A Recipe from "The Misadventure's of Maude March"

Maude and Sallie picked about a bucketful of currants to make this jam, then measured out five cups for each batch. This recipe is for one batch.

They used seven cups of sugar, which was just enough to make the jam sweet. (Aunt Ruthie could be a little too sparing with the sugar, but you'll see it worked out real well when she made jam - it's just a shade tart.)

Aunt Ruthie did the cooking, because jam gets really hot and the splashes stick to you. Let your mom and dad do the stove part. It doesn't take long.

You clean up the currants and you'll realize that's the hard part. You have to discard any tiny stems you find among the currants; also the leaves, spiders, occasional caterpillar, and bits of twig that may have fallen into the bucket.

Here's Aunt Ruthie's secret: put them a cup at a time into a big bowl of water. Most of what you need to clean out floats to the top.

Directions:

• So, 5 cups black currants, picked and cleaned
• 7 cups granulated sugar
• 1 box pectin
• and you'll need some glass jars with lids, peanut butter jars will do. Have four to eight jars ready, depending on the size.

To begin:

Crush the picked-over currants with a wooden spoon just to free up the juice--this is easier if you work with less than a cup at a time. (Don't bother trying to strain out the currant skins, they add to the flavor and are not detectable in the jam.)

As you finish crushing the fruit, pour it into the pot usually used for cooking spaghetti sauce. Jam bubbles the same way, and a deep pot reduces cleanup.

When the fruit is all in the pot, stir in the pectin, then let the whole mess stand for 15 minutes. Stir a few times to help melt the pectin. Don't worry if the pectin looks lumpy at first.

This is the part that requires help from an adult: Set the pot on the stovetop and bring the fruit and pectin to a full bubbling boil. Let it go on boiling strongly as the sugar is poured in, stirring constantly. Then boil for 1 full minute after the sugar is added. Keep stirring.

Remove from heat. It's usual to have an airy foam on the top. This can be stirred in, or a teaspoon of butter added, to help settle it.

Ladle the jam into glass jars right away, before the jam grows thick. After it has cooled and set into jam consistency, put on the lids and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.