{"id":323,"date":"2014-09-01T15:26:14","date_gmt":"2014-09-01T15:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/?p=323"},"modified":"2014-09-01T15:38:21","modified_gmt":"2014-09-01T15:38:21","slug":"red-currant-jelly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/red-currant-jelly\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Currant Jelly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is my new favourite jelly.\u00a0 It is tart and tasty and is delicious on tea biscuits.\u00a0 I did see our daughter spread it on toast and would be equally good on a bagel with cream cheese.<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode-ingredients\"><h3>Ingredients<\/h3><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"ingredient\">Red Currants<\/li>\n<li class=\"ingredient\">Water<\/li>\n<li class=\"ingredient\">Sugar<\/li>\n<li class=\"ingredient\">Isopropyl Alcohol 95%<\/li>\n<li class=\"ingredient\">Clean canning jars &amp; lids<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"shortcode-directions instructions\"><h3>Directions<\/h3><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Wash, removing stems and leaves from currants.\u00a0 Measure the currants into a pot.\u00a0 For every cup of berries add 1\/2 cup of water.<\/li>\n<li>Bring to a boil over high heat.\u00a0 Reduce heat and simmer until fruit is soft.\u00a0 Pour into a jelly bag and let drip undisturbed over a bowl or pot until it stops dripping.\u00a0 DO NOT SQUEEZE the jelly bag as it will make your jelly cloudy.\u00a0 Ideally prepare your fruit in the evening and let drip overnight.<\/li>\n<li>Measure the juice into a pot and bring to a boil for 3 minutes.\u00a0 Measure an equal amount of sugar into a separate bowl.\u00a0 Remove the juice from the heat and test for pectin.\u00a0 This requires 95% Isopropyl Alcohol.\u00a0 Put 1 teas (5ml) of the isoproplyl alcohol on a saucer and add 1 teas (5ml) of the boiled juice.\u00a0 Stir and let sit 30 seconds. DO NOT TASTE this mixture&#8230;.it is POISON!\u00a0 If it clots measure an amount of sugar equal to the juice in the pot and add slowly to the boiling juice.\u00a0 If it does not clot DO NOT add sugar but return the juice to a boil and test every minute for pectin content.\u00a0 It will be necessary to reduce the amount of sugar by about 20% if you have to reboil to reach the desired pectin content.<\/li>\n<li>Boil to the jelly stage.\u00a0 I use the cold spoon method.\u00a0 If you plan to use this method place about 4 spoons in your freezer before you start making the jelly, ideally put them in the freezer the night before.\u00a0 After about 5 minutes of boiling start to check for the jelling point.\u00a0 Dip the cold spoon in the boiling liquid.\u00a0 Raise your spoon above the steam and tilt the spoon so the mixture runs back into the pot.\u00a0 At first it will run off in a steady stream.\u00a0 When it forms two drops that run together and drip at the same time the mixture is done.<\/li>\n<li>Using safe canning practices, pour into clean jars and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><\/div>\n\n<p>If you are not at all familiar with SAFE canning practices go to your Agriculture government website for information.<\/p>\n<p>If you do not have a jelly bag you can use a &#8220;new&#8221; pair of panty hose.\u00a0 I buy them at a discount store and cut the legs up to make multiple jelly bags.\u00a0 They are strong and also reusable.\u00a0 Some Canners use a variety of mesh colanders, cheese cloth or fabric bags.\u00a0 I like the panty hose because they are a one size fits all jelly bag.<\/p>\n<p>I cannot caution you too much about being safe around the use of the isopropyl alcohol.\u00a0 Set out plates and spoons to be used specifically for this purpose then remove from the counter immediately after use.\u00a0 I have found this method to be an excellent way to gauge the pectin in a specific fruit.\u00a0 I do not like to rely on commercial pectin as I have had runny or hard jellies which I believe is due to the fruit not being optimal (too ripe or not ripe enough) for the commercial pectin recipe.<\/p>\n<p>I use the cold spoon test but some Canners use other means to the same end.\u00a0 There are a variety of other methods such as a temperature test with a candy thermometer and a cold plate test (very similar to the cold spoon test).\u00a0 Use which ever method you\u00a0 find works for you.<\/p>\n<p>I use glass canning jars (commonly called mason jars) and have just recently changed to Tattler reusable lids and seals.\u00a0 They can be used time and again and will not rust or corrode like the metal lids.\u00a0 You will still need to use your screw bands which come with all canning jars.\u00a0 Either lid will require a few minutes in hot water to soften the seal.<\/p>\n<p>I use the hot water bath method but some Canners prefer to sterilize the jars and keep them in an oven hot and ready to fill.\u00a0 I find dealing with hot jars to be uncomfortable.\u00a0 If you use hot jars you can eliminate the use of the hot water bath.\u00a0 Both methods achieve the same result, to kill the microorganisms that could cause spoilage or make us sick.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is my new favourite jelly.\u00a0 It is tart and tasty and is delicious on tea biscuits.\u00a0 I did see our daughter spread it on toast and would be equally good on a bagel with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,79,90,87,105,92,93],"tags":[132,131],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ravenview.com\/recipes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}