Crab apple and herb or spice jelly

arnoldkrg

Deleted - double post

arnoldkrg

Heres a recipe for crab apple and rosemary jelly I have been using for years. I havent a clue where I found it. Quantities can be varied depending on how many crab apples you have found.

1Kg/2lb 4 oz Crab Apples
Water
Fresh Rosemary Sprigs
White Wine Vinegar
White Sugar

Wash and chop apples small. Put in a pan and cover with water. Cook until mushy and soft, adding more water if necessary. When soft turn into a jelly bag and leave to drip overnight.

Heat the liquid in a pan, add rosemary (I usually add a fair sized bunch) and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and stand for 20 minutes. Strain the liquid.

For every 600ml(1pint) of liquid, add 150ml(1/4pint) white wine vinegar. Mix then, for every 600ml(1pint) of mixture, add 450g(1lb) of sugar

Reheat liquid and add the warmed sugar, stirring until dissolved. Bring to boil and boil rapidly until a set is obtained. This takes a little longer than normal because of the vinegar. (test for a set using a teaspoon of jelly on a cold saucer) Skim.

Wash and dry the remaining Rosemary. When the jelly has cooled (but not set), half fill sterilised jars. Let it set a bit. Then stand sprigs of Rosemary in the jars. Top up with jelly. Seal when set.

Some notes:

No need to core, destalk or peel the crab apples. But cut off any bad bits. I use a potato chipper to chop the apples...saves ages of time.
Lasts for ages when sealed.
Excellent with roast lamb and pork
Use a jelly bag to strain liquid because this gives you a nice clear jelly when finished. Do not be tempted to squeeze the jelly bag to hasten the process or your jelly will be cloudy
No pectin needed, crab apples have plenty of their own.

zcrat41

After taking ages to make crab apple jelly for the first time it hasn't blimming set. It's all jarred up but looks like jars of water.

I used a waitrose recipe of 10 parts strained juice to 7 parts sugar. I did the ratio via weight - was that wrong?!

Any ideas if its saveable? It's such a pretty pink colour I'll be gutted if it doesn't work!

Thanks

ZC

katieowl_2

Never done it by weight? It's 1pint juice to 1 lb sugar, and it would be pretty unusual for crab apple not to set, as it's got loads of pectin in?

Is it actually cold yet? Because a real jelly does this kind of weird falling away from the side of the jar thing rather than setting like a 'jelly and icecream' type of jelly.

Kate

zcrat41

Ah, thanks Kate. It's cooling down at the moment so I should probably not get too worried. I've never made jelly before - only jam and I've always got it right!

The waitrose recipe said it didn't matter if you did it by weight or by volume but I like your ratio - easy to remember! I have another bag so may have another go if it sets and I like it!!

zcrat41

Oh no. I waited and waited but my jelly hasn't set.

Is there any point in tipping it out of the jars and reboiling it or is it doomed?!

babyshoes

We have sucessfully re-boiled jam and jelly, though the flavour tends to be reduced. Do you have any crab apples left? You can do a new batch with less water, then mix in the stuff from your jars. We find that using a comination of a sugar thermometer and the saucer test works for us - the thermometer gets us to the right ballpark, and the saucer test gets it right.

Has it not set at all, or is it just really sloppy? Jelly doesn't want to be too firm I have found, if you can scoop *some* up with a knife it is probably ok. I would rather have sloppy jelly than really firm jelly which is difficult to spread!

zcrat41

Thanks babyshoes. I have a ton more apples so good idea about making some more with less water. I shall try that.

They're like jars of water! I used a sugar thermometer which always seems to work well with jam for me but I also get a good "feel" for jam. Maybe I just need to practice more!

babyshoes

Hmm, does seem odd that it hasn't set if you used the thermometer. Can only assume that it had too much water in it to start with.

meritaten

its just a thought - is jam and jelly setting point the same on a thermometer? did you do a saucer test?