North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Douglas Woodard <dwoodard@becon.org>]

Blackcurrant seed oil is somewhat similar to evening primrose oil, 
perhaps not quite as good, but also contains the intermediate products 
usually made in the human body from essential fatty acids but sometimes 
lacking in the sick or elderly, and often found useful to enhance health.

I don't know to what extent the seeds are normally digested but they are 
fairly soft. When the pulp is eaten as in jams, tarts, pies and 
puddings, usually the seeds are also consumed.

Note that cottage puddings are a good way of eating cooked fruit; it is 
not necessary to use pastry. (Soft) whole wheat flour can be used in the 
biscuit/cake component with a little more egg and baking powder. Rice 
puddings and variants on it with other grains can also be used with 
fruit; also trifle.

Doug Woodard
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada


Alan Haigh wrote:
> You can use black currants in any way you'd use cranberries, as in 
> scones and meat sauces.  They are wonderful put through a blender with 
> fresh apple juice and strained to create currant ambrosia.  They can be 
> added to any pie recipe or other fruit based deserts as an addition to 
> the base fruit- just be conservative and expect to have to add more 
> sugar.  The flavor is wonderful, but the tartness needs considerable 
> sweetening for most pallets.
>
> Black currant sauce can be made by barely cooking them and mashing them 
> up while adding sugar.  The sauce can be used in infinite ways, 
> especially in constructing various deserts, whether pastries or  other 
> baked deserts or just around ice cream.  The berries can be thrown in 
> the freezer and saved for later use with no loss of culinary quality.  A 
> creative cook can achieve star quality by the imaginative use of black 
> currants.