Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
combinations of apple varieties for jelly?

Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
in a while.

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Scott wrote:

> Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
> jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
> combinations of apple varieties for jelly?
>
> Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
> in a while.
>

I'm having fun with honeycrisps lately. They do have a hint of
honey, and they also have a slightly (hickup) fermented note
in their flavor, if you're into that sort of thing.

So far, made jelly and some apple butter with them.

--
Reg

"Scott" > wrote in message
...
> Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
> jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
> combinations of apple varieties for jelly?
>
> Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
> in a while.
>
> --
> to reply
> replace "spamless.invalid" with "verizon.net"

I like the *free* variety......

;-)

Kathi
made crab apple jelly courtesy of a neighbour

"Scott" > wrote in message
...
> Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
> jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
> combinations of apple varieties for jelly?
>

I just put up 50 pounds of apples into applesauce over the last 3 weeks or
so, working away at it periodically in the evening.

I started out with just using Gala apples but the flavor of the resulting
sauce is rather disappointing.

What I ended up with is mixing 50% Gala and 50% Granny Smith.
With adjustments to the amount of water, sugar, and cinnamon I
got what I feel is a basic passable applesauce, but a somewhat
disappointing flavor for all the work put into it. The best flavor
I feel is where the sweet and tart are balanced. If you use sweet
apples you end up with the sweetness overriding the appley
flavor, if you use tart apples you can add sugar to the sauce once
it's ground up in the food mill to get the balance, but once more,
you lose a lot of the appley flavor.

The Grannies burn at the drop of a hat, they fall apart into mush
very readily, the Galas do not.

I'm going to try 20 pounds of Breyburns next and see how
they work out. The Breyburns themselves are rather balanced
so they are probably a good "Beginners" choice for applesauce
or apple butter, since you don't have to do much seasoning.

If I could find a real sour green crabapple I'd use that, I
vividly remember lots of those apples growing in trees all over
the place back East where I grew up, but unfortunately they
don't seem to be popular out West. And the commercial Apple
growers do not seem to want to grow the very sour varieties
except for a handful like Granny Smiths, they mainly seem to
grow the sweet varieties.

If you can get crab apples, do it. I doubt a commercial orchard
would have them. The best you can probably do at a commercial
orchard is Granny Smith, Red or Golden Delicious, and Breyburns.
Get all 3 and do a batch that's 75% Breyburn and 10% Granny and
15% Red Delicious, and see how you like the flavor. If you want it more
sour, then do Breyburn and Granny, if you want it more sweet
then to Breyburn and one of the Deliciouses. Try to keep the
sugar to a minimum, if you want it sweeter then change the
apple ratio.

Ted

> Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
> in a while.
>
> --
> to reply
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"Scott" > wrote in message
...
> Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
> jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
> combinations of apple varieties for jelly?
>
> Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
> in a while.
>
> --
> to reply
> replace "spamless.invalid" with "verizon.net"

I am real partial to the Northern Spy, not sure if available in West. It
turns a nice shade of pink when processed.

Tim


"Scott" > wrote in message
...
> Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
> jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
> combinations of apple varieties for jelly?
>
> Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
> in a while.
>
> --
> to reply
> replace "spamless.invalid" with "verizon.net"

Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

> I started out with just using Gala apples but the flavor of the resulting
> sauce is rather disappointing.
>
> What I ended up with is mixing 50% Gala and 50% Granny Smith.
> With adjustments to the amount of water, sugar, and cinnamon I
> got what I feel is a basic passable applesauce, but a somewhat
> disappointing flavor for all the work put into it.

I'm fortunate enough to live near Gravenstein country, and the only
thing they need for sauce is a bit of rose water. No sugar, no
cinnamon, nothing. They're complex enough without gussying it up, just
that the rose water brings out some of the innate muskiness. I get just
a few pounds on occasion during the short season (early, late August to
mid-September) and my kitchen is.... thoroughly fragrant. One year I
made 16 half-pints of apple-almond butter, quite nice.

If you get a brand of bottled juice called Martinelli's, them's Gravenstein.

B/

Scott wrote:
> Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
> jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
> combinations of apple varieties for jelly?
>
> Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
> in a while.
>


My favorites were the nice red crabapples in front of the city water
treatment plant -- until they cut them down last year. :-( I still
have 3 pounds in the freezer from 2 years ago, and I think there is one
tree they left standing; I need to check it out tomorrow.

Use red-fleshed crabapples if you can find them.

Best regards,
Bob

In article >,
zxcvbob > wrote:

> Scott wrote:
> > Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
> > jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
> > combinations of apple varieties for jelly?
> >
> > Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
> > in a while.
> >
>
>
> My favorites were the nice red crabapples in front of the city water
> treatment plant -- until they cut them down last year. :-( I still
> have 3 pounds in the freezer from 2 years ago, and I think there is one
> tree they left standing; I need to check it out tomorrow.
>
> Use red-fleshed crabapples if you can find them.
>
> Best regards,
> Bob

Sounds like Dolgo crabs. Kind of oval shaped.
--
-Barb, Mother Superior, HOSSSPoJ
"Maligning an individual says more about you than the one you malign."
http://web.mac.com/barbschaller; blahblahblog 10/29/2006, Apple Pie
http://jamlady.eboard.com

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 22:20:41 -0500, Melba's Jammin'
> wrote:

>In article >,
> zxcvbob > wrote:
>
>> Scott wrote:
>> > Just that. Thought I'd go out to an orchard and pick up some apples for
>> > jelly... or maybe something more "interesting." Any have any favorite
>> > combinations of apple varieties for jelly?
>> >
>> > Might also do apple butter while I'm at it; haven't used the crock pot
>> > in a while.
>> >
>>
>>
>> My favorites were the nice red crabapples in front of the city water
>> treatment plant -- until they cut them down last year. :-( I still
>> have 3 pounds in the freezer from 2 years ago, and I think there is one
>> tree they left standing; I need to check it out tomorrow.
>>
>> Use red-fleshed crabapples if you can find them.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Bob
>
>Sounds like Dolgo crabs. Kind of oval shaped.
--
Susan N.

"Moral indignation is in most cases two percent moral,
48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy."
Vittorio De Sica, Italian movie director (1901-1974

Well, did the batch, and I just chose a varied selection of what the
orchard had, using about 3/4 tart apples. After all that, 4 half-pints
of apple jelly. Hmmm.

Also put up 8 half-pints and one 4-ounce of apple butter from the BBB
recipe (using a similar selection of orchard apples) and found it WAY
too sweet... maybe I over-concentrated it in the slow cooker, but it
tasted like appley sugar syrup. I cooked down a large jar of unsweetened
applesauce and added it to the already made apple butter, cooked them
both in the slow cooker, pureed with the immersion blender, and it was
silky and had a great apple taste.

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