Red currant is cultivated mainly for the purpose of canning for the winter. This is due to the fact that this type of currant is much more sour black.
In addition, due to the pronounced tendency to gelling, not only jam is made from red fruits, but also jam and jelly.
Both in fresh and in canned form, red currant is very useful: the berries contain vitamins C and P, organic acids, and fruit sugar (fructose). Today we offer you a classic recipe for red currant jelly, which can be prepared for the winter.
- Kitchen appliances and utensils
- Required Ingredients
- Features of product selection
- How to cook jelly: recipe with photos
- Berry preparation
- Stirring with sugar
- Separation of seeds
- Cooking
- Spill and seaming
- Storage features
Kitchen appliances and utensils
A variety of cooking utensils and appliances help to turn a banal culinary process into an exciting creative activity.
In the process of making jelly, you will need:
- half liter glass jar;
- sealing cap;
- zakatochny key intended for hermetic sealing of glass jars for home canning;
- Colander plastic or paper towel for drying berries;
- tolkushka metal, necessary for kneading the berries;
- metal sieve colander with a handle to separate the skin and bones;
- enamel jelly cooking containers;
- skimmer to remove the foam from the surface of the jam;
- wooden spatula for stirring sugar syrup;
- funnel (hole diameter 6.5 cm) - special with a wide neck, facilitating the filling of the jar with the prepared broth.
Required Ingredients
To make homemade red currant jam jelly for the winter, you need the following ingredients:
- red currant - 900 g;
- granulated sugar - 700 g
Features of product selection
Let us briefly on the features of the choice of products for jelly.
In this case, the main rule of selection of red currant fruit is the selection of large-fruited varieties, including:
Thanks to large-fruited varieties, your harvesting will turn out to be the most optimal consistency, the taste of the delicacy will be more pronounced. In addition, thanks to the relatively large size of the fruit jelly will be much easier to cook.
It is also necessary that the fruits selected for cooking for the winter, have time to ripen. And so that the product does not spoil quickly, the berries must be freshly harvested.
If you have your own harvest of berries, it is advisable to collect in dry clear weather, or wait until dew completely disappears from the bushes. As for sugar, ordinary white granulated sugar will do.
How to cook jelly: recipe with photos
We turn to the step by step preparation of a simple recipe for red currant jelly for the winter. To make the finished jelly beautiful in appearance and appetizing, harvesting must be done according to all the laws of culinary science.
Berry preparation
Carefully sort out the fruits of red currant, remove unusable specimens. Then rinse the berries thoroughly (preferably in small pieces).Next, pour the currants into a colander to drain the water, or dry with a paper towel. The next mandatory step is the removal of the stem. Only now the berries are ready for further processing.
Stirring with sugar
Pour currants into the pan and add a third of the sugar to it. Shake the pot lightly, thus mixing the berries with sugar.
To let the berries start the juice, slightly press down the contents of the pan with a metal powder, then leave it at room temperature for 1-1.5-2 hours. If you want to speed up the process, you can put the pan on the stove with very low heat.
Separation of seeds
So, after 2 hours, the mixture became liquid. Now the workpiece must be ground through a metal sieve-colander. This procedure allows you to remove the skin and bones that we do not need in jelly.
So that the cake does not disappear, put it in a carafe, fill it with clean filtered water (0.5 l) and leave to infuse (you will get a tasty drink).
Cooking
The guarantee of high-quality twist of red currant for the winter is the correct observance of the recipe for making sugar syrup.
The process of cooking sugar mass for jelly is quite simple. To do this, pour the drained juice into a large saucepan, put it on the stove with slow fire and gradually add the remaining sugar (in portions, stirring with a wooden spatula).
Sugar is needed not only to get sweets - it is also an excellent preservative. In a sweet environment, bacteria lose their ability to grow, which is why jam has a long shelf life.
It is necessary to look after the syrup on the fire so that it does not boil away. The fire under the container should be low, it is impossible that the syrup boils heavily. Be sure to remove the foam from the surface of the broth. However, it is not necessary to remove the foam from its very inception, since in this case it will form again and again.
It is recommended to remove the foam at the moment when the stove is turned off after a strong boil in the syrup. Sometimes stir the mass, then the foam will cease to accumulate. Remove the foam should be using a special skimmer.
So bring the broth to a boil. Let it simmer another 3-4 minutes. To preserve vitamins in the product, avoid digesting the mass. The broth brought to readiness has natural aroma and a shade of red currant.
It is necessary to learn how to correctly identify the degree of readiness of the syrup: it is ready if the foam is collected in the center of the container, and the drops of decoction do not spread on the plate.
Spill and seaming
The optimal capacity for seaming jelly is a half-liter glass jar. The choice of a small jar is due to the fact that after opening it cannot be stored for a long time.
Before use, the jar must be sterilized (steamed or in water; allowed to dry in the oven at low temperature).
Storage features
It is important not only to cook red currants correctly, but also to know how to protect them for the winter.
The question of how to keep the jelly from mildew and damage throughout the winter season is relevant for most housewives, therefore we suggest that you familiarize yourself with several helpful tips from the experts.
It is desirable to transfer jars with jelly to a dry cool room. The best place to keep the blanks in the house is an ordinary dark pantry, the temperature in which does not reach 20 ° C.
Jam jelly without skin and bones, cooked and rolled up using the correct technology, can be stored for several years.