How to make Crab Apple Jelly

This jelly is delicious both as a sweet treat for toast, or flavoured with rosemary to accompany a Sunday Roast

We’ve borrowed this recipe from BBC Good Food- a brilliant website stuffed with great recipes to try. Crab apples are always plentiful this time of year- especially because no one really knows what to do with them. This jelly is delicious both as a sweet treat for toast, or flavoured with rosemary to accompany a Sunday Roast. So get outside right this instant, grab an armful of crab apples, and make some jelly! You can use old sauce and jam jars- clean them up and sterilize them by filling with boiling water. If you don’t have a jelly bag or muslin for straining, a clean old t-shirt should also do the job.

Ingredients

  • 4 kg crab apples
  • 1 kg caster sugar
  • 1 lemon, juiced
  • Makes 6 x 500ml jars - or use these proportions.

Method

  1. Wash the apples, removing any bruised fruit. Put in a saucepan, fill with water to just cover the apples.
  2. Bring to the boil and simmer until the fruit is soft (about 30 minutes).
  3. Pour the pulp into a jelly bag or several layers of muslin and let drip overnight into a pan. Do NOT squeeze the bag or it will make the juice cloudy.
  4. The next day, measure the juice, and add sugar in the ratio of 10 parts juice to 7 of sugar. Add some lemon juice, then bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
  5. Keep at a rolling boil for 40 minutes, skimming off the froth. To test the set, chill a dessertspoon in the refrigerator.
  6. When the jelly is set, it will solidify on the back of the spoon. Pour into warm, sterilised preserving jars and tightly seal while still slightly warm. Store in a cool dark place