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Dessert

Crab Apple Jelly

A jelly made from crab juice, apple, lemon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Sterrett, Laura C · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Crab Apple Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash and quarter large Siberian crabs, but do not core.

  2. Cover to the depth of an inch or two with cold water, and cook to a mush.

Extract the juice

  1. Pour into a coarse cotton bag or strainer, and when cool enough, press or squeeze hard to extract all the juice.

  2. Take a piece of fine Swiss muslin or crinoline, wring out of water, spread over a colander placed over a crock.

  3. With a cup, clip the juice slowly in, allowing plenty of time to run through.

  4. Repeat this process twice, rinsing out the muslin frequently.

Cook the jelly

  1. Add the strained juice of four lemons to a peck of apples, and add three-quarters of a pound of sugar to each pint of juice.

  2. Boil the juice for ten to twenty minutes.

  3. While boiling, sift in the sugar slowly, stirring constantly, and boil five minutes longer.

  4. This is generally sufficient, but it is always safer to "try it," and ascertain whether it will "jelly."

  5. This makes a very clear, sparkling jelly.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

253Calories
20 gProtein
2 gFat
41 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Crab100g cooked97
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Sterrett, Laura C. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Crab + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together387 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + crabtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (grass, green).

Sugar and apple barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Siberian crabs
Supply natural pectin and acid that help the juice set into a jelly.
Lemons
Add acidity that supports setting and brightens the flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps it set into a firm gel.

The step that matters

Testing for set. Sugar must be added slowly while stirring, and the juice boiled long enough, so it dissolves and reaches the concentration needed to gel. Testing a spoonful shows whether it will set before it is poured into jars.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, crab, lemon):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, crab, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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