How to Make Black Currant Jam in Canada (Cassis)
The Complete Book's tested black currant jam is a quick-cook with powdered pectin, at page 29. Cook 8 cups (2 L) of stemmed black currants with ¾ cup (175 mL) of water, boiling gently and crushing them until the skins soften, about 15 minutes, then measure 5 cups (1.25 L). Whisk in 6 tbsp (90 mL) of Ball Classic Fruit Pectin, or 1 package of Bernardin Original Pectin, until it is dissolved, bring to a boil over high heat, then add 7 cups (1.75 L) of granulated sugar all at once, return to a full rolling boil and boil hard for 1 minute. It fills about seven 250 mL Bernardin jars at 0.5 cm headspace, processes 10 minutes with the jars fully covered, and waits 5 minutes before the jars come out. The recipe lists no lemon juice.
Black currants are a July fixture in Canadian cottage gardens and Prairie yards — and an acquired-taste superpower in the preserving kitchen. Too sharp to eat by the handful, they make a jam of extraordinary depth. This page gives the recipe the Complete Book of Home Preserving (ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5) actually publishes for them: the Berry or Black Currant quick-cook jam at page 29, following the Quick-Cook Sweet Cherry Jam method at page 28.
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The figures on this page come from the edition we hold — ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5, 448 pages. Different editions of the Complete Book carry different figures, so verify the process time against your own edition before you start.
Why the tested recipe is a quick-cook
Jam needs pectin, acid and sugar to gel, and black currants (Ribes nigrum) bring the first two in quantity — which is why a spoonful of them is a traditional trick for rescuing a low-pectin batch of something else.
What that buys is a short boil, not a free pass on pectin. The book’s black currant jam still takes powdered pectin, and the boil is one minute at a full rolling boil rather than the twenty-plus minutes a long-cook jam needs. The acid is already in the fruit, which is why this recipe — unlike its neighbours on the same page — lists no lemon juice at all.
What you need
- 5 cups (1.25 L) cooked black currants, measured after the pre-cook below
- 6 tbsp (90 mL) Ball Classic Fruit Pectin, or 1 package Bernardin Original Pectin
- 7 cups (1.75 L) granulated sugar
- 7 × 250 mL Bernardin jars, fresh SNAP lids, bands
- Standard canning kit — jar lifter, headspace tool, funnel, water-bath canner, ladle (which canner to buy)
The two pectins are not interchangeable. The book says so in the section’s own introduction: each is designed to work under specific conditions. Ball Classic is measured out by volume; Bernardin Original comes in single-batch packages. Use the recipe for the one you actually bought, and see the Canadian pectin guide for which of the five sold here does what.
First, cook the currants
This is a separate step before the jam starts, and the book gives it its own figures.
- Stem and rinse. Drag a fork down each strig to strip the currants; rinse.
- Combine 8 cups (2 L) of stemmed black currants with ¾ cup (175 mL) of water in a large stainless steel saucepan.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat, then boil gently — crushing the currants and stirring frequently — until the skins soften, about 15 minutes.
- Measure 5 cups (1.25 L). That measured 5 cups is what the recipe below is written for.
The method
- Whisk in the pectin. In a large, deep stainless steel saucepan, whisk the pectin into the cooked currants until it is dissolved. The book calls this step essential, and it comes before any sugar.
- Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently.
- Add all the sugar at once and return to a full rolling boil that cannot be stirred down, stirring constantly.
- Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and skim the foam.
- Jar. Ladle into hot 250 mL jars leaving 0.5 cm (¼ inch) headspace, remove air bubbles, wipe rims, apply fresh SNAP lids fingertip-tight.
- Process 10 minutes with the jars completely covered, adjusted for your altitude band.
- Remove the canner lid, wait 5 minutes, then lift the jars out. Cool 24 hours undisturbed and confirm each lid sealed.
Getting the order wrong is the commonest reason a powdered-pectin batch fails to set — the pectin dissolves into the fruit first, and the sugar goes in only after the mixture has come to a boil.
Corrected 18 September 2026: this page previously published a traditional cook-to-set method of our own — about 4 cups of currants simmered with about 1 cup of water for 10 to 15 minutes, then about 3 to 4 cups of sugar boiled to a cold-plate test, for four to five jars — and said the jam “sets reliably with no commercial pectin”. That method was ours. The only black currant jam in the pages we hold is page 29’s powdered-pectin quick-cook, and black currant is not among the fruits page 21 names for its no-added-pectin jams, so we had no source for a no-pectin version of it. The page now gives page 29’s recipe and page 28’s method, including Bernardin’s own pre-cook for the currants — ¾ cup (175 mL) of water to 8 cups (2 L) of fruit, not 1 cup, measured down to 5 cups. A 1 tbsp bottled lemon juice line marked optional has gone: page 29 lists no lemon juice for this variation. The claim that the fruit’s acidity “keeps them safely acidic for water-bath canning” has gone too — it was our inference, not the book’s. The prep and cook times this page carried were invented and are gone.
Storage and shelf life
- Best quality 12 months — Bernardin’s guidance is to use home-canned food within one year. That is a quality window, not an expiry: the jar is as safe as the process made it.
- After opening: refrigerate and use within one week (HealthLink BC).
Variations
- Black currant–raspberry — raspberries are on page 29’s own list for this recipe, so a mixed batch of crushed raspberries and cooked black currants measured to the same 5 cups (1.25 L) is inside the tested scope.
- Spiced cassis — a small cinnamon stick or a splash of crème de cassis stirred in at the end (for personal-use jars; alcohol additions aren’t part of the tested process).
- Red currant — milder and even higher in pectin; better as a clear jelly.
Page 29’s list is not page 21’s. This recipe covers blackberries, boysenberries, dewberries, loganberries, raspberries, youngberries and cooked black currants. Blueberries and gooseberries are not on it — they belong to the book’s other berry jam, so use the blueberry and gooseberry pages rather than substituting them here.
Next steps
- How to make red currant jelly — the clear, classic companion preserve
- How to make gooseberry jam — the other tart July Ribes berry
- Why didn’t my jam set? — the cold-plate test and salvage paths
- Canadian altitude adjustments — for your processing time
- Water-bath canning pillar — the full method
Altitude adjustment
Process times in a boiling-water canner are written for altitudes up to 305 m. Above that, water boils below 100 °C and the time printed in the recipe is no longer enough. Find your elevation, then add the minutes Bernardin publishes for that band.
| Elevation (m) | Elevation (ft) | Add to processing time |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 305 | 0 – 1,000 | None — use the recipe time as written |
| 306 – 915 | 1,001 – 3,000 | +5 minutes |
| 916 – 1,830 | 3,001 – 6,000 | +10 minutes |
| 1,831 – 2,440 | 6,001 – 8,000 | +15 minutes |
| 2,441 – 3,050 | 8,000 – 10,000 | +20 minutes |
On the line between two bands, round up to the higher one. Slightly over-processing is safe; under-processing is not.
Bernardin’s published tables stop at 3,050 m.
Find your Canadian city · Full altitude guide
Figures from Bernardin, “How do I can at a high altitude?” (bernardin.ca). Confirm against your own Bernardin edition before you start — a book edition and the website can differ.
Frequently asked questions
Does the tested black currant jam use pectin?
Yes. The Complete Book's black currant jam is a quick-cook with powdered pectin — 6 tbsp (90 mL) of Ball Classic Fruit Pectin, or one package of Bernardin Original Pectin, to 5 cups (1.25 L) of cooked currants and 7 cups (1.75 L) of sugar. What the fruit's own high pectin buys you is the short boil: one minute at a full rolling boil, rather than the long cook a low-pectin fruit needs.
Why cook the currants in water before anything else?
Black currant skins are tough, and the book gives them their own pre-cook before the jam starts: 8 cups (2 L) of stemmed currants with ¾ cup (175 mL) of water, boiled gently and crushed as they go until the skins soften, about 15 minutes. You then measure 5 cups (1.25 L) of that out, and that measured 5 cups is what the recipe is written for — not the raw fruit you started with.
Why is black currant jam so tart, and should I add lemon juice?
Black currants are naturally very high in acid, and the tartness is the point — cassis, the French name, is prized for that deep, sharp, almost resinous flavour. Do not add lemon juice: the page-29 recipe lists none for this variation, while its neighbours on the same page do (apricot takes 4 tbsp/60 mL, peach or pear 2 tbsp/30 mL, mulberry 1/2 cup/125 mL), so the absence is a choice made per fruit rather than an omission. The full sugar quantity balances the tartness and is part of what sets the gel.
Sources
- Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving, ISBN 978-0-7788-0137-5 — Berry or Black Currant quick-cook jam p.29 (method: Quick-Cook Sweet Cherry Jam p.28)
- Health Canada — Home canning safety (https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/general-food-safety-tips/home-canning-safety.html)