Summer already delights us with many, many fruits. And especially for those who grow fruits and vegetables in the garden themselves, there is often a large amount of fruit that cannot, of course, be consumed immediately. Therefore, preservation methods are needed to preserve everything that cannot be processed immediately. At present, currant bushes are bursting with delicious fruits that want to harvest, among other things. That’s why we’ve put together some ideas and recipes for white currants so you can bite them in the winter. So what do you do with currants?
Make compote from the fruits of the garden
Compote is probably the fastest and easiest way to process white currant, among other things. You can not only drink it immediately or use it to make a cold refreshing drink, but also store it in jars for a long time. If you want to keep currants, follow these steps.
Pour the fruit into sterilized storage jars (up to 4-5 cm below the edge), fill them with sugar water (be sure to leave a gap of up to 2 cm from the edge), close the jars and cook at 150 degrees. At 160 degrees for about half an hour. You can use an oven or a special preserver for this purpose.
For 1.5 kg of fruit (washed and picked berries), simply heat 1 liter of water and 600 g of sugar in a pot and mix until the sugar is dissolved. Then let the sugar water cool down a bit before pouring it into the glasses with the berries.
Tip: If you want to enjoy the compote right away, you can also bake the fruit in a pot.
White currant jam
Even if you ask yourself “what can be made from currants”, the jam has definitely come to mind. Jam and marmalade can basically be made from all kinds of fruit. Here’s how to cook currant jam if you want to process white currants like this:
- 1 kg of white currants
- 500 g of storage sugar
- ½ cup of water (instead you can choose any fruit juice)
- 1 organic lemon
- 1 packet of Bourbon-flavored vanilla sugar
Place the jars in an oven at 120 degrees for 10 minutes to sterilize them. You can boil the lids in the kettle. It is best to heat the jars so that they are still warm at the end of the cooking time so that the jar does not break when filled with hot jam.
Squeeze lemon juice. Wash the berries and bring to a boil with water / juice, jam sugar and lemon juice. Stir constantly as the liquid is still small and the products may otherwise burn. As soon as the contents boil, reduce the heat and bring the currant jam to the boil for 5 minutes. The mass should slowly gel. Only at the end, when the jam is ready, add the vanilla sugar until it is dissolved. Pour the currant jam into the prepared jars and screw on the lids.
Check the lids after an hour: if they bend slightly inwards, they are airtight and can be stored. Consume first those that are not well sealed.
Currant jelly recipe
Would you prefer seedless jelly? Wonderful white currants can also be processed for this purpose, and the currants only need to be removed from the seeds. To do this, first boil only the fruit, let it simmer for 5 minutes and pass the juice through a fine sieve. You can then make a seedless white currant jelly as described above.
Currant recipe with red pepper and lemon
You can also use your currants to make chutney. Peel 500 g of berries in a panic, boil them in half a liter of water and 50 ml of orange and lemon juice and pass the fruit through a fine sieve. Boil the collected juice again, this time with jam sugar. Add another 500g of berries, heat on high heat for 4 minutes, lift the pan over the heat and mix in 3 tablespoons of red peppercorns and grated peel of one lemon. Place the chutney in sterilized jars and screw on tightly.
Process the white currants into a syrup
If you want to make currant syrup and process white currants in this way, you only need three ingredients, namely berries, water and sugar. If you want the syrup to be even more fruity, you can simply replace the water with apple juice. And the rest of the currant recipe is really very simple: all you have to do is clean or wash the currants and remove them from the panic. Then boil one and a half liters of water and / or juice and 2 kg of sugar (dextrose can also be used) until a syrup is formed. Then add 1 kg of berries.
If desired, you can extract the sour taste of the syrup with four lemon juice and citric acid (1 pack). While this sounds paradoxical, it is actually the idea of lemons in sour fruit recipes. Boil everything for about 5 minutes, lift the pot off the stove and allow the liquid to cool slightly. Then strain them through a fine sieve or towel into sterilized bottles.
The syrup can be used to make refreshing drinks (such as lemonade or cocktails), to sweeten aromatic desserts, to top ice cream and to enhance breakfast (such as pancakes or muesli).
