Preserve Your Excess Fruit and Crab Apples

Spiced Pears used to appear on our winter tables too. More like a relish than a desert and often served on a platter around a pork roast.

Thanksgiving Turkey and the Christmas Goose wouldn’t be complete without some of my spiced Pickled Crab Apples. I can’t say as I really like to eat them, but they are sooo pretty. There is nothing like a ring of deep red Crab Apples and fresh Sage to make a bird look festive.

There are no crab apples, or any apples that matter here, due to our late freeze and the long dry summer, so it is fortunate that I put up a lot of them last year. People say that pickles and preserves should not be eaten after a year, but that is a lot of bunk. Kept in a cool, cry place preserves and catsups will last several years. It is true that some pickles lose their crispness after a few months. Dill Pickles being the ones to get limp first.

My original recipe did not call for red food coloring, but I always use it as our crab apples are more yellow than red. With the red food coloring, not only is the skin a deep red, but the apple flesh becomes red as well.

To keep the skins from bursting open, I take a thick needle and prick the skin of each apple several times, and I watch the pot like a hawk. You want the apples to be very firm. I just noticed that the recipe doesn’t say a thing about preparing the apples in the first place. I suppose in the old days everybody knew what to do? Anyways, you wash the fruit well, and leave the stems on, but do remove leave leaves.

Spiced Pickled Crab Apples:

1 quart white vinegar
1 cup water
1 quarts white sugar
1 tablespoon cloves
1 teaspoon mace
1 teaspoon allspice
½ to ¾ gallon red crab apples
Red Food Coloring (Optional) (Consider if crab apples are not bright red)

Combine vinegar, water, sugar and spices and red food coloring if desired in a large non-aluminum pan. Bring to a boil and then cool to room temperature. Add the washed whole crabapples and carefully bring up the heat so the apples do not burst. Cook until barely tender. Let the apples stand in syrup overnight.

Pack the cold apples and syrup in sterilized jars filling to within ½ inch of the top of the jar. Process jars in a water bath for 20 minutes.

Yields 5 pints.