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Crab Apple Preserve
Parboil the crab apples, preparing them by coring the unpeeled larger ones and leaving the smaller ones as they are, stems, cores, and skin. Place the parboiled fruit in syrup prepared for apple preserves. Cook carefully a few minutes that the fruit may not fall to pieces. Proceed as with apple preserves. A little lemon or ginger flavouring will be an improvement or one-third part of orange, pineapple, barberry, or almost any berry or citrus preserve.
A short, elliptical recipe that assumes you have already read the author's apple preserve entry, since it borrows the syrup and the finishing from it. The hinge is heat control: crab apples hold their shape only if the syrup barely trembles.
- The syrup is not specifiedThe original sends you to "syrup prepared for apple preserves," which this page does not reproduce. Period apple preserve syrups usually run about a pound of sugar to a pint of water, sometimes pound-for-pound with the fruit; treat any figure as an estimate rather than a conversion of the text.
- Parboiling means barely tenderSimmer the fruit in plain water only until a skewer meets slight resistance, a few minutes for small crabs. Fully softened apples will collapse the moment they hit hot syrup, which is exactly what the recipe warns against.
- Keep the syrup below a boilKeep the syrup gentle -- "Cook carefully a few minutes" is the only guidance given, and it points to a slow simmer rather than a hard boil; the text says nothing about stirring or standing time, but moving the pan rather than working a spoon through the fruit is the safer way to keep whole crab apples intact.
- Stems and cores are deliberateLeaving small crab apples whole with stems attached is traditional, and the stem doubles as a handle at the table. If cores put you off, core the larger fruit as directed and accept that the little ones will contain seeds.
- Which crab applesCooking varieties such as Dolgo, Transcendent or Whitney behave best; purely ornamental crabs can be woody and astringent. Crab apples are notably high in acid and pectin, which is part of why they suit preserving, though this recipe is whole fruit in syrup rather than a jelly and no set is called for.
- Barberry is the odd flavouringBarberry preserve was a common pantry item in this period and is now rare in North America, partly because the shrub was eradicated as a wheat rust host. Redcurrant or cranberry gives a similar sharp red note.
- Yield and keepingThe recipe gives no quantities, so scale it to the fruit you have. The book also gives no processing instructions; for shelf storage follow a current tested water-bath canning procedure, or simply refrigerate and use within a few weeks.
Crab apples were the default hedge and dooryard fruit across northern Europe and, in the form of native American species and naturalised seedlings, across much of the eastern United States and Canada. Too sour and too small to eat out of hand, they were valuable precisely for what a preserve needs: acid, pectin and firm flesh that survives sugar. Whole preserved crab apples, stems on, appear in nineteenth-century cookbooks as a garnish for roast meats and as a relish alongside cold poultry. The instruction to blend in "one-third part of orange, pineapple, barberry, or almost any berry" reflects how such books were used: the syrup and method were fixed, and the household improvised with whatever was in the fruit closet.