- I started by cleaning and de-stemming all the crab apples (takes years).
- Boil crab apples until soft and mushy, about 90 min.
- Strain through a colander to get rid of the seeds, and push through as much juice and mash as possible.
- Weigh out your mash and juice. This particular recipe calls for 1:1 fruit to sugar ratio, so if you have 1kg mash, you add 1kg sugar.
- Then put the pot on low (LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW) heat and watch it like a hawk for the next 8 hours or so.
- Ok, to be fair, the first 2 hours aren't that crucial, but once you start thickening up, you need to be there to stir every 20-30 minutes to make sure its not beginning to stick on the bottom.
- It will slowly darken and start to appear translucent.
- The trick is take it off while it looks like slightly chunky crude oil. Feel free to do the frozen plate test to check for its jamminess, but it takes like 24 hours for it to set up properly.
- After taking it off, I poured it into a pan lined with parchment paper, put some clingfilm on the top - touching the top so it doesn't form a skin - and let it set at room temp for a day
- Then cut and enjoy! Tastes like a delightful mix between crab apple jelly and cranberry sauce. Delish with all sort of cheese, especially stronger blues and aged cheddar.
