DIARY: Ruminations, Occasional thoughts & happenings - as they arise
Crab Apple Jelly - 3 October 2007
As a child I used to love crab apple jelly - I mean really love it! The sharp taste of it with a hint of cinnamon. Wow when it hit the tongue!.....
My aunts and cousins used to scour the countryside - well, go to the
spots in the country where they knew wild crab apples grew, and with autumn closing
in fill baskets and in the big kitchen start to make jelly.
I can only remember the process in outline, having never
actually done it myself.
What brought this to mind is that in April this year I
bought a few small trees and planted them to form a visual break between my
freshly seeded lawn and a new chicken run - which still awaits its first
chickens....
The trees were only about two metres high, but in the
course of five months grew another metre - and, surprise, surprise, after a
beautiful white flowering the
crab apple tree bore some small apples. Couldn't believe it! Beautiful!
This will give you some idea. Picture taken yesterday: the decaying effects of autumn beginning to show.
It looks a bit droopy, but a close up will show that there were dozens of
little apples:
evidence of astounding nature at work.
Well, just look below.
The apples were very small - about a ½ inch (12.5 mm) diameter and I wondered if they
could possibly produce jelly? And I had another concern - sensitive soul that I
am - if I picked them and the end product was useless would I deprive birds of
potential food during
the coming winter?
Via the internet I discovered that birds only eat hard little crab apples as a last
resort, and as I noticed their quality was beginning to deteriorate I
decided to experiment.
I searched for a recipe and found it here.
What I needed, I was told, was
Crab apples, up to 4lbs
1 lemon
Sugar, 1lb per pint of cooked apple juice
Cinnamon stick (optional)
plus the usual large cooking pot & jam jars.
This was my small crop - only 3 lbs when I got rid of leaves and small branches.
Very healthy looking! Would it work?
I crunched up the apples in a blender and put them in a large pot along with a couple of inches of water. I added a whole lemon cut in quarters and gently brought the mixture to a boil - maintained for an hour.
It looked a right old sludge as I suspended it over a bowl in a dishcloth to
drain overnight.
(No muslin available. How do you like my bulldog clip suspension system?)
Not much to show for my work.
A half-pint of juice!
Hardly worthwhile I thought.
But I proceeded, more in hope than expectation, adding a half-pound of sugar and a cinnamon stick wrapped in a piece of dishcloth - again no muslin!
I only had to boil the mixture for 15 minutes - that rolling boil is something - before a cold plate test indicated that the mixture was setting.
So I poured the mixture into my solitary jar as it began to clog together! Pectin, pectin, pectin! The wee nutty apples must have been packed with it!
A lot of work for a half-pound of Crab Apple Jelly!
BUT - I tell you - it is gorgeous!
Not quite as good as the stuff I remember, because, I believe, the thick dishcloth containing my cinnamon stick did not allow this flavour to come through.
However. Not bad. I will try again - with more and bigger crab apples. Next year and the year after?
Creative comments and advice by Email welcome.
(I suppose a Blog would make it easier - but everybody is blogging away and this
is just a simple little Diary.)