Okay, as Doris Pinks named dropped, here is my recipe which has been very successful and my love takes it by the crate full to work for the lads. They have it on toast, in their sandwiches and the clever wives use it in cooking. It is great when making a chilli or a spag bol, in fact, I add it to most tomato sauce based dishes. It is also fabulous smeared over pizza base before adding the tomato sauce.
The recipe has no measurements.
A sack full of apples. I use whatever I have from the trees on my allotment, one is an eater, one a cooker and I mix. When I have needed to make more out of apple season, I pick up whatever apples are available on the cheap counter in the supermarket.
A handfull of chillis, as many as you like to make it as hot as you like.
Chop up the apples, skins, pips the lot and put in a huge pan. Add water, just enough to cover the fruit and cook for 30 or 40 minutes until you have a pan of apple pulp. If worried about the set, then I add a lemon or 2, just cut in half and chucked in to the apples. It also keeps the apple pulp slightly clearer rather than it discolouring. You can also bung a couple of good hot chillis in with this mush to cook, again, just cut in half. The resulting liquid will be infused and warming, but watch your eyes and lips, if using scotch bonnets for example, it will BURN!
I then pour this pulp firstly through a course seive, then the course liquid goes through a jelly bag or muslin. It is up to you if you want to give the bag a squeeze - it depends how clear you want it. I am impatient and squeeze. I do try to do this first stage in the afternoon so I can leave the bag to drip overnight.
I use one pound of sugar for every pint of liquid. Add the liquid back into a huge pan and bring to a rolling boil, take it off the heat and stir in the sugar stirring until it is all dissolved. Now add the chillis. You can chop them, mince them, leave them chunky, it is up to you. I leave the seeds in as I want it powerful. The heat is up to you. You can always test a little towards the end of cooking and if you want it hotter, then you can add some more. With the chillis in I now bring it back to a rolling boil, stick the themometer in and begin to stir and watch it like a hawk until it reaches setting point. Once there I bottle immediately into sterile warm jars and seal them. You can poke a couple of whole chillis in for effect if you like. The chillis will all float to the top, unless you have put in hundreds, so after an hour or 2 I give each jar a shake to encorporate the chillis throughout. I keep doing this until they stay put in the jelly. You should have a clear pinkish coloured jelly speckled with chilli flesh. It looks great if you use all different colour chillis.
I can't make enough to keep up with demand and have to hide some for me as the old man would steal the lot and take it to work. I have never had it not set even without using lemons. In fact sometimes it has set almost to firmly and it has been a bugger to spread! This is my most favourite preserve, with curried rhubarb chutney and Supersprouts green tomato mango chutney coming a close second.
