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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Re Black currant, taste - improvement, etc Loooong

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  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Re Black currant, taste - improvement, etc Loooong
  • Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2004 23:40:12 -0500

Well, you've won one convert - I've discovered that I'm very fond of cooked black currant - I've enjoyed juice, preserves, and even yogurt. (I faulted the yogurt for being too weakly flavored, in fact, I plan to write to the manufacturer and suggest they add more currant and less sugar.)

I think what you are saying is that most all black currants taste good cooked, and the chef can adjust the sugar if they are more or less sweet, but that you are trying to create a market in black currants, so to you, "better" means "better for eating raw". That means with less of the skanky flavor that, for instance, Consort has when raw, and perhaps more sugar. To us NAFEXers, most of whom are probably cooking the fruit for ourselves rather than trying to build a market, it doesn't make much difference. I still wonder if the ones that are better raw are also milder when cooked.

I like the Crandall currant, too, but it seems to me to be an entirely different fruit. It doesn't have any of the richness cooked or the skankiness raw of a Consort, which is the only black currant I've had raw. (Consort tastes quite similar to "Ribena" when cooked, and both taste different from Crandall.) Crandall has a pronounced fruitiness, almost like a grape, and is less juicy and more stringy than other currants. The leaves and flowers also look quite different from the Consort, which is much more similar to a red currant in appearance and growth habit than is Crandall.

Ginda

On Mar 7, 2004, at 10:04 PM, Ribes60@aol.com wrote:

<x-tad-bigger> </x-tad-bigger>

This is in reply to several postings re black currant taste and “improvements, I have taken a couple days to consider what I want to say and how to say it. My first thought was to say, “they are just better”  and, “black currants are like women – there is no such thing as a bad one, some are just better than others”. Somehow I did not think that was the answer expected.

 

I expect that by now, most regular posters have decided that I am pretty passionate about black currants and will try to honestly answer all questions to the best of my ability. So here goes:

 

Here we will deal with three different classes of black currants, Ribes Nigrum (the European black currant), Ribes Americana (one of the native American black currants) and Ribes Odoratum (another American black currant – Crandall). These are all different types of black currants. Then in the 1950s and 60s the Canadians bred and released three selections of Ribes Ussuriense that are very similar to R. Nigrum. These selections are Consort, Crusader and Coronet, in my opinion they look like R Nigrum but they are very different in flavor and some other characteristics. I have grown each of them and we have used Crusader as a parent in some of the breeding that we have done. These three selections are fully immune to WPBR and are often accepted in many locations that do not allow R. Nigrum. Crusader has not added very much to the seedlings that were produced and we no longer use it.

 

Every seedling has it’s own special characteristics, we try to manipulate these by choosing parents they are known to possess the characteristics that we like. This may take a lot of crosses and backcrosses in hopes that we will come up with a plant and berry that is just what we want.

 

Improvements are somewhat like “taste” and “quality” – they may mean different things to different folks. If you are a commercial grower, you may want all fruit to ripen at the same time and need only one picking, you may want the fruit to look good, have good color and ship well Taste is great if you can get that also, but often taste is a secondary characteristic, because “most consumers don’t know what they really want anyway”. This is one of the really good things about NAFEXers, most eat or use the fruit that they grow and do not really care how it looks as long as it tastes good or is satisfactory to them.

 

I have been extolling the gooseberries and currants for many years, and most people do not know much if anything about them. I have said for a long time that “someday, they will be common to many farm markets, roadside stands and the fresh market in general”. I want to be able to go the chain markets and find black currant juice, candy, yogurt, ice cream and cough drops flavored with black currant. This is not going to just suddenly happen. I think that we have to have a market that demands it, and also have a ready supply for that market. In my opinion, this will only happen if we can expand the market slowly, this means that growers are not expected to plant 10, 20 or 50 acres of currants, and that juicers will not process thousands of pounds of berries until they feel they market is ready for it.

 

My strategy is to have small growers especially those near large centers of populations and those that know and like them to share the harvest. I have found that I can sell almost all the fruit I grow and pick. Value added products have always been accepted very well. Jams, pies and wines have been the products that have attracted the most interest, but as small growers we need to really attract the people that like to use fruit fresh and raw. To do this we need to have fruit that is palatable and acceptable to eat “out of hand” (and we need to shorten the acquired taste time)

 

Black currant, generally has a sharp intense taste that does not appeal to the majority of the consuming population. Cooking the fruit, even for a short time, converts it to a very acceptable product. We have found that there are some selections that are sweeter and milder than others, not that they are “less good for cooking or juicing” but they may require less sugar and the flavor is very good. Some are very acid like and really need to be cooked.

 

Taste is such a subjective thing that I find it hard to qualify or quantify, that is why there is so many brands of beer, soft drink salsa and on and on. The selection of currants for home processing is not as important as how the product is blended – the amount of sugar other spices or flavoring added. The home grower can produce a “customized” product that is “just what he wants”. I have heard it said that cinnamon or nutmeg just mask poor quality apples. The amount of sugar certainly affects jam and jam made with very little sugar (and the appropriate pectin) is IMHO, much better than the usual commercial product.  All this is not true of the fresh raw fruit – it lives or dies on it’s own merit. I strive for a fruit that is acceptable to the greatest number of consumers, just as it comes off the plant or with very little added. There is almost as much variability in black currants as exist in grapes, apples, peaches and other fruit, there is just not as good selection to choose from. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to taste hundreds of selections of black currant, some are immediately acceptable to me but maybe not so much to Harry Swartz, the breeder. I have found that we have some different tastes, but there are some that we both discard without question.. Remember, all are good, some just better than others.

 

Ed Mashburn
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