make jelly which actually needs the stems for added pectin! Luckily I still had a lot of stems attached in the tub!

Making this blackcurrant jelly is really easy but does require some time, perfect for a rainy Sunday or make it one evening and leave to strain while you sleep. I really enjoyed the bright flavour of this jelly without all the seeds and bits blackcurrant jam has.

I just realised that I can link this to the Simple and in Season blog event, held by Ren at Fabulicious food but hosted this month by Fleur at Homemade by Fleur

Blackcurrant Jelly

ingredients

• Blackcurrants, rinsed well (I had 4 lbs)
• 3 pints water (for 4 lbs of berries, adjust according to your berry weight)
• 1 lb of granulated sugar for each pint of blackcurrant  juice

method

1. Having rinsed and drained the blackcurrants put them in the preserving pan of your choice, a really big stock pot is good if you don’t have a special jam pan.
2. Add the water and simmer until the blackcurrants are soft, this takes about 20 minutes.
3. Squish the blackcurrants up, a potato masher does the job well, then strain the pulpy liquid through a jelly strainer. This takes about 3 hours or leave overnight. This is a really messy part, blackcurrant juice splashes stain badly so take care! Keep away from anything pale, such as walls! I placed my strainer in a box to catch the splashes.      ,
4. When the jelly bag is no longer dripping measure the juice.
5. Add 1 lb of sugar for each pint of juice obtained. I got 2.5 pints of juice from my blackcurrants so needed 2.5 lbs of sugar.
6. Put the juice and sugar into your jam pan and stir until the sugar has dissolved.
7. Bring to a boil and boil rapidly for the setting point, mine was a little stubborn and took about 9 minutes of hard boiling, I tested after 5 minutes then at 7 minutes then at 9 minutes when finally the jelly wrinkled up on my cold plate.
8. Test for setting, I use the cold saucer method which means putting 2-3 saucers in the freezer while you are boiling the juice and sugar. When testing for a set take a saucer from the freezer remove the pan from the heat and take a spoon of the boiling juice onto the cold saucer. Wait a couple of minutes and push the jelly with your finger if it wrinkles up its set, if no wrinkling happen then return the pan to the heat, boil for another 5 minutes and re-test for a set using another cold saucer.
9. Pour the jelly into your sterilized jars, seal and follow your usual canning procedure. I simmered mine for 10 minutes in a water bath ( I use my large stockpot filled with boiling water).
10. I got 7 mixed sized jars.

Update

I made this jelly again this year (2014). After straining my cooked blackcurrants I had 3.5 pints of juice to which I added 3 pounds of sugar and the juice of a lemon. A 10 minute hard boil and the jelly was ready, its a particularly tasty batch this year!