North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

On May 30, 2009, at 9:13 AM, William C. Garthright wrote:

> > I eat them fresh and make juice.  While others will disagree, I think
> > white currant juice is far superior to red or black - excellent!
>
>
> How do you extract the juice? Is there a simple way, without buying a
> juicer?

I make red currant juice as the first step in making red currant  
jelly.  I fill my spaghetti pot about 2/3 to 3/4 with currants, stems  
and all.  Then I mash them a little with my fingers, so there is some  
liquid at the bottom, so that the lowest berries won't overheat when I  
cook them.  Then I heat gently, stirring a little and mashing them a  
bit with the back of a plastic cooking spoon until the currants are  
sort of white and muddy-looking, and collapse.  (I follow the details  
in "the Joy of Cooking" under the section on making jelly, except  
currants are juicy enough and have enough pectin that I add neither  
water nor any jelling agent.)

Then I strain the mess through a sieve into a smaller pot, to continue  
with the jelly-making process.  I press it down a little, but don't  
use any serious mechanical aids like a foley mill.  Most of the juice  
runs out pretty easily.  In fact, you get a clearer juice if you don't  
press at all.

I have a large, very fine, stainless-steel sieve, but I've also used  
an ordinary sieve with cheesecloth.  If you use cheesecloth you should  
wet it thoroughly before putting it in the sieve, otherwise it will  
absorb a lot of the juice.

This juice makes magnificent jelly.  I've never tried drinking it by  
itself, but I imagine that if you added a little sugar and possibly  
diluted it a bit it would be very tasty.

Ginda