When I was a kid, my aunt used to can crab apples that I loved. Never thought to ask her for the recipe when she was alive, but a friend has a crab apple tree so loaded with crab apples, that some of the branches are touching the ground. When she told me that I thought of those delicious crab apples I used to inhale years ago.
The canning liquid, as I remember, was a deep pinkish color, spicy and sweet, and the apples had split skins and had a dark brown color through and through. I would love to try and duplicate them, but don’t know where to start. Canning is not my forte.
Pete says:
Here’s one that sounds like the old timey kind of recipe: http://ahundredyearsago.com/2011/09/12/old-spiced-crab-apple-pickled-crab-apple-recipe/
And the Ball Blue Book (2009 edition) has a very similar recipe, complete with canning instructions, on page 86.
Neither of them seems to call for anything red. I, too, remember the bright red crab apple pickles. Maybe between the skins and the spices the pickling liquid ends up red?
On October 26, 2013 at 8:09 pm
Bonny says:
Thanks Pete. I happened onto this recipe yesterday when I did a google search. What interested me was that it didn’t need to be canned.
Also found one that is frozen instead of being canned. I would think that they would be mushy when thawed. I think they were made with those hot cinnamon candies, which sounded good.
I’ll let you know how I do.
On October 27, 2013 at 12:35 pm