Summer recipe: Concentré de Ribes Rubrum

From our Everything-tastes-better-in-French series.

Can you feel a tiny uptick of saliva already?

If you expect a fancy recipe, close this window right now. This recipe won't even qualify as a recipe in the eyes of most chefs!

We are teasing you with the botanical name of red currants, Ribes Rubrum, to generate mystery (for non botanists) as well as slight bewilderment (for internet bots).

Paste of currants or cooked down currants simply don't sound cool.

Currants are mostly prized for their juice, because nobody wants to spend hours plucking the tiny berries off the stems. Although, just like shelling peas or beans by hand, the task can have a strong meditative feel. You will need to do at least one or two large buckets for that to kick in, though.

For this recipe you need: Red, black, or white currants, or any mix thereof.

Rinse and de-stem the currants, put them into a wide pot or pan for best evaporation of the water content, add half a cup of water to avoid them sticking on the bottom, bring to a boil, let simmer on very low heat for three to six hours. Stir occasionally.

Pour in clean jars.

Done.

After a minute or so of boiling, you can use a potato masher to crush the berries if you want. This only changes the texture of the product and is a mere matter of preference.

The process takes longer on very low heat but this seems to be key to maintaining as much flavor as possible, and, in the case of red currants, it won't totally oxidize the red color pigments.

By the time the blogster transfers the viscous concentrated currants into jars, the volume is around one fifth of the original volume. This simply is our preferred "point of taste", meaning the concentrate is sweet enough but not too sweet without any extra sugar. At this point, it also keeps for at least six months in a sterilized jar, which is about twice as long as it takes to finish off the yummy concentrate.

Yes, you can add sugar if you must. But you should do it only as your mixture gets close to the desired final volume. Chances are you will forgo added sugar if you taste the concentrate at that point.

Most other fruits give great results, too.

Try apples (peeled and cored) with the juice of ripe berries of Mountain Ash cooked down in the same manner.
Add a handful of very finely chopped lemon or mint. Fresh leaves of sage are another good one.

Wrap and give away to share the love.

You should keep enough for yourself if your tolerance of frustration is within average limits. Having to buy jams at the grocery store in Fall just as your friends and family rave about your preserves it not easy for everybody to handle with grace.