Black Currant Jam: Composition, Properties, and Recipes

It is necessary to open a jar of currant jam in the winter cold, as the kitchen is filled with an incomparable fresh summer aroma. The black berry contains a tremendous amount of healing ingredients, which, fortunately, can be fully preserved even in jam. The main thing is to cook it correctly.

Black currant berries are known for their abundance of vitamins. The content of vitamin C, they are superior to oranges, therefore, have a powerful cough and immunostimulating action. Enough to eat 15-20 berries or their equivalent in the form of jam daily to fill the daily need of the body for ascorbic acid.

Among other vitamins - vitamin E, A, P, D, vitamins of group B, and also rather seldom found vitamin K. The latter is involved in blood formation.

Trace elements are primarily represented by potassium, iron, copper, manganese and phosphorus, and zinc and silver are present in smaller volumes. A little known fact, but black currants can be called a record holder among the berries and fruits in terms of their potassium content. His currant even more than in bananas.

The sour taste of the berries is due to the presence of organic acids in them, including malic, oxalic, phosphoric, citric, and folic acid. The rich aroma, which is called currant, is explained by the presence of essential oils in the berries.

They are also rich in tannins, phytoncides, pectin and dietary fiber. The dark color of the berries is due to the presence of anthocyanins.

The advantage of currant over other berries is that these healing components are not destroyed during short-term heat treatment.

The calorie content of fresh berries is small - just over 60 calories per 100 grams of product. However, black currant jam contains sugar, so its nutritional value grows on average to 168-170 kcal per 100 g. If we talk about raw jam, its energy performance is even higher, since sugar is put into this composition a little more. The main composition is represented by carbohydrates and sugars.

Currant jam rich in ascorbic acid and other vitamins is a powerful tool for the treatment and prevention of colds, flu and beriberi. It will give the body nutrients and strengthen the immune system. In addition, vitamin C in combination with vitamin E and zinc has an antioxidant effect, which leads to the elimination of toxins from the body and slowing down the aging process of cells.

Organic acids present in the composition enhance the separation of gastric juice, thereby improving the digestive processes. Food entering the stomach is faster and more efficiently processed, lipid metabolism is stimulated (fat cells break down faster). All anabolic processes begin to flow faster.

As part of the berries are pectins and special fibers, which improves intestinal motility. It also improves the digestive processes, helps the body get rid of toxins.

The benefits of consuming foods rich in vitamin C are for those who have suffered bone fractures, since ascorbic acid contributes to better calcium absorption.

The consumption of currant jam and the cardiovascular system has a positive effect. Potassium strengthens the heart, while iron helps maintain normal hemoglobin levels. The latter means that the blood is sufficiently enriched with oxygen and carries it to the tissues of the body. Part of the vitamin K improves blood clotting.

Phosphorus and vitamins are good for the brain. They contribute to the improvement of cerebral circulation, help to improve concentration. Just a few spoons of black currant jam every day will allow you to study or work more efficiently. In addition, vitamins have a stimulating effect, which is especially useful when intellectual fatigue. Just a couple of spoons of jam will make a “reset” to the brain.

Despite the healing properties of black currant jam, it will be harmful if you are allergic to berries or sweet. Symptoms of individual intolerance usually include skin rash, nausea and vomiting, abdominal pain, abnormal stool, and a little less - suffocation.

Because of the high sugar content in the dish, its consumption should be discarded with diabetes and obesity.

The ability of vitamin K to increase the viscosity of the blood is maintained even after heat treatment, so jam should be discarded with thrombophlebitis or suspected him, as well as other diseases caused by increased blood viscosity. Do not take the product to those undergoing treatment with anticoagulants.

High content of acids makes jams not recommended for people suffering from high acidity of the stomach. From the raw jam they should be abandoned, preferring the berries, past at least the minimum heat treatment. Temporary contraindication to eating the product is the exacerbation of diseases of the digestive tract (gastritis, ulcers), cholelithiasis, inflammation of the kidneys.

Pregnancy is not a contraindication to the use of currant jam. On the contrary, during this period, a woman especially needs these vitamins and minerals. However, it is necessary to consume the product with caution, since the hormonal background changes during the period of childbearing, which can provoke allergic attacks even to those products that she ate before pregnancy.

During the lactation period, jam is also not a forbidden product. Should be guided by the health of infants, as the risk of developing allergies is high due to the large amount of sugar.

Currant jam, like any other product, when consumed excessively from the useful turns into harmful and even dangerous. Signs of indefatigable consumption of sweets are skin rashes, digestive problems, diarrhea.

Despite the variety of recipes blackcurrant cooking, all of them can be classified as raw and that is subjected to heat treatment. Raw jam is prepared from fresh currants, which is ground into mashed potatoes. The meat grinder, the blender or a wooden tolkushka will help with this business. Sugar is used as a natural preservative.

With this method of cooking jam preserves not only a dizzying smell and unchanged taste, but also all the useful substances.

Heat treatment involves cooking currants, which can be in the form of mashed potatoes or whole berries.

Regardless of the selected recipe berries must first be bruised. For jam, those that have reached technical maturity are suitable, but they are not overslept. Otherwise, the crop is prone to fermentation, and the amount of vitamins in it is reduced by 2 times.

Berries need to be cleaned from litter, sticks and leaves. This is easy to do by dipping them in a basin of water. Then all the dirt will remain floating on the surface. It is unacceptable to use cracked and rotted berries. The former are also likely to begin to rot, the latter will spoil the taste of the dish and cause the fermentation of the blanks.

Among the most popular options for cooking currants is the “Five Minute” jam, from the name of which it is clear that it will be cooked in just 5 minutes. However, the process is usually repeated 3 times at certain intervals.In other words, the cooking of jam will take 2-3 days, but do not worry, because every day at the stove will have to stand no more than 10-15 minutes.

5-minute blackcurrant:

• 1 kg of currant;
• 1.5 kg of granulated sugar;
• 250 ml of water.

Currants need to be prepared as described above, and from sugar and water, cook a sweet syrup. After it begins to boil, berries are put there and again brought to a boil.

In this, perhaps, the main secret of cooking "Five minutes". If you just fall asleep berries sweetener, they crack and give juice. When cooking in syrup, the berries remain whole and are soaked with syrup, while preserving their own juice.

After the composition comes to a boil again, it is boiled for 5 minutes and allowed to cool, preferably overnight. In the morning, the procedure is repeated twice, and between boiling it is necessary to wait for the jam to cool completely.

After the third “five minutes” it is not necessary to cool the composition, it should be poured into banks and corked.

Mashed currant. The recipe can be called basic for cooking raw currants. It can be varied by adding other ingredients.

Main cast:

• 1 kg of berries;
• 1.5 kg of sugar.

Berries should be mashed using a tolkushku, meat grinder or blender. Fill the mass with sugar and leave for a quarter of an hour, then mix. The dish can not be considered ready, because if you immediately transfer it to the jar, the probability of fermentation is high. It is better to cover the container with a gauze cloth and leave in the refrigerator for a couple of days. Stir the mixture regularly.

During these days, the sugar is completely dissolved, it remains only to distribute the jam in banks and close the lid. Before you clog the composition, you need to pour a 1.5-2 cm layer of sugar, that is, you need to put the jam not to the very edges of the jar. Such a sugar “cork” will protect raw jam from the penetration of pathogenic flora.

Honey can be used instead of sugar, however, it should be fresh, liquid consistency. Honey and currants should be taken in equal proportions. Natural sweetener should preferably be neutral in taste - lime, acacia. The advantage of the latter is that it does not sugar, therefore the mixture will retain its semi-liquid consistency.

Raw dish can be supplemented with raspberry, orange, gooseberry. All components also fray or make their way into the meat grinder. Orange should be used with the peel. It should be pre-scalded with boiling water to remove the wax layer on the surface of the skin.

Blackcurrant jam is obtained semi-liquid, therefore it is well-suited for making fruit drinks, soaking cakes and muffins, and adding to the pastry for baking. However, such a product will not work as a filling - it will flow out and start to burn. Much more practical for such purposes to prepare a jam from a dark berry.

However, the resulting delicacy can be used as an independent dessert. In addition, it can be wrapped in pancakes, served with cheesecakes and pancakes, put in porridge, cottage cheese.

Black currant jam:

• 1200 g mashed black currant;
• 1 kg of sugar.

You can mash the berries by punching them in a raw blender, passing through a meat grinder or grind manually. From 1500-1700 g of fresh berries you get the required amount of mashed potatoes.

The composition should be filled up with half the rate of sweetener and cook with about 20 minutes with constant stirring. Then enter the remaining sugar and boil down to readiness (about half an hour). Ready jam during cooling should not spread over the surface of the plate.

The following recipe can not be called jelly, it is rather jelly jam. A great recipe for those who love a thicker, rich jam.

Jelly jam:

• 5 cups currants
• 6 glasses of granulated sugar;
• 1 cup of water.

Currants filled with sugar, give time so that she began to produce juice. Stir the mixture, pour in water and put on medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and leave the dish to simmer for another 5-10 minutes. It is necessary to interfere with the dish and remove the foam. Distribute hot in banks, roll up the lids.

Fans of original recipes will probably like the following recipe. The experience that the taste of the pumpkin will be clearly felt and would be inappropriate, in vain. This vegetable (and from the point of view of botany - the same berry) has a neutral taste and emphasizes the flavors of the other ingredients. In addition, it will add a delicate puree-like texture to the dish, but not every taster will define it in the composition.

Pumpkin and black currant jam:

• 350 g of black currant (the dish can be made from both fresh and frozen berries);
• 200 g pumpkin pulp (take a little, for example, nutmeg);
• teaspoon butter;
• 100 g of sugar.

Pumpkin pulp should be cut into small pieces or thin slices, add a little water (a third of glass) and stew in a saucepan until soft. Prepare syrup from water and sweetener, and when it boils, immerse berries in it.

Then currant in syrup 7-10 minutes, then add pumpkin (excess liquid pre-drain), oil. Boil another quarter of an hour. Serve chilled.

In the jam, not only raw, but also "five minutes", you can add other seasonal berries - gooseberry, raspberry. It is important to maintain a balance between the number of berries and sugar. A classic recipe can be taken as a basis, assuming that the same amount of sweetener and a glass of water are required for 15 cups of currant berries.

The total amount of berries when cooking platter should remain the same (15 glasses), but they can be “collected” in different ways. For example, take 3 cups of raspberry and gooseberry, then there will be 9 cups for currants. Interesting and get a combination of 5 glasses of red currants, 2 glasses of white and 8 - black. Sugar and water are added at the same time in the same volume.

Tasty jam of black berries can be prepared not only on the stove, but also in the slow cooker. At the same time, experienced housewives recommend using the “Soup” mode if you want to boil the jam with clear syrup and whole berries, and the “Quenching” program for making jam.

The process of cooking in a slow cooker is not much different from those described above. Any of the described recipes can be adapted to cooking in this device.

Black currant jam in a slow cooker. Take berries and sugar in equal quantities. Usually no more than 1.5 kg of each ingredient fits in the device bowl. Pre-peel the berries and wash them, put them in a bowl and activate the “Quenching” mode. Berries should put juice.

When this happens, add sugar in small portions. It should be added gradually, waiting for the sweetener to dissolve, and only then add a new batch. The whole process is conducted in the "Quenching" mode, the cooking time is about an hour. It is better not to close the lid. The finished dish has a rather thick texture and a bit like confiture.

It is best to prepare a dish of berries grown and harvested personally. Collect them after darkening or no later than a week after that. If the currant hangs on the bush for more than 1.5-2 weeks, it is prone to fermentation, and the concentration of medicinal substances in it decreases by half.

Harvest should be on a dry day, as the dew subsides. Tear better brushes, not to rumple the berry. Harvest should be stored in the refrigerator, but not more than 3 days.

For cooking currant jam, you should use dishes with enamel coating and wooden kitchen appliances - tolkushku, spatulas, etc. When using metal counterparts, jam may oxidize.

Evidence that the jam is ready, will stop the appearance of foam. However, until this happens, the foam should be removed, otherwise the jam will become cloudy.

Currant does not like long cooking. From this, it ceases to be useful and acquires a "rubber" taste. The optimal cooking time is 5-15 minutes. It is a different matter when it comes to currant jam or jam. Here you need to evaporate the liquid from the berries to achieve the desired consistency. As a rule, it takes 40-50 minutes.

In some sources you can find information that the jars for currant jam can not be sterilized. Contained acids supposedly destroy pathogens. However, this is not true, since organic acids have a very weak antibacterial effect.

It is important to properly sterilize the jars for at least 10-15 minutes, as well as scalding the dishes used in cooking the jam, carefully wipe the surface. This will save the workpiece from damage, and tasters - from botulism.

Unlike vegetable blanks, jars with currant jam should not be turned over, since when it comes into contact with the metal surfaces of the lids, the product may oxidize. But to apply the old blanket to warm the container with hot jam, will not be superfluous. Sharp changes in temperature inside and outside the cans will not benefit the blanks. Keep the banks in a blanket should be to cool them completely, and then remove to a permanent place of storage.

You need to store currant jam in a dark, cool place - shelves in mezzanines or a refrigerator are quite suitable for this. For storage of raw food or jelly should be used only a refrigerator or cellar.

For information on how to make currant jam in a slow cooker, see the next video.