Crab Apple Jelly help!

[HHazeldean]

So last night I went out and picked several kilos of crab apples, wacked them all in a pan and covered with water and boiled for a while (the recipe said this would soften them). I then poured the water away and mashed them a little with a masher then wacked the lot in a cotton tea towel over a pan (we've run out of muslin), getting very little residue this morning.

Was it a mistake to pour the initial water away? Or was it that a cotton tea towel is just totally unsuitable for this? Or is it just that the crab apples aren't ready yet? Where have I gone wrong so badly??

Any help would be very appreciated!

Thanks

 

[boatman]

From Bulletin 21 HMSO Home Preservation of Fruit and Vegetables (made Delicious crab apple jelly with this recipe)

Choose crab apples or cooking apples with a decided flavour, or add a flavouring such as ginger, cloves or lemon peel. Windfall apples can be used.
Wash and cut up the fruit. removing any bad portions; add just enough water to cover (2-3 pints of water to 4 lb of fruit) and simmer for about an hour. Strain the juice, test for pectin and measure the yield. Usually 1lb of sugar can be added to each pint of juice. Bring to the boil, reduce if necessary, add the sugar and boil rapidly until setting point is reached.

If spices, such as ginger, cloves or lemon peel are used to flavour they jelly should be cooked with the apples. If essences are used they should be added after the sugar has been dissolved, just before the setting point is reached.

This bulletin is a goldmine if you can get hold of a copy.

 

[British Red]

A cotton tea towel won't work well as a jelly bag - buy a jelly bag and stand (sub £10). Cotton will swell and clog.

Throwing the water away was a mistake - you don't need much water but its part of the recipe - indeed the pectin dissolves into the water.

Get them ripe, smoosh them, minimal water, sugar to taste, boil the living snot, drip through a nylon jelly bag.

 

[Toddy]

............and add some rowan berries

Guess who made Rowan and Apple jelly today ?

cheers,
M

 

[FGYT]

............and add some rowan berries

Guess who made Rowan and Apple jelly today ?

cheers,
M

jsut make Rowan Jelly loverly with Venison or if your me on toast