Hedgerow Jelly
- 2 1/4 pounds crab apples (or cooking apples)
- 2 1/4 pounds mixed hedgerow berries (see above)
- About 5 cups granulated sugar
- Pick over your fruit, removing the stems and leafy bits and rinsing the berries if necessary.
- Dont peel or core the apples (the peel and core are excellent sources of pectin); just chop them coarsely.
- Place all of the prepared fruit in a saucepan with 5 cups of water.
- Bring gently to a simmer, and simmer until the fruit is soft and pulpy.
- Remove from the heat.
- Have ready a jelly strainer bag or piece of cheesecloth (see p. 33) and turn the contents of the pan into it.
- Leave to drip overnight.
- The jelly will turn cloudy if you squeeze the juice through, so just let it drip at its own pace.
- The next day, measure the juice you will probably have about 5 cups, though this will depend on the berries used.
- For every cup of juice, allow 1 cup of sugar.
- Put the juice into a large pan and bring slowly to a boil.
- Add the sugar as it just comes to a boil and keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
- Then boil rapidly, without stirring, for 9 to 10 minutes until the setting point is reached (see p. 41).
- Skim the jelly and pot and seal as quickly as possible (see pp.
- 2122).
- Use within 1 year.
- These are some of my favorite takes on the hedgerow jelly idea.
- In each case, follow the hedgerow jelly method and quantities; i.e., always use 1 cup of sugar for each cup of strained fruit juice.
- Use crab apples alone and add a few cloves and a couple of cinnamon sticks when the fruit is being cooked.
- This all-time classic hedgerow jelly is equally at home on thinly sliced hot buttered toast or as an accompaniment to succulent cold roast pork or turkey.
- Use 1 pound, 2 ounces of rosehips, first chopped in a food processor, and 3 pounds, 6 ounces of crab or cooking apples.
- Rosehips from the wild rose or dog rose seem to have a better flavor than those from cultivated roses.
- However, some garden varieties of rose also produce cookable hips notably Rosa rugosa.
- If you want to harvest rosehips from your garden, do not deadhead your roses.
- Excellent with roast pork.
- Use 2 1/4 pounds of rowanberries (mountain ash berries) and 2 1/4 pounds of crab apples.
- Add the juice of 1 lemon before adding the sugar.
- For a really aromatic jelly, add a bunch of sage or thyme when the fruit is softening.
- Rowan jelly is lovely served with game.
- Use 2 1/4 pounds of blackberries and 2 1/4 pounds of apples.
- This is a nostalgic teatime treat for me, as I remember how good my grandmothers blackberry and apple jelly always tasted on wafer-thin slices of buttered bread.
- Hedgerow jelly, or any other well-colored jelly, can be used as a natural
- coloring for glace icing.
- Just a teaspoonful or two will be sufficient to give your icing a wickedly deep hue that will be sure to liven up your cakes.
crab apples, mixed hedgerow berries, sugar
Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/hedgerow-jelly-389410 (may not work)