Ingredients:
8 cups cleaned red currants
3 cups cider vinegar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
4 cups sugar
Directions:
The currants should be washed and picked over. Leave on the stems, but remove any leaves.
Boil them with the vinegar until all are ‘popped’.
Strain well; discard seeds and stems. You should get about 5 cups of juice.
Put the juice in a pot and add the spices mixed to a paste with a little of the currant juice.
Bring to a boil and add the sugar.
Boil hard for about 10 minutes.
Start testing for “gel”.
There are several ways to do this, but the easiest is to put a drop on a frozen surface (like an ice cube) and see if it will wrinkle when pushed with your finger. Alternately, keep dipping you spoon in the mixture as it boils. Once it starts running off in two streams, keep careful watch: when it runs off in multiple streams, or in a sheet, it is done.
When this is achieved, ladle into sterlized jars and seal with sterilized lids.
The original recipe did not call for this, but I pop them back in the boiling water bath for 5 minutes just for safety sake.
Servings: Serve
Time preparation: 40 min.
Time total: 60 min.