On a recent walk in Madison we spotted one of the biggest crab apple trees I have ever seen, which was loaded with a bumper crop of fruit all deep red, and pleading to be used for jelly. The owner of the tree said that there was no one else who had any interest in the apples, so with that we started picking the small fruit. From there the process unfolded over a couple of days, and included 43 pounds of sugar (not a typo) and produced over 50 pints of jelly. And to imagine that we picked only a small portion of the fruit that there was to be had from the tree!
Pick two regular shopping bags (doubled up would likely be best) full of crab apples-alone this can take up to two hours, but as a team the work becomes much easier. Fill the bags right up, don’t be stingy; if they seem too heavy to carry, that’s the right way to fill them.
Bring the bags home, wash the apples well. In the good ole days, one would have sat and with a knife removed the stem and opposite end of each apple before cooking. We have discovered that it really doesn’t make any difference in the flavor so why go to the extra expense of time.
Put apples into large canners to cook. (The pot above was in James’ family since the 1950’s and is one of those old pots that has character as a result of all the jelly making over the years!)Add water to canners, just up to the level where you can see it. Boil apples about 5 to 10 minutes until they seemingly fall apart into sauce. Remove from heat and cool.
Get the following tools ready…
…an old pillow case that has served as a jelly strainer since you can’t remember when and an empty canner which was likely given to your mother by a loving aunt or her own grandmother many years before; this canner will catch the juice. You will also need a rod to hang a heavy bag from, two sturdy chairs, scissors and some twine. If you are doing all of this in the kitchen, putting down a bit of plastic to make sure you don’t make a real mess is also somewhat advisable.
In the middle of your plastic sheeting, place the old canner. On either side of the canner, place the two sturdy chairs with the rod balanced between them. Put the opened pillow case strainer in the canner and add the boiled apples. Gather the top of the pillow case and tie securely with some twine. With more twine, suspend the bag in mid air above the canner so that the weight of the apples will force the juice out with the help of gravity. Let hang over night.
The following day, remove the canner and the juice to the stove. Cut free the pillow case, discard the apple mash and clean up.
Measure carefully the amount of juice that you have, calculate the amount of sugar and pectin needed to make the jelly. For every seven cups of juice use 9 cups of sugar and one box of pectin. In this case we had: 66 cups of juice, 42.5 pounds of sugar, 12 boxes of pectin.
Bring juice to a boil and add dry ingredients. Bring to a rolling boil and hold there for 1 minute. Remove from heat and fill jars immediately.
Be sure that your jars are submerged in hot water, as well as the lids and rings, before adding the boiling hot liquid jelly. This will prevent dangerous breakage. To seal, invert the jar for up to 30 minutes, then right the jar. You will hear the jars begin to “pop” as the seal takes hold. Cover jars with tea towels so that the heat does not escape too quickly.
Yields: over 50 pints-though you can make smaller batches!
Technorati Tags: CrabAppleJellyRecipe, Madison, Wisconsin, CrabApples
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