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Apple and Currant Jelly
See Currants.
CRAB APPLE JELLY No. I Make as for Apple Jelly, using a little more water. Do not pare or core the crab apples.
CRAB APPLE JELLY No. 2 Wash and wipe the apples; cut in half and place in crock on the back of the stove or the oven, setting in another vessel of hot water if there is danger of too great heat. When the apples are soft place in jelly bag to drain over night. Measure this juice and allow one pint of sugar to one of juice. Boil and skim the juice ten minutes before adding the heated sugar. Stir till dissolved, then boil eight or ten minutes. This makes a very tart jelly, stronger than many people like. Mint may be used to flavour this to serve with mutton or lamb.
CRAB APPLE JELLY No. 3 Use half and half of crab apples and Maiden's Blush apples, and make as for apple jelly. Or substitute for the Maiden's Blush black- or huckle- or raspberries, cherries, or pineapple juice.
CRAB APPLE JELLY No. 4 See Plum Jelly No. 2. Or for the wild plum substitute wild grape.
CRAB APPLE JELLY No. 5 Use equal parts of crab apples and Maiden's Blush, and allow for each quart or pound of the cut fruit the juice and thin-peeled rind of one lemon. Proceed as above. Cassia buds and cinnamon is an old-fashioned variation of flavouring, or ginger root, which by some is considered excellent with crab apple. Use one or two sticks and one or two buds or one ounce ginger to each quart of juice; simmer twenty minutes, skimming, before adding sugar.
A cluster of crab apple jelly variations from the apple chapter, written for cooks who knew jelly-making by feel. The essentials are sound; the vocabulary and the sealing method need translating.
- No pectin neededCrab apples are among the most pectin-rich fruits there is, which is why no commercial pectin appears here. Underripe fruit has more pectin than fully ripe; a mix of the two gives the best set and flavour.
- Don't pare or coreThe skins, cores and pips carry much of the pectin and colour. Wash and wipe the fruit and cut in half, as No. 2 directs.
- "Back of the stove"This means the coolest part of a wood range — a long, gentle extraction rather than a hard boil. On a modern hob use the lowest setting, or cover and cook in a 300F oven until the fruit collapses, an hour or more. The double-boiler advice in No. 2 is guarding against scorching.
- The jelly bagDraining overnight is not fussiness. Squeezing or pressing the bag forces pulp and starch through and gives cloudy jelly. Let gravity do it and accept the lower yield.
- "A pint of sugar to a pint of juice"Sugar is measured by volume, not weight: one pint of granulated sugar is about 14 oz / 400 g, and one pint of juice is 2 cups. Roughly a cup of sugar per cup of juice, so slightly less sugar by weight than a strict 1:1.
- Heating the sugarWarming the sugar in a low oven before it goes in keeps the boil from stalling, so the jelly reaches setting point faster and stays bright. Worth doing.
- Judging the setThe stated eight to ten minutes is a guide only. Test on a chilled saucer, or use a thermometer and look for 220F at sea level, adding about 1F less for each 500 feet of altitude.
- Maiden's BlushAn old American early-season apple, mildly acid and good for cooking, still grown by heritage orchards but not sold in supermarkets. Any firm tart cooking apple stands in — Bramley, Granny Smith, Northern Spy.
- Cassia budsThe small dried immature fruits of the cassia tree, usually sold as 'buds', available from spice merchants and Chinese groceries. If none are to hand, a cinnamon stick alone carries the same idea, though the buds are sharper and more floral.
- SealingThe recipe says nothing about sealing; jelly of this period was commonly finished with paraffin wax, which is no longer recommended — wax cracks and lets in mould. Use current practice: hot jelly into sterilised jars, two-piece lids, and a boiling-water bath of 5 to 10 minutes.
Crab apples were a common hedgerow and dooryard fruit in nineteenth-century North America — too sour and astringent to eat out of hand, but high enough in pectin and acid to set into jelly with little effort, and household manuals of the period often carried more than one version. The variations here show crab apple used as the reliable pectin base, with another apple such as Maiden's Blush, or a handful of berries, cherries or grapes, added for colour and flavour. The mint version to serve with mutton or lamb belongs to the same tradition as mint sauce and redcurrant jelly, where a sharp sweet preserve cuts the fat of the roast. Cassia buds, which this book itself calls an old-fashioned flavouring, were a familiar spice-box item earlier in the century.