Have a few small crab apple trees with a lovely blossom in Spring but
I dread the idea of all the apples falling at the end of the year, so
I cut off many branches to keep them small. However it turns out the
crabs don't drop their apples and the wildlife is having a field day
feasting on them, especially during the snow.

You live and learn.

lloyd writes
Have a few small crab apple trees with a lovely blossom in Spring but
I dread the idea of all the apples falling at the end of the year, so
I cut off many branches to keep them small. However it turns out the
crabs don't drop their apples and the wildlife is having a field day
feasting on them, especially during the snow.

Why do you dread the idea of them falling?

Presumably you know that you can make a very nice fruit jelly from crab
apples, to serve with fatty meats, or just to eat like jam? Made in the
usual fashion - boil the crabs till very soft, then strain through a
fine cloth or use a fruit press to extract juice, add 1lb sugar for
every pint of juice, boil until a small drop on a cold plate wrinkles
when you push it gently with your finger, then put into jars
immediately.
--
Kay

On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 12:13:08 +0000, K wrote:

lloyd writes
Have a few small crab apple trees with a lovely blossom in Spring but
I dread the idea of all the apples falling at the end of the year, so
I cut off many branches to keep them small. However it turns out the
crabs don't drop their apples and the wildlife is having a field day
feasting on them, especially during the snow.

Why do you dread the idea of them falling?

Ignorance. The mess in my oh so perfect garden, oh so perfect world.
But you're right, who cares. I caught on soon enough that this land is
not ours and we should share whatever we have. Now I reap the blessing
of the wildlife feeding to live on what I considered a nuisance. How
blind was I!

Presumably you know that you can make a very nice fruit jelly from crab
apples, to serve with fatty meats,

No meats for me.

or just to eat like jam?

A sweet tooth I have.

Made in the
usual fashion - boil the crabs

How many would you suggest for say, one jar?

till very soft, then strain through a
fine cloth or use a fruit press to extract juice,

Would a juicer do this?

add 1lb sugar for
every pint of juice, boil until a small drop on a cold plate wrinkles
when you push it gently with your finger, then put into jars
immediately.

Thank you for that lovely recipe. This year I shall dedicate one of my
trees to this task and will call it K Jelly. Yum yum.

Two tasks already on my list for this year. Planted toms and crab
apple jam.

lloyd writes
On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 12:13:08 +0000, K wrote:

. I caught on soon enough that this land is
not ours and we should share whatever we have. Now I reap the blessing
of the wildlife feeding to live on what I considered a nuisance. How
blind was I!

Once you become interested in the invertebrate and fungal life of the
garden as well as the plants and birds, you start looking at plant
debris with different eyes (and have more time to do more enjoyable
things in the garden)

Presumably you know that you can make a very nice fruit jelly from crab
apples, to serve with fatty meats,

No meats for me.

Cheese? Good with that too.

or just to eat like jam?

A sweet tooth I have.

Use it in puddings, cakes, tarts, mix it with yoghurt, spoon it on to
rice pudding.

Made in the
usual fashion - boil the crabs

How many would you suggest for say, one jar?

In theory, a 1lb jam jar would need half a pound of sugar and half a
pint of juice, from perhaps 1lb of crabs. But it's easier to make
jam/jellies with larger quantities. Suggest you collect a couple of
pounds of crabs at the least, and just accept you are making more jelly
than you need. You can always give a pot or two away.

till very soft, then strain through a
fine cloth or use a fruit press to extract juice,

Would a juicer do this?

I don't know. We did try a juicer to get the juice from medlars, but it
was hopeless - medlars just don't have that much juice. So I went back
to the traditional 'cover with boiling water and boil till soft method',
but that made it easy to use the fruit press, so I didn't bother with
the juicer.

Traditional method is to up-end a tall stool, take a square of muslin or
similar fine cloth and tie it to the 4 legs, and place a pan underneath
to catch the drips. Dump in the cooked fruit pulp and leave it to drip
overnight. You can help it along a bit by putting a large plate on top
and stacking some weights on the plate.


Thank you for that lovely recipe.

It's the basic recipe for all fruits and jams. Step 1 - extract the
juice and the flavour using as little added water as you can get away
with (much easier with, say, raspberries or mulberries). Step 2) - if
you want a jelly - strain the juice. If you want a jam, don't bother
Step 3) add sugar 1lb to 1 pt and boil.

When boiling, first there's a long period with the juice at 100deg C as
you boil off all that added water, then the sugar solution can start
moving to a higher temperature until it gets to the jam stage - leave it
boiling too long and it will turn into toffee. You might feel more
confident to begin with with a jam thermometer, though I find the
wrinkle test a lot easier, and you will also get a feel for the
temperature from the consistency and colour. And use as big a pan as you
can - it's best to boil it quite fast, and if you do, it will have about
4inches of froth on top at one stage. If your pan is not large enough,
then you'll have to boil more gently and keep a much closer eye on it.

As well as crabs, you can make a jelly from rowan berries or japanese
quince, or elderberries. Or rosehips if you strain well enough to get
rid of the hairs.

This year I shall dedicate one of my
trees to this task and will call it K Jelly.

Don't mix it up with the very similarly named product ;-)

--
Kay

On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 13:35:17 +0000, K wrote:

lloyd writes
On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 12:13:08 +0000, K wrote:

. I caught on soon enough that this land is
not ours and we should share whatever we have. Now I reap the blessing
of the wildlife feeding to live on what I considered a nuisance. How
blind was I!

Once you become interested in the invertebrate and fungal life of the
garden as well as the plants and birds, you start looking at plant
debris with different eyes (and have more time to do more enjoyable
things in the garden)

Presumably you know that you can make a very nice fruit jelly from crab
apples, to serve with fatty meats,

No meats for me.

Cheese? Good with that too.

or just to eat like jam?

A sweet tooth I have.

Use it in puddings, cakes, tarts, mix it with yoghurt, spoon it on to
rice pudding.

Made in the
usual fashion - boil the crabs

How many would you suggest for say, one jar?

In theory, a 1lb jam jar would need half a pound of sugar and half a
pint of juice, from perhaps 1lb of crabs. But it's easier to make
jam/jellies with larger quantities. Suggest you collect a couple of
pounds of crabs at the least, and just accept you are making more jelly
than you need. You can always give a pot or two away.

till very soft, then strain through a
fine cloth or use a fruit press to extract juice,

Would a juicer do this?

I don't know. We did try a juicer to get the juice from medlars, but it
was hopeless - medlars just don't have that much juice. So I went back
to the traditional 'cover with boiling water and boil till soft method',
but that made it easy to use the fruit press, so I didn't bother with
the juicer.

Traditional method is to up-end a tall stool, take a square of muslin or
similar fine cloth and tie it to the 4 legs, and place a pan underneath
to catch the drips. Dump in the cooked fruit pulp and leave it to drip
overnight. You can help it along a bit by putting a large plate on top
and stacking some weights on the plate.


Thank you for that lovely recipe.

It's the basic recipe for all fruits and jams. Step 1 - extract the
juice and the flavour using as little added water as you can get away
with (much easier with, say, raspberries or mulberries). Step 2) - if
you want a jelly - strain the juice. If you want a jam, don't bother
Step 3) add sugar 1lb to 1 pt and boil.

When boiling, first there's a long period with the juice at 100deg C as
you boil off all that added water, then the sugar solution can start
moving to a higher temperature until it gets to the jam stage - leave it
boiling too long and it will turn into toffee. You might feel more
confident to begin with with a jam thermometer, though I find the
wrinkle test a lot easier, and you will also get a feel for the
temperature from the consistency and colour. And use as big a pan as you
can - it's best to boil it quite fast, and if you do, it will have about
4inches of froth on top at one stage. If your pan is not large enough,
then you'll have to boil more gently and keep a much closer eye on it.

As well as crabs, you can make a jelly from rowan berries or japanese
quince, or elderberries. Or rosehips if you strain well enough to get
rid of the hairs.

Thank you very much, that's opened up a whole new world in my garden.

This year I shall dedicate one of my
trees to this task and will call it K Jelly.

Don't mix it up with the very similarly named product ;-)

Especially on the cheese!!

lloyd wrote:
On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 12:13:08 +0000, K wrote:

Presumably you know that you can make a very nice fruit jelly from crab
apples, to serve with fatty meats,

No meats for me.

Exellent on hot buttered toast! (Etc)

or just to eat like jam?

A sweet tooth I have.

Made in the
usual fashion - boil the crabs

How many would you suggest for say, one jar?

till very soft, then strain through a
fine cloth or use a fruit press to extract juice,

Would a juicer do this?

No. You need to cook the whole apple including pips, or you might not
get enough pectin.

add 1lb sugar for
every pint of juice, boil until a small drop on a cold plate wrinkles
when you push it gently with your finger, then put into jars
immediately.

Thank you for that lovely recipe. This year I shall dedicate one of my
trees to this task and will call it K Jelly. Yum yum.

Two tasks already on my list for this year. Planted toms and crab
apple jam.

If you can get hold of any sort of quince, one or two of the Japanese
types or one oblongata will add a delicate flavour to the jelly.

Same goes for making stewed apple.

--
Rusty

On Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:20:32 +0000, Rusty Hinge
wrote:

lloyd wrote:
On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 12:13:08 +0000, K wrote:

Presumably you know that you can make a very nice fruit jelly from crab
apples, to serve with fatty meats,

No meats for me.

Exellent on hot buttered toast! (Etc)

mmmmm

or just to eat like jam?

A sweet tooth I have.

Made in the
usual fashion - boil the crabs

How many would you suggest for say, one jar?

till very soft, then strain through a
fine cloth or use a fruit press to extract juice,

Would a juicer do this?

No. You need to cook the whole apple including pips, or you might not
get enough pectin.

Yes of course. I recall I had this trouble when I was making jam in a
breadmaker of all things, best strawberry jam ever, though a bit
runny..

I wonder when they make jams etc commercially do they wash the fruits
properly?

lloyd wrote:
/snip/

get enough pectin.

Yes of course. I recall I had this trouble when I was making jam in a
breadmaker of all things, best strawberry jam ever, though a bit
runny..

Strawberry jam can be like that. Use no water, and start-off slowly so
as not to burn them, or caramelise the sugar.

I wonder when they make jams etc commercially do they wash the fruits
properly?

Dunno - but you can taste the citric acid they all add.

--
Rusty

Rusty Hinge writes

till very soft, then strain through a fine cloth or use a fruit
press to extract juice,
Would a juicer do this?

No. You need to cook the whole apple including pips, or you might not
get enough pectin.

That's not a problem, since you don't strain or juice until after
cooking, so you already have picked up the pectin.


If you can get hold of any sort of quince, one or two of the Japanese
types or one oblongata will add a delicate flavour to the jelly.

You don't need that for crab apple jelly as they have a fine enough
flavour on their own - indeed, I'm not sure the aromatic flavour of the
quince would go that well with the sharpness of the crab. But quince is
an excellent idea for adding to jam made from dessert or cooking apples.

--
Kay

K wrote:
Rusty Hinge writes

till very soft, then strain through a fine cloth or use a fruit
press to extract juice,
Would a juicer do this?

No. You need to cook the whole apple including pips, or you might not
get enough pectin.

That's not a problem, since you don't strain or juice until after
cooking, so you already have picked up the pectin.

The whole idea of a juice-extractor is to extract the juice before
cooking, if any.

If you can get hold of any sort of quince, one or two of the Japanese
types or one oblongata will add a delicate flavour to the jelly.

You don't need that for crab apple jelly as they have a fine enough
flavour on their own - indeed, I'm not sure the aromatic flavour of the
quince would go that well with the sharpness of the crab. But quince is
an excellent idea for adding to jam made from dessert or cooking apples.

Certainly improves some crab apple jelly - especially the little green
ones which grow round here.

--
Rusty

"lloyd" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Jan 2010 12:13:08 +0000, K wrote:

lloyd writes
Have a few small crab apple trees with a lovely blossom in Spring but
I dread the idea of all the apples falling at the end of the year, so
I cut off many branches to keep them small. However it turns out the
crabs don't drop their apples and the wildlife is having a field day
feasting on them, especially during the snow.

Why do you dread the idea of them falling?

Ignorance. The mess in my oh so perfect garden, oh so perfect world.
But you're right, who cares. I caught on soon enough that this land is
not ours and we should share whatever we have. Now I reap the blessing
of the wildlife feeding to live on what I considered a nuisance. How
blind was I!

Presumably you know that you can make a very nice fruit jelly from crab
apples, to serve with fatty meats,

No meats for me.

THAT explains everything!

On Sat, 2 Jan 2010 12:08:30 +0000, Malcolm
wrote:


In article , K
writes
lloyd writes
Have a few small crab apple trees with a lovely blossom in Spring but
I dread the idea of all the apples falling at the end of the year, so
I cut off many branches to keep them small. However it turns out the
crabs don't drop their apples and the wildlife is having a field day
feasting on them, especially during the snow.

Why do you dread the idea of them falling?

Presumably you know that you can make a very nice fruit jelly from crab
apples, to serve with fatty meats, or just to eat like jam? Made in the
usual fashion - boil the crabs till very soft, then strain through a
fine cloth or use a fruit press to extract juice, add 1lb sugar for
every pint of juice, boil until a small drop on a cold plate wrinkles
when you push it gently with your finger, then put into jars immediately.

Crab apples are a rich source of pectin which will help other jams and
jellies to set. Some neighbours who make jams and jellies for sale come
each autumn and take a boxful away from our small but prolific tree to
use in this way.

Some fruits have enough pectin of their own not to need additional, like
blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and most plums, but others,
like blackberries, strawberries and rhubarb need to have pectin added -
unless you like runny jam and jelly, that is!

Yum yum.