Years ago I bought a pasteuriser from a company in Germany. Even with shipping, it was significantly cheaper than buying the same model in the UK because there were only a couple of places selling them.
I couldn't quite stretch to getting the stainless steel version, so I bought the fully automatic enamel version instead.
It's great for non-pressure canning, it has a timer and a thermostat, and it is fully automatic in that it doesn't start timing until the correct temperature has been reached.
We can also use it for cheesemaking.
It's still used every year, but less since I bought a pressure canner (from the US, can't seem to buy them here).
When I bought it, I also bought the "juice extractor" part, which comes in it's own large box. It's sat, unused, not even opened, in the loft since it arrived.
Until yesterday.
We have a good blackcurrant crop this year. The last few years have seen the blackcurrants turned into Vodka, or cordial. This year I decided to make blackcurrant jam, as I've now run out.
I picked all the blackcurrants yesterday. It took ages, my back hurt.
I started to start destalking them, ready to make jam. After about thirty seconds, I looked at the mountain of blackcurrants and decided to do something else.
I remembered reading about juicing in the pasteuriser, and how you didn't need to de-stalk first. I could do that, and then make blackcurrant jelly instead of jam.
Then I thought about how I love getting bits of blackcurrant popping in my jam, and I wavered.
And then I looked at the blackcurrant mountain, and decided that I could manage without the blackcurranty bits.
Now, I do understand that I could easily have done this on the hob, and left the stuff in jelly bags to drip through overnight. I've done that.
I had such a lot of blackcurrants that it seemed I might as well try the juicing bit. Or bits as it turned out. As I said, I'd never opened the box so I didn't know what to expect. So, I washed the new components and set it up. When stacked it was rather tall. I didn't take a pic so I've had to find a pic online....
The pasteuriser bit, with the water in, is at the bottom; next we have the juice collecting chamber, which has rubber tube coming out of it so the juice flows out; next up we have the enormous fruit basket, and then the lid.
And do you know what? It was bloody amazing. I wish I'd weighed the blackcurrants, but I didn't. I have about 3 litres of blackcurrant juice. It smells amazing.
If I'd been making cordial, this would have been fantastic, because it would fill the sterilised bottles directly from the contraption, and it wouldn't need further pasteurising. I really wish I'd tried this years ago! I'll definitely use this next time I'm making cordials.
Anyway. I've got the juice sitting in jugs at the moment, and I'm going to start making the jelly in about half an hour.....
