Pickled Crab Apples

This recipe is from the Hedgerow Cookbook, I scaled the recipe right down because I only had a few crab apples! The ingredients below are for the full recipe. The recipe suggests it's a good idea to put the raw crab apples into the jars to see how many they will make, because the apples remain whole, it is hard to predict otherwise.

It goes well with cheese,ham,duck or pheasant!

Makes approximately x4 500ml kilned-type jars

1kg granulated sugar

600ml cider vinegar

2 strips of very thin lemon peel

4 cloves

4 black pepper corns

1tsp crushed chilli flakes

1.5kg similarly sized crab apples, washed and stalks removed

1. Put all the ingredients, except the crab apples into a large saucepan and heat gently, stirring from time to time until the sugar has completely dissolved. Meanwhile, pack the crab apples into slightly cooled, sterilised jars.

2. Boil the vinegar mixture vigorously, for 5minutes, then strain over the apples so that they are completely covered. Screw the lids on the jars immediately. The jars should be left to mature for a month or so.

#preserving