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To Preserve Red Crab Apples

A preserved crab apple preserve made by simmering apples with sugar, water, lemon, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 3 ingredients
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To Preserve Red Crab Apples

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the apples

  1. Wash ripe red or Siberian crab apples and simmer them slowly in a kettle with enough water to cover until the skins come off easily.

  2. Remove the apples, peel and core them carefully with a small knife, avoiding breakage.

  3. Weigh the apples and for each pound add one and a half pounds of loaf sugar and half a pint of water.

Make the syrup and cook

  1. Melt the sugar and water in a preserving kettle, then boil over the fire.

  2. Skim the syrup once, then add the crab apples and a small amount of cochineal powder mixed with white brandy until dissolved, improving color.

  3. Cover and boil until clear and tender, skimming the syrup as needed.

Jar and store

  1. Cool the apples, spread on dishes, then jar them with syrup poured over.

  2. Add lemon juice and thinly sliced lemon peel (yellow part only) in proportion to the apples, using one large or two small lemons per pound, and reduce water in the sugar if using juice.

  3. If the syrup becomes dry or candied after storage, reboil with the crab apples, adding a tea-cup of water to about three or four pounds of sweetmeat.

By Eliza Leslie. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

What each ingredient does

Crab apples (in the method)
Provide the fruit that becomes tender and holds its shape in the syrup.
Loaf sugar (in the method)
Sweetens the fruit and, once dissolved and boiled, thickens the syrup and preserves the apples.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Cochineal (in the method)
Adds red color to the apples and syrup.

The step that matters

Cover and boil until clear and tender. Simmering gently lets sugar slowly penetrate the fruit and the syrup concentrate. Boiling too hard can break the apples apart, and stopping too early leaves them firm and cloudy rather than translucent.

“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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