A culinary first

 My experience of making preserves is limited to a single batch of Beetroot Chutney. I made a batch after last September's Horticultural Show, and 30% declared it a great success.  I was not so enthused. It's perfectly acceptable, but I'm not an avid eater of pickles and relishes. I'll have the odd smear of Branston in a cheese sandwich, and TP's Lime Pickle is lovely with a curry. I even enjoy a spoonful of onion relish with a portion of pâté or terrine.

The more I think about this, the more I realise that I quite like pickles and chutneys. I just don't eat them very often.

Anyway, apologies, I headed off on a bit of tangent there. Back to the subject of today's Journal entry; I have made a single batch of chutney previously, but today I attempted jam making for the first time.

A friend the village gave us a jar of Crabapple Jelly last year and it was lovely. I was perfect with roast pork, and I have no doubt that it would be lovely added to deserts or breakfast yoghurt. 

Anyway, the jar has, long since, been emptied, so I decided to try my hand at making a batch. 30% managed to acquire the recipe, and she also managed other blag a large bag of crabapples from an acquaintance. I therefore had everything I needed, and set aside today to make my first attempt at jam, or more precisely, jelly making.

The first thing I did was to abandon the recipe I had been given. It needed a pound of rose hips, and I really could not be arsed with fighting my way through the local hedgerows to find sufficient ripe hips. Instead, I used the BBC Food website to provide a recipe.

Ingredients and materials

• 1kg crabapples
• 6 cloves
• 1.25 litres of water
• 600 - 800 g of granulated sugar
• 8 x 8oz jars with lids, sterilised

Method

1. Prepare the apples by washing, removing the stalks and any other damaged areas. Roughly chop them in to small chunks
2. Place the apples in a large pan with the water and the cloves.
3. Bring the mixture to the boil, cover and then simmer for about 45 minutes. The lower the simmer the better the flavour and colour of the jelly will be.
4. After simmering, remove from the heat and separate the pulp from the liquor using muslin or a jelly bag. Do not squeeze the pulp. Just let it drip slowly in to a bowl for a few hours, or overnight.
5. Measure out the crabapple liquor to determine the quality of sugar required. 600g of sugar is needed for each litre of liquor. This recipe, allegedly, produces 1 litre of liquid. I ended up with 1.35 litres and needed 810g of sugar.
6. Pour the liquid in to a clean saucepan and bring up to a simmer. Add the sugar, one third a time, stirring to dissolve, before adding the next third.
7. Once all the sugar has been dissolved, bring the mixture to a fast boil for about 8 minutes, or until the setting point has been reached (105 ℃).*  
8. Remove it from the heat and let it rest for a few minutes, before decanting in to a jug. Then pour in to the sterilised jars and put on the lids immediately. Note: At this stage the jelly will still be a liquid, and will stay so for a good while. I found that it set overnight in to lovely soft jelly that holds its form.

I still have sufficient crabapples to make another batch. I think I may replace the cloves with some cinnamon bark for my next attempt.

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* As a jelly making novice, I can report that this was the most challenging part of the recipe and a jam thermometer or digital temperature probe is a must. I had to return the mixture to the heat three or four times before it reached the setting point. I tested the setting point by placing a teaspoon of the mixture on a saucer, and placing it in the freezer for a few minutes.  When the cooled jelly is pushed with a finger, the surface of the jelly crinkles in front of the finger tip.