Crabapple jelly is not only excellent as a spread on toast or with cheese, it is a delicious alternative to cranberry jelly served with holiday meals.
Ingredients
- 2-3 kilograms ripe crabapples
- about 5 cups sugar
- about ½ cup lemon juice
Directions
- Wash crabapples; stem and chop coarsely; leave peels on.
- In a deep, wide pot, bring crabapples to a boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally, until crabapples have softened.
- Strain softened crabapples through cheesecloth; to extract the most juice, hang over a bowl for 2 hours or overnight.
- Measure resulting juice; pour into a deep, wide, non-reactive post.
- Measure one cup of sugar, and one tablespoon of lemon juice, for every cup of crabapple juice; set aside.
- Bring crabapple juice to a boil; pour in sugar and lemon juice; return to a rolling boil and continue boiling until the jelly begins to set.
- Skim off any foam.
- Ladle into sterilized jars; will keep in the fridge for several weeks.
- Follow contemporary food safety guidelines for water bath processing if you intend to store jars on the shelf.
Adapted from Sarah B. Hood, We Sure Can (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2011).