Crab Apples

I have a pile of crab apples. What to do with them?

Jam I guess. Has anyone tried lacto-fermenting them?

Suggestions and recipes would be appreciated

Make the most beautiful jelly. In NZ we tend to use it with meat, like cranberry. Bet it'd go well with turkey.
A great addition to hard cider, also excellent addition when juicing 'normal' apples to give the juice extra complexity.

Well I picked a bunch of rose hips and made chutney with them and most of the crab apples. I did it in the slow cooker over night and used some of my home made cider vinegar. That will be interesting.

I also made some rose hip and crab apple jam. I found the jam wouldn't set and figured that I put too much water in it so I set it on a low heat to reduce. I ended up with 2 medium jars of jelly and it's super dark and very intense. I think I reduced it a little too much. It's supposed to be pink, and mine is like black currant jelly haha.

I also couldn't bare to throw away all that jammy pulp after all the effort I put into coring and reducing, so I put that in jars too.

There must be a better way to core crab apples than with a knife? Anyone tried a piece of metal tube?

You can use crab apples to make pectin. It's really very easy. Chop the crab apples, cover with water in a heavy pot, and cook them down to a thin sauce.



Strain in a jelly bag or muslin cloth, squeezing as much liquid from the pulp as you can.



That liquid is your pectin! It will be thick and slimy.

To test it, pour a glug of alcohol (any kind, even rubbing alcohol) into a jar or cup. Add about a teaspoon of your pectin. Don't stir.  Let it sit for a minute and then try to fish it out with a fork. If it gels up, you've got pectin!



If it doesn't gel, cook the crab apple juice down to concentrate the pectin and test again.

Proportions for making jam:
 -  for each up of mashed fruit add
     - one-quarter cup homemade pectin
     - one-quarter cup sugar

Nick Kitchener wrote:There must be a better way to core crab apples than with a knife? Anyone tried a piece of metal tube?

What kind of crabapples to you have? What size?

You can buy an apple coring tool, but it's way too big for a genuine crabapple, like the juice/jelly apples our great grandparents planted when they came. There's nothing left.

I have processed a zillion small ones with a knife, and the trick is to cut the flesh away from the core.

My method is to cut off the blossom end (bitter, gross), flip the apple on the stem end, and then cut the flesh away from the core while turning the apple four times (eight deft strokes). You will find the correct angles quickly --  the top of the apple is nearly 45deg., and the bottom is maybe 30. This works, it's quick once you get the rhythm, and there is surprisingly little waste.

Leigh Tate wrote:You can use crab apples to make pectin. It's really very easy.
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That liquid is your pectin! It will be thick and slimy.
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How long does pectin like this last Leigh? I guess it will be pretty high in acid but not sugar. I really need the pectin at the early end of the summer for raspberry and strawberry jams, so can I pasteurise it to make it last nine months or so?

Nancy Reading wrote:How long does pectin like this last Leigh? I guess it will be pretty high in acid but not sugar. I really need the pectin at the early end of the summer for raspberry and strawberry jams, so can I pasteurise it to make it last nine months or so?

Nancy, I water bath canned some several years ago. (15 minutes for half-pints). I'm going to be doing some jam making soon, so I'll report back as to how it kept!

You're correct that there's no sweetness (sugar). That's added when the jam is made. Since they are crab apples, it is indeed very tart. I'm guessing it's already pasteurized since it's been boiled down. It does keep in the fridge for at least as long as you want.

Well I've got lots quite a few apples this year for the first time. My crabapples actually turned out to be nice sweet ones, a bit small for easy eating! But I got an unexpected yield from a tree that I thought would never crop here (it was the first tree I successfully grafted so had sentimental value to me). I think when properly ripe, they would be a nice crisp apple like a Egremont russet, these are not quite there, although may ripen a bit in storage. Many are rather damaged (the mice here like to climb trees!) so I have quite a few to use that won't keep for long. I think making a pectin extract could be a good plan thank you Leigh!