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Crab apple jelly recipe

Crab apple Jelly - Worship the Wobble!

If you're lucky enough to have a crab apple tree near to you, don't waste the opportunity to make this amazingly sweet jelly. I have a lovely big tree in my front yard, and each harvest I look forward to this little beauty!

The crab apple is inedible in it's natural state; far too bitter for our palates and no real flesh on the apples. However, add a little heat, water, sugar, and time, and these little apples turn into the sweetest jelly you've ever tasted. The beauty of this recipe is that you don't have to add a gazillion pounds of sugar like other jellies/jams. The crab apple, despite it's tartness in it's natural form, is actually the pectin equivalent of the Duracell bunny in the fruit world. Their skins and flesh contain an exceedingly high amount of pectin, a natural gelling agent.

I'd looked at several recipes, which all required an actual weight of crab apples. When you've got an entire tree at your disposal, you kind of want a 'one-size-fits-all-apples' approach so you don't have to keep weighing out the apples, and making batch after batch. Eventually, I combined a few recipes and came up with the following, which I actually think works easier than the weighed recipes, and the taste was just as scrumdidly sweet.

What you'll need
As many crab apples as you can get (this is not a weight-specific recipe)
2 bags of granulated sugar
2 big pans
6 jars (at least) with lids
Cheese cloth, or tea towels
Wax seals
A bit of time

Method (to my madness!)

1) Take as many crab apples as you want to use. Stick them in the sink and give them all a good rinse through (because little 'sects and spiders like to hibernate on the fruit, and trust me you don't want to see one of those floating about in your jelly!) Ideally, you should de-stalk them, but trust me when I say that this is an arduous and futile task. 20 mins, and two blisters into de-stalking I gave up and it made no impact on the jelly.

2) When washed pile them into a very, very large pan. I actually have a jam pan, but you can use any pan that is ever-so-large. Add enough water to just cover them in the pan.

3) Now turn the heat on medium high and cook those little apples for all their worth! You want to get them down to a mushy consistency, almost like apple sauce. You'll probably need to cook them for a good hour, but this is up to your discretion. If they look mushy after 30 mins then they're done.



4) Whilst your apples are happily turning into mush you need to cover a bowl (or bowls depending on how much you have - I usually need to cover two bowls) with cheese cloth. Now, you can buy cheesecloth at any cook store, or Hobbycraft, but it's not cheap. So, I have been known to use a tea towel. Yes, this does work, but you need to use a tea towel that is not tightly woven, so one of the thicker, more absorbent ones are better than the thinner ones. Oh, and the tea towel needs to be clean! Cover the bowl (s) with your cheese cloth/tea towel and use string to secure the material is in place. Make sure the cloth is taught. Any slackage and the crap apples will pull the material down.

5) Once the apples are super mushy you need to transfer them to the cloths. Some people pour them onto the cloths, but I find it's too much weight hitting the cloth at once and it drags the cloths down. Instead, I spoon the mush onto the cloths. The cloths will sag down, just make sure they're not too heavy and pull the cloth out of the string. Fill as much to the top as possible, and make sure the  top of the apples is flat and not mounded.

6) Now, sit back, relax, make a cuppa, go to the movies because you need to give the apples at least 8 hours to seep through the cloth. You can always let them rest overnight. You'll wake up the next morning to an near-solid, sunken, moist mass on top of your cheese cloth.

7) Remove the cloth and apples from the bowls (making sure not to drop it into the fluid below. Throw the apples away (I wish I knew of a further use for this pulp because it does seem like such a shame to throw it away, but I've not been able to find any recipes. If you know of any I'm all ears!) You will be left with a pallid, wee-coloured liquid in the bowls. This needs to be measured out at 450g of granulated sugar for every 600ml of strained juice. So, I pour the liquid from the bowls into a measuring jug. When I reach 600ml I pour it into a large pan (the jam pan) and add 450g of sugar. Continue doing this until you've used up all the juice. If you end up with an odd number of juice left over i.e. say 200ml, then fraction the sugar out at .75g per ml, so 200 ml = 150g of sugar.

8) Turn the heat up high and cook the juice until the sugar has melted. Once it reaches boiling point, turn the heat down. You'll start to notice a 'scum' appear on the surface. Skim this off and throw it away. Keep on doing this, and repeatedly stir the liquid. Oooh, look there I am doing just this!

9) Whilst you're stirring and skimming put another big pan of hot water onto the stove and set the heat going. Literally, bring a pan of water to the boil, and place the jars and lids into the boiling water. Let it sit there for a good ten minutes then remove your jars and allow them to cool. There, you've just sterilised your jars!

10) Now, there's no timings involved in cooking your apple-sugar liquid. It's done when it's done, and you'll know when it's done. The liquid goes from wee coloured to a glorious translucent mackintosh red. You'll also find that instead of boiling bubbles, you'll get a 'rolling boil' as though the liquid is literally rolling to the top. It will look like picture below. If you want to make 100% sure that it's done place a spoon in the freezer for about 10 mins so it's really cold. Dip it into the red liquid and remove. Let it cool for a minute, or two. Then rub your finger over the liquid on the back of the spoon. If it is set and wrinkles against your touch, it is done.

11) Turn the heat off and place a funnel into a jar (you don't have to use a funnel, it just makes for less mess). Using a ladle, spoon the liquid to a quarter of an inch below the top of the jar.

12) Remove the funnel, and insert a wax disc into the top of the jar. You can buy these at Hobbycraft, or any cooking store. They're not expensive and they're worth their weight in gold. They 'seal' the top of the jars to prevent any bacteria, or air getting to the jelly. The first year I made the jelly I didn't use the wax seals, and when I opened the jellies a month, or so later they had mould on the surface. The following year I used the seals, and many months later the jellies were still fresh. Now, the seals may not always fit, and may curl up at the edges. This is ok, just make sure that the surface of the jelly is covered.

 13) Seal the jars as soon as the wax seal has been inserted, and then leave them (preferably) overnight to cool completely.



14) Once they've completely cooled decorate them to your heart's content!



So, now that you're intrigued to make these little gems you're probably wondering what you eat the jelly with. Well, you can use it in place of applesauce when you have pork. But, to be honest with you, it goes with any meat. I particularly like it in place of cranberry sauce when eating turkey. It also makes a great accompaniment to a cheese board instead of a compote.