Crab apple recipes?

[caroline7758]

I have a golden hornet crab apple which has loads of fruit on it this year and wonder what I can do with it. When I say loads, it's not a very big tree, planted about 5 yrs ago, but enough to do something with.

[caroline7758]

[Jayb]

I love crab apple jelly  :)

[jennym]

I make crab apple jelly like this roughly:
Wash and chop the crab apples in half (this is so you can see and discard any with nasties inside), fill your pan, only just cover the apples with water and a peeled lemon per kg of apple. Bring to the boil, then turn down and simmer very gently on a very low gas for about an hour with lid on. Allow to cool a bit, then drain through sieve. Finally drain the juice  through wet cloth (sterilised) placed over sieve to clarify. Weigh the juice and add same amount of sugar. Bring to boil and boil until a cold ladle dipped in and pulled out has a good jellified curtain of drips hanging from it. Then jar.
If you want to do any herb jellies with the crab apple, you need to use fairly strong fresh herbs, and lots of them, as the appley taste of crabs can overpower the herbs. sage works quite well, as does mint. These should be boiled along with the apples, at the very start of the procedure. I like to have crab apple jelly just as it is though.

[caroline7758]

Thanks, that sounds yummy! How do i know when they are ready to pick?

[Jeannine]

Carolyn, you can make them into fruit for pies, just remove the seeds but leave the skins on, slice very thin  and use a bit more sugar and an dash of cinnamon,it works really well. Also I do them whole in a sweet flavoured syrup, they go very well with meats, as you would use apple sauce, the syrup can be hot and sweet ot tangy and sweet. I will post a picture of a jar if you wish XX Jeannine

[Digeroo]

I don't bother to cut mine - I expect my jelly has added protein ;D 

I put mine in pressure cooker with water and zap for 10-15 mins and then allowed to cool and pass through a muslin bag.  It is important not to squeeze the bag because then the jelly becomes cloudy.   Actually the cloudy jelly has a better taste and there is obviously more of it.  I like it with blackberry as well.  I tried various last year and think that the sage tasted the best.  Rosemary seems to taste like cough medicine.  I put my herbs in very late when they were put into the jar and left them in.  They look rather attractive in the finished jelly.

A quince from a sidonia japonica tree can also add a very interesting flavour, but needs quite a lot of cooking to soften it up even in the pressure cooker.

[kypfer]

Last year I made Medlar and Crab Apple Jelly - it was very popular at Christmas  :D - using approx 4 parts medlars to one part apples - cooked strained then add sugar as usual ... first find your medlars  ;)

You can always just cook and strain the fruit then freeze the juice for use later. This can give you a chance to experiment with smaller quantities when things are a bit quieter.

[jennym]

Thanks, that sounds yummy! How do i know when they are ready to pick?

They're ready to pick around about the time that the first few start to fall from the tree. About now really.