The fuss about berries at this time of year is over raspberries or blueberries. Often ignored are two other seasonal celebrities.
Currants and gooseberries, related in the Ribes genus, are great favorites in Britain, France, Germany and Scandinavia. In colonial America, both were widely cultivated before generally being ignored for a century or so.
Currants come red, black and occasionally white, a blond sister of the reds. Gooseberries start with the celery-green varieties of early summer and progress through many yellows, pinks, reds and purples.
An addition to the family is jostaberry, a progeny of gooseberries and black currants that packs a strong, distinctive, earthy taste.
Homemade red currant jelly and wine used to be staples in American pantries. Their more famous relatives were French. Bar-le-duc is red currant jelly from which the seeds were removed with a quill. Burgundy’s famous creme de cassis cordial, made from black currants, spices white wine for that refreshing summer drink, the kir.
Currants star in fruit spreads, in sauces and syrups, ice creams, sorbets, mousses, several curious soups and desserts thickened with oatmeal or cream of wheat and, most delectably, in summer bread pudding.
A few raw berries lift a fresh-fruit compote out of the ordinary. They do the same for meat salads and smoked chicken, for instance. Squash some currants in oil for dressing a green or vegetable salad. Steep some in a light raspberry vinegar for a new blend of flavors.
Look for the ripest currants, large, brightly colored and, in the case of the reds, as shiny as blown glass. If you keep them refrigerated more than a day or two, lay them flat on paper towels on trays or baskets. Don’t wash them until you’re ready to use them. Then, do so with a fast dip into cold water. Currants freeze well, with or without sugar, on or off the stems. Defrost just before adding to a recipe.
Gooseberry varieties can be counted in the hundreds.
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Like currants, gooseberries should be picked for their size, color, gloss and taut-skinned condition. Most are mighty astringent but have superior flavor when cooked. Fewer sweet dessert varieties are grown for eating raw.
Pies and tarts made with the berries, wines, vinegars, syrups, soups, puddings, crumbles, compotes, purees, mousses, ice creams, jams, jellies–all are grist for the gooseberry, which Elizabeth Schneider calls a “sensationally versatile” fruit.
Then, there’s the ultimate gooseberry fool, in which berries are carefully scalded in a bit of water, allowed to cool, mashed, sweetened with confectioners’ sugar and deluged with rich cream.
Unlike currants, gooseberries hold for a week or two in the refrigerator. And like them, they freeze successfully. Unless you’ll be sieving gooseberries or leaving their pulp to drip from a jelly bag, the little black buttons on the bottom and the stems, called tops and tails, should be removed. Schneider suggests doing this with scissors.
A lot of contemporary cooking ideas have been put together in “The Ribes Renaissance, Cooking with Gooseberries and Currants,” available for $6 from The International Ribes Association, Box 428, Boonville, Calif. 95415.
If you’re interested in buying a few plants, a couple of sources are Southmeadow Fruit Gardens, Lakeside, Mich. 49116, or North Star Gardens, 2124 University Ave., St. Paul, Minn. 55114-1838.