I went to the farmers market Saturday and picked up a flat of local Currants. I was interested as soon as I saw them, because Grandma used to go on and on about how great Currant jelly was, and how hard it was to find. The lady selling them had brought some of her own jelly along to give samples from, and it tasted great. So I took the plunge and bought a whole flat of them.

Currants have tiny little seeds, and are very tart. I cleaned them and pulled off the bad ones, and put them all in a pot with a cup of water and set it to simmer.

Soon it all fell apart and the berries burst and let out their juice. I mashed it a bit with a potato masher.

Stems and all! Then I packed it into a jelly bag, and hung it over a bowl to drip out all the juice. Before going to bed I put what had drained out into a container in the fridge, and left it hanging overnight.

Half a flat of berries reduced to one jelly bag. I got about 2 cups of juice, and I need 4-5. So more tomorrow.

Update: I didn’t get any pictures of the actual jelly making. I ended up with 5 1/2 cups of very thick juice, and the instructions said I needed 6 1/2 and I could add 1/2 c of water to get there -so I went ahead and added a whole cup. I followed the instructions on the pectin packet, but this stuff was so thick, I’m not sure it needed pectin at all. It was setting up before I got it out of the pan! I made 8 half-pints. Processed them in my electric turkey fryer/water bath canner. That canner makes the whole process so much easier. I’m spoiled now!

This is the first time I’ve made jelly, I’ve always made Jam before. This stuff is pretty 🙂 Tastes good too – sweet/tart!

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Last year when I made Jam, I hade to make Freezer Jam, because I didn’t know how to can things. But now I have taken the Master Food Preserver classes through the extension service, and I am practically an expert (in book-learning), with all the USDA approved food safety information at my fingertips! I need practice though, so I bought a flat of Strawberries and spent the day making Jam!

This is also a chance to use my new toy!

This is a MasterBuilt Indoor Electric Turkey Fryer. I spotted it on craigslist and snapped it up after doing a little research and confirming my suspicions that it looks like a perfectly serviceable electric water bath canner. It has an element inside, and a metal basket sits on top of that. It has an adjustable thermostat, and a glass lid so I can keep tabs on what’s going on in there. It cost $75, and was like new, even in the original box and well taken care of. Electric water bath canners cost about $300, and I knew I could never justify buying one of those – this is right in my price range!

So I cleaned and mashed up my berries, and did my first batch with a regular pectin, full sugar recipe. Seems like I had to boil it forever to get it to thicken up. I finally tested some in the fridge and decided it passed the test, but it still might be pretty thin.

Into the pot. It holds 11 half-pint jars. Lid on, I cranked up the heat, and after a few minutes it worked it’s way up to a rolling boil. Ten minutes of processing later…

First batch was cooling on the counter. Well, actually it cooled in the pot for five minutes first, then it was ready to cool on the counter.

For the second batch, I did a low-sugar recipe, and instead of pectin I used a modified food starch called Clear Jel. That thickened up very nicely. Processed it for ten minutes, and then it was ready to cool on the counter.

Yum, we’ll be eating Jam until next strawberry season! And this year it won’t be taking up our freezer space – last year half my freezer was filled with freezer jam!