Last year we got very little fruit from our apple and crab apple trees; this year the crop is bountiful but seems to be dropping early because of the warm and dry conditions here. Making jelly is time consuming and experience helps – but it’s like putting summer sunshine in a jar. Apple or crab apple jelly is the finest companion to peanut butter ever invented. Get away with your grape jelly or marshmallow Fluff.

If you’re new to preserving, do your homework first. Youtube is full of ‘jelly for beginners’ and there is a legion of blogs. My recommendation is to identify your ‘method’ and stick to it. I was making jam, jelly and preserves from a young age – my sisters and I were our mother’s kitchen slaves. And I remember making (and eating) lots of crab apple jelly because my grandparents had a big and bountiful crab apple tree. So I come to this with a fair amount of experience but a friend gave me a copy of her favourite preserving book by Thane Prince. I have found it a helpful guide and reference tool and I stick with it as a method.

Making preserves reminds me that all cooking is basically conducting chemistry experiments and then feeding the results to people.

Jelly is made by cooking and straining fruit to make juice, then adding sugar and cooking the juice into jelly that will ‘set’, putting it in sterilised jars, topping with paraffin and then sealing up. It keeps well for six to nine months. Making jelly means the fruit can be roughly handled, does not need to be ‘pretty’ (keep the pretty apples to eat) and is suitable for fruit from your own trees.

Ingredients to make approximately 5 x 330 ml jars:

• 3 kilos of apples or crab apples
• 2.5 litres of water (roughly 830 mls per kilo of fruit)
• 500 grams of sugar for every 600 mls of fruit juice
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice for every 600 mls of fruit juice
• fresh rosemary if you’re feeling fancy; 1 sprig for every jar plus the rest for cooking with the fruit

Steps in the process:

• assemble equipment
• prep and cook fruit
• drain the juice from the cooked fruit (overnight)
• measure the juice, add sugar, lemon juice (and pectin depending type of fruit and degree of ripeness)
• cook until set
• put in sterilised jars, top and seal
• offer a sacrifice to the kitchen gods that your jelly ‘sets’ well but not too tight

If you’re still reading, it’s time to go on to the recipe.

Method

1. Assemble your equipment
   – preserving pan, heavy, wider than it is deep. I use a 30 cm cast iron enamel le Creuset pan
   – a jelly bag stand (see photo below) and several jelly bags
   – a scale and a couple of big Pyrex glass measuring jugs (see photo below)
   – a jar funnel (see photo below)
   – spoons; wooden, metal and a slotted spoon for removing scum (trust me)
   – jars, lids and if needed either wax or cellophane covers to seal (lids with rubber or plastic sealing rings mean no need for waxed paper circles, cellophane or paraffin wax). I use paraffin wax on jelly.
   
2. Prep and cook fruit
   – rinse apples, rough chop, cut out any visible rot or insect incursions
   – place in pan, cover with water, add rosemary if using
   – bring to a boil, turn the heat down, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the apples are pulpy
   – spoon into a jelly bag, hang to drain overnight or for at least six hours DO NOT SQUISH THE FRUIT TO GET MORE JUICE QUICKLY. It will make your jelly cloudy. No, I don’t know why but I have experiential learning that says this bit of jelly wisdom is true.
   
3. Measure your juice into the preserving pan, add sugar and lemon juice. Bring it slowly to the boil, stirring to dissolve all the sugar. I do add a drop or two of food colouring if I don’t like the colour of the juice. Err on the side of caution – it impacts your chemistry experiment.
   
4. Multi-task and get your jars and lids sterilised and covers ready. I put my clean jars in a cool oven and turn it up to 150C. I put the paraffin wax in a metal jug at the same time. Finally I put the lids, the jelly funnel, the ladle and the tongs in a pan of boiling water on the stove. It works for me.
   
5. Your jars are ready and your juice is starting to boil. Now, it’s time to be brave. Bring it to a rolling boil (boiling sugar is a hazard and this step can be scary – be careful) and boil it for at least five minutes. Back it down and skim off the scum. I use a big spoon with lots of holes in it and it dip it in a bowl of hot water to clean it. DO NOT STIR THE SCUM BACK IN. Or it will make your jelly cloudy.
   
6. Do your first test for a set – I use the flake test. Scoop up a small amount of jelly in a wooden spoon. Count to 10. Tilt the spoon to pour the jelly back into the pot. If the final part forms a flake and not a stream, it’s ready. Google is your friend – find a method that works for you.
   
7. My jelly never seems to be ready at the first test. I do a second rolling boil for 2 minutes, then skim and test again. Repeat until your jelly is ready. Best advice I was ever given – if you pot up your jelly and it does not set, you can always empty the jars into a clean pan and give it another boil. (This is a statement of genius from my friend who makes amazing preserves). So don’t sweat this one.
   
8. Your jelly is ready! Carefully fill your jars: I take the pan of jars from the oven, use the sterilised tongs to move the funnel and the jars around (keep the water boiling and dip them), fill the jars with a ladle, then top with liquid paraffin wax and gently put the lids on with the tongs.
   
9. You cannot judge the ‘set’ until the jelly is completely cool. Control your anxiety and give it overnight.

And enjoy your jelly. Thank you for reading the blog, subscribing, cooking the recipes. Tag me on Twitter and Instagram if you post photos @mamadolson on both.