Apple Jelly

A truly horrible, wet, dreary day.
One of the member's at work's mum had given me a massive bag of windfall apples so we decided to make apple Jelly.
Its slowly dripping through the jelly bag at a drip a minute.

We used the following recipe from Cottage small holder.

Old Fashioned Apple Jelly Recipe

Ingredients:

* 4lbs/1.8 kilos of cooking apples (windfalls are fine for this recipe)
* 2 pts/1140ml of water
* Grated rind and juice of one large lemon
* White granulated sugar (the amount depends on the volume of juice extracted from the simmered, drained fruit. Ipt/500ml of juice to 1lb/454gms of sugar. I always make sure that I have a 2 kilo bag of sugar in the larder, just in case I fancy making jelly)

Method:

1. Wash the apples, cut out bad bits and chop roughly. There is no need to peel and core the apples.

2. Carefully grate the lemon zest from the lemon (we use a zester but a fine grater will do. Try to avoid including the pith as this would make the jelly bitter).

3. Place fruit and lemon zest in a large deep heavy bottomed saucepan, or preserving pan. Add the water and bring gently Bring gently to the boil and simmer very gently until all the fruit is soft and mushy (roughly 25 minutes, depending upon how ripe the fruit is).

4. Pour the cooked fruit through sterilised muslin. . The muslin is often referred to as a jelly bag. We use tall buckets to catch the drips from the jelly bags. Rather than hang the bags (conventional method-between two stools) I find it easier to line a large plastic sieve with the muslin. This clips neatly onto the top of a clean bucket. The sieve is covered with a clean tea cloth to protect against flies, as the jelly bag generally drips overnight.

5. Measure the apple juice the next day and pour it into a deep heavy bottomed saucepan. Add 454g/1lb of white granulated sugar for each 570ml/1 pt of juice.

6. Add the juice of the lemon.

7. Heat the juice and sugar gently, stirring from time to time. Make sure that that all the sugar has dissolved before bringing the liquid slowly to the boil. Continue to boil for about five minutes before testing for a set.

8. Toss in a nugget of butter towards the end to reduce the frothing that often occurs.

9. When jelly has reached setting point pour into warm sterilised jars using a funnel and ladle.

10. Cover immediately with plastic lined screw top lids or cellophane tops secured with a rubber band.
Label when cold and store in a cool, dark place. Away from damp.