Red Currant Jam

An easy to prepare Red Currant Jam recipe that will help you put all of those early summer red currants to good use all year long!

As promised in my previous red currant recipe series post, my Red Currant Cake, I’m going to share with you a bit more about our recent purchase. If you have already grown tired of hearing about our “new” old country home, then I invite you to proceed to the recipe below. No hard feelings; I’ll completely understand.

THE HOUSE TOUR CONTINUES

I’ve already talked about the fact that the home is 160 years old and has a lot of character. I remember the first thing that caught my eye as we did our first walk through. It was original wood floors, which are beautifully bordered by twelve inch high original baseboards. It was love at first sight!

I found myself lost in those old stained wooden floor boards. How many pairs of feet had walked across them over the past 160 years? I forgot about it soon enough though. Because, next I saw three single French doors.

All three doors are stained to match the old wooden floor boards and the baseboards. To my immediate right was a French door that led to the large dining room. The dining room is sectioned off from the rest of the house. To get into the dining room, you need to leave the kitchen area completely.

I imagine that at the time the house was built, the dining room was off limits. It was probably used on very special occasions or when entertaining persons of interest or those with deep pockets. My grandmother used to have a drawing room like that. I think I was only ever inside it one time!

HAVE I FOUND A PERMANENT BLOGGING HOME?

I thought the dining room would be my permanent blogging room. My mind raced ahead to setting up my staging area. There would be room for a large. I would install a corner desk where I would write my recipes and my posts. A large hutch would store all of my blog dishes and props.

Since that initial viewing, the plans have evolved, but have not changed completely. We are toying with the idea of keeping the dining room a dining room. And, I would take one corner of the kitchen to set up a blog area. The kitchen is fairly spacious, so there’s enough room to use it as an actual kitchen and a blogging area. More on that later.

To my immediate left, there was another French door which led into the living room. There was also a stair case leading up to the second floor. The stairs have that same stained wood, and the living room the same original stained wooden floor boards.

A BIGGER LIVING ROOM MEANS MORE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS!

The living room is bigger than what we are used to in our Toronto apartment, but not massively so. It looks bigger than it is due to the extremely high ceiling and the abundance of natural light. On the back wall of the living room, there’s a double French door. It leads out to a stone patio area complete with an in-ground bird bath. And at the front of the living room are two identical vertical windows which look out onto the country road.

This post is getting quite long and I haven’t talked about the jam yet. First, I must tell you about that third single French door in the foyer. The door leads into the back area of the main floor. Through there, you can turn left to go into the living room, go straight ahead for the bathroom, laundry room, and back door entrance, or you can turn right into the kitchen.

RED CURRANT JAM

Okay – the jam! I made this jam much like I do most of my jam recipes. After picking so many currants off the existing bushes at our new home, I ran out of recipe ideas. I knew I could use them up this way. Since red currants are very tart, I knew more sugar was needed than I usually add to my jam recipes. And, like always, I add lemon juice to all of my jams.

At the end of it all, the jam is thick, but not thick like a jelly. It’s spreadable, shiny, and a very deep red colour. This jam is perfect like it is. Simply smear it liberally on a piece of toast. Or bake it into one of your favourite fruit desserts. You’ll see what I mean in a few days with another red currant post.

I’ll also continue with a brief description of the house, if you’re interested. Bear with me, Dear Reader; I’m still very excited and I’m sure I will settle back to normal soon.

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