« | Not Paris »

When Life Hands You Crab Apples, Make Jelly

Crab Apple JellyI’m afraid this is going to be a bit rambling.  I started out last week all excited.  Lisa and I madly created this site and I wrote my first blog until 1 am Tuesday–putting aside everything else on hearing of Gourmet’s demise.  I was swept up in the euphoria one gets from doing something new, but as the week progressed I grew ever more morose and decidedly less euphoric:  I was out of a job.  In fact, I was out of the only real job I’d had all year.  Writing about being frugal–and getting paid for it–had been a lifeline and a focal point.  No more.  (Making matters worse was the fact that two software/website-designing friends, Mike Ross and Carl Trapani, took hours out of their non-spare time to help make the site look better.  Mike, in fact, loaded all my old columns/blogs from the old Gourmet site, even.)

Yes, we were being frugal because we had to be.  And I was writing about being frugal because I often/almost always write about the big undertakings in my life.  And, deciding to stop eating out and doing things like reusing a coffee filter 42 (43?) times and eating roadkill and raising chickens and going twenty-something days without spending any money (beyond paying old bills) is definitely a big undertaking.  But now what?  If I’m not getting paid for this and don’t feel right about trying to turn this into a commercial blog/website because I’d rather contribute to your frugality then what am I left with?

Being frugal.

That’s why I found myself bending 18-foot tall crab apple trees to eye-level so Lisa could snatch off as many crab apples as possible in the limited amount of time I could hold the trees down.  No, we’re not so desperate that we’re feeding the kids  crab apples but instead, we’re making jelly and canning it for our own consumption and to give away as presents.  Bending the trees down, therefore, was filling two needs at once: being frugal and keeping physically toned.  In fact, given how hard it was to hold them down after a minute or so, I’d recommend the exercise to anyone whose triceps need a little firming up.

It’s amazing how good crab apple jelly is.  I hadn’t bothered tasting it since I was a kid because I’d always been more than happy to shell out for store-made or farm-made jam, jelly and preserves.  There’d been no need.  What a shame.  It’s so good even my non-preserve-eating teenage girls like it.

Lisa found about six, conflicting recipes from various sources, including, among other places, the back of the box the jars came in, online, and the old Joy of Cooking (we couldn’t find canning in the new one but I bet if they were to release an all new version now like they did in 1997 [yes, it’s been that long] they’d include it; our local hardware store said they’d hadn’t sold anywhere near this year’s amount of canning supplies in many, many years).  Some recipes said you didn’t need to sterilize the jars, others suggested 20 minutes and yet others demanded 15 minutes before filling and 10 more after to seal them properly.  So, after trial and error and doing enough research to understand what each step was for, she went with sterilizing the jars for 10 minutes, washing the lids and not dipping them in the boiling water so as not to harm the rubbery seal, and then finishing them off in a boiling water bath for 10 more minutes–or long enough to have a vacuum seal.  You can tell if they’re properly sealed, we now understand, by pushing on the lid with your finger.  If you can’t depress it, then it’s probably properly sealed.  That’s just for making jelly.  It’s different for jams and preserves.  Of course.

Making the jelly was the easy part.  She boiled the crab apples (8 cups with enough water to cover the apples), for 10 minutes and then strained the juice through cheesecloth, being careful not to mush it or it will be cloudy.  Next, she brought this juice, about 4 cups, to a boil, added 3 cups sugar and reheated it to between 222 and 225 degrees over a medium high heat.  You can just stop at this point, like we did, but then you’ll have some jelled jelly and some liquid jelly, which, I guess, isn’t really jelly.  If you simmer it at this heat for a while longer, say 5-10 minutes for 4 cups of crab apple pre-jelly liquid, then nearly all of it ends up being jelly when cooled.  It also gets darker and tastier the longer you’re willing to cook it.  The cool/frugal thing about making crab apple jelly is that you don’t need to add pectin to thicken it.  In fact, some people make their own pectin from crab apples to use in other preserves.

I still can’t get over how tasty it is.  Here… smell.  Taste.  Good, huh?  And Lisa’s jelly looks so wonderful because she simmered it much longer than she had to, making it darker red and stronger tasting than it might otherwise have been.

Of course, it’d be a whole lot better if other members of our family besides Angus and me used jelly, jam, etc.,  but it’ll make beautiful presents in the short, wide jars Lisa recently found on sale.  Which brings me to the point of this blog (finally, some might say): one of the great things about being frugal is all the wonderful, low-cost, hand-crafted presents you come up with.

And here’s a boast for the ages:

Frugal people make great lovers (if you define a lover as someone who gives thoughtful, homemade presents to his/her friends, that is).

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 10:20 and is filed under Frugal presents, Making jelly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

18 Responses to “When Life Hands You Crab Apples, Make Jelly”

  1. Joanna says:
    Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 11:41

    Hodding, your post has me wishing for a crab apple tree. And really… good luck. You’re one of the few blogs I follow on a regular basis and I love reading about your adventures!

  2. Mike says:
    Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 13:25

    I’ll need a jar of crab-apple jelly for editing this, Hodding. ;)

  3. Christie says:
    Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 12:54

    I am glad to see this posting about crab apple jelly. We had a very beautiful crab apple tree in our side yard until the blizzard of 2003. It three 12″ trunks split from about 6 feet up to the ground during the night when the blizzard hit. I used to make wonderful crab apple jelly from it! It was so beautiful in the spring when it bloomed!

    Tell Lisa she can safely boil the lids for the jars for a few minutes. It will not harm the rubber seal. My mother, grandmother, Uncle Guice and I canned all summer long and into the fall from our three gardens. I miss doing that! Maybe when I get out of school I can do that again!

    There is a wonderful little booklet from the state of Alabama Cooperative Extension Service that you should get. It’s called “Food Preservation in Alabama”. Even though I live in Georgia I bought it at my county extension office about 25 years ago. My mother had one that was torn and tattered from use. It’s probably something that I threw away in my younger stupid years. I still have the copy I bought years ago. I’m sure it has been updated as it is still listed on the Alabama Cooperative Extension Service web site.

    You should really check out your County Extension Service. I’m sure they have publications about how to prevent blight on your potatoes and tomatoes. Also I had blossom end rot on my tomatoes. If I had put lime in the holes before I planted them it wouldn’t have happened. I learned this from Southern Living Magazine. All states have a cooperative extension service.

  4. Karin says:
    Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 14:29

    I recommend the Ball Blue Book for canning. The information included in this book is the most up to date from the USDA. It covers the basics of canning and is the bible on the subject. This book can be found at the hardware store where you bought your jars.

    The one problem I find with canning is that it becomes a bit of an obsession. Spring arrives and with it yard sale season. My hunt for canning jars begins in earnest at this time. I have been know to pay retail for the jars; but, there is a special thrill that comes with finding a box of dusty but perfectly fine canning jars under a table of second hand George Forman grills.

    Then there is the canning season. Everything that can be canned will be canned. One must worry about the longing looks given to FiFi and whether she should be processed at 15 pound of pressure for 30 minutes or 11 pound of pressure at 20 minutes. Fortunately, the warm weather and the steamy canner restore some sanity.

    At this time of year the canning jar supply has dwindled. There is still more apple sauce to make and and soup to cook. Idle hands and all that…

    Great Blog!

  5. fred s says:
    Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 16:07

    hodding - shoot me an email .
    -Fred

  6. MBinDC says:
    Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 16:53

    Hodding - followed you here from Gourmet. So glad you’re still frugalin’ and bloggin’ about it! Your posts were my favorite part of Gourmet.com, though I will certainly miss the rest.

  7. Mother Chaos says:
    Friday, October 16, 2009 at 18:45

    Gah. I’m sorry it kind of caught up with you; new project excitement makes for a great cushion against the pain of another project failing on you. Bummer it couldn’t have lasted a little longer for you…

    Hang in there. You’ll find a way to make it work - that is, after all, a big part of the frugal mindset. We find creative ways to use our time and talents to save AND make money. Keep that sense of humor going! It’s a lifesaver! (Usually one of the kids’ lives around here, but still…)

  8. Nelle says:
    Saturday, October 17, 2009 at 12:23

    You need to make Rhubarb jelly, if you love cranberry and crab apple jelly you will love Rhubarb as well, same tart, fresh, wonderful taste. Good job on the Blog.

  9. Marie W says:
    Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 11:03

    Your post is so timely. I’ve been looking at all the beautiful crab apple trees in our neighborhood and wondering if crab apple jelly is worth the effort. Sounds like it definitely is! I am surprised that this is your first foray into canning. As a previous poster mentioned - beware as it can become addictive!

  10. Madeleine says:
    Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 17:46

    there’s a typo “cranberry” rather than cran-apple, no? second paragraph after “being frugal.”

    And congrats on the new site. May you continue to have generous friends who help you.

  11. Madeleine says:
    Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 17:46

    crab apple!

  12. clf says:
    Monday, October 19, 2009 at 04:03

    Hi Hodding-
    Well, I found you *because* of Gourmet’s demise. So lucky me!

    I’m a laid off food editor also living the frugal life. A few years ago I took a class with master jam maker June Taylor http://www.junetaylorjams.com/ (check out her “about” section for press). June taught us that you don’t need to can jam jars in boiling water. In fact, she doesn’t can hers this way. Just do this. Start with clean jars. Put them in 210 degree (something like that, please don’t hold me to this exact number, but it’s low) oven (with their lids) on a baking sheet. Let them sit there while you make the jam or jelly. Put the boiling jam in the hot jar as soon as you take it out of the oven. Fill it to the top (none of this head room stuff, June doesn’t believe in it). Put the lid on and tighten immediately. (June likes to use some industrial rubbery type grippy gloves from Home Depot.) This is best done by two people. One pours, the other puts the lids on.
    Let the jars sit out overnight until they cool completely.

    June Taylor also makes her own pectin (she never uses commercial pectin) and she uses less sugar in her jams than most commercial jam makers do. (More economical and brings the flavor of the fruit forward.) Her jams cost $13 for a tiny jar. So give yourself that much credit per jar when you consider the value of yours. (Especially if you are bartering with them.)

    She also makes use of jams that don’t gel properly by turning them into syrups. (For topping pancakes with or making your own “sodas,” cocktails, adding to salad dressings, etc.) When I was there she was experimenting with some ancient recipe for fruit leather.

    We can learn so much from artisanal food makers. Nothing goes to waste in June Taylor’s kitchen, from the fruit’s pith to the pips and the peel.

  13. Hodding says:
    Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 22:08

    Hey, clf. Thanks so much for all this information. We’ve got some more crab apples and will give this way a try. Sounds so much better. THANKS!

  14. clf says:
    Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 03:13

    You’re welcome Hodding! Just to be clear, when you sterilize the jars and lids in the oven prior to filling them, all the parts should be separate. (In other words, don’t screw the lid on the jar and put the whole thing in the oven.) And, of course, make sure your jars and lids are scrupulously clean before you put them in the oven. All the other rules of canning still apply, like wiping any extra jam off the jar edge before you put the lid, using clean towels, etc. (Though as I mentioned, June does not like to leave much room at the top of the jar, preferring to fill it up almost to the brim.)

    After the jars cool overnight their lids should depress, letting you know that there is a seal. However, if you want to be really sure, try prying them open with your hand (if you can’t, then you know for sure there is a vacuum seal). If you are able to pry a lid open with your bare hand, no problem. Just put that jam jar in the fridge.

    Here’s a video of June talking about marmalade. http://www.chow.com/stories/10695

  15. ducphat says:
    Sunday, October 25, 2009 at 19:13

    Check out Christine Ferber’s work. She has a jam book out that puts you step through step of making your own pectin as well as the oven canning technique which works head and shoulders above the boiling technique. The heat is not as damaging to your canned product as the boiling technique while still reaching the proper sanitation temperatures.

  16. Jen says:
    Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 12:56

    The National Center for Home Food Preservation (based out of the University of Georgia) is, along with the Ball Blue Book, the reigning expert source for home canning. All of their information is based on significant scientific testing. While some of it may seem a little like overkill since cases of botulism are rather rare, if you truly want to be sure that what you have canned is safe to eat, their information is fool-proof, as are their recipes. If you ever have questions, you can also email them and one of their experts will respond. I have done so and the information provided was invaluable.

    By the way, they do not recommend oven canning as every oven is different (temperature regulation wise) and dry heat is very slow to penetrate the jars/food.

    http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/index.html

  17. Thom Mitchell says:
    Tuesday, February 23, 2010 at 11:01

    Hodding, I’ve really enjoyed your columns. Given your love and pursuit of homemade alcoholic beverages - you should really try and make cider next year with some of these crab apples. The tartness of the crabapples really adds flavor and oomph to cider - in fact traditionally cider apples weren’t eaten because they were too tart or acidic. If you blend your crab apples with several bushels of other apples - you can ferment out 10-20 gallons of hard cider.
    Thanks for all of your writing.

Leave a Reply