Experiment title: Blackcurrant Jam 1

Recipe: Delia Smith, Complete Cookery Course

2lbs Blackcurrants
1 pt Water
2.5lbs Sugar

Theory:
Place Water and Blackcurrants in Maslin pan and simmer ’til fruit is cooked (30mins-ish). Add warmed sugar (A small metal tray in the oven at 180ªC while the blackcurrants simmered did the trick). Make sure all the sugar is dissolved then boil rapidly for 10mins, then test for set by dropping a teaspoonful onto a freezer chilled plate. Put in warmed jars and seal.

Results:
Successful. Five (ok, four and a half, see pic) jars of nice blackcurranty jam.

Comments:
The recipe is really simple, and works even if you fail to follow it properly (ahem). My blackcurrants were bagged up and frozen, so I went with a little bit over 2lbs as that was easiest. I had the oven too high and half the sugar melted and began to caramelise. Oops. This didn’t seem to create too much of a problem though, apart from I couldn’t get all the sugar into the pan, and the lumps of caramelised sugar took ages to dissolve, defeating the point of heating it to begin with.
Looks nice, and once I’d potted as much as I could, we cleaned the pan out with some nice fresh bread. Nom.