accidentally defrosted blackcurrants

[JoseyJo]

Hi, Our freezer accidentally defrosted, I think it's been defrosted for about 5 days. I've found a lot of defrosted blackcurrants and jostaberries which still look fine and I was going to stew now. But what I'm' wondering is what can I do with them then!! Can I refreeze them once stewed..... or should I just make wine...... will they be ok to make wine with after sitting for 5 days slowly defrosting??

[Odsox]

They should be fine if you freeze them after cooking.
As far as I know, anything frozen raw, meat included, can be refrozen once cooked.

No idea about wine though I'm afraid, gave up that idea long ago.

[Zech]

I'd definitely go for the wine (but then, I usually do ). I can't see any reason why a day or so of defrosting would interfere with brewing.

[doofaloofa]

or jam

nice to see you Odsox

[Odsox]

Thanks Doofa, sometimes I can get in, sometimes I just go round in circles ... log in, click anything and get sent back to log in.

[JoseyJo]

Thanks for the replies.
Have decided to make wine with most of them (requiring a quick trip to shops to get yeast and retrieval of brewing bucket from the garage - which is currently sitting in the bath full of Milton after needing quite a scrub!), have stewed some and just deciding what to do with them.... or might just add them to the wine.

[MKG2]

Make wine - great idea

The berries would have been perfectly OK for refreezing after you'd boiled them up (that goes for most things, really). But wine's your best bet. But then I'm a tad on the makewinefromanything side. One thing, though - is your wine made from blackcurrants alone? If so, the taste may be a little overwhelming.

[JoseyJo]

Ooh, just read this! What would you recommend I could add? The fermenting blackcurrants are still in the bucket at the moment so is there still time to add something else? (I used 3lbs of blackcurrants and 3lbs of sugar)

[MKG]

To be frank, Josey, I'd let it run its course. You may find it delicious - and at a rate of 3lbs of sugar to a gallon, your wine is certainly going to have enough oomph to carry a strong flavour. But the only recipes I'd trust for blackcurrant wines use only 1.5 lbs of berries (plus other ingredients), so you may decide you're drinking alcoholic Ribena. Nothing is lost, though - you can easily make up a gallon of a bland wine and then blend the two. As I've just posted about rhubarb wine, that springs to mind. A dry rhubarb wine from as little as 1 lb of fruit and a kilo of sugar would make a very good blending partner for your blackcurrant.

But as I say - try it for yourself first. It may be that my taste is bloody awful and your blackcurrant wine will be the best thing since sliced bread.

[JoseyJo]

Mmm, alcoholic Ribena sounds rather nice