- Pectin Jelly with Green Apples and Sauce

Dearly Loved Fans of Hounds Who Cook,

We are all astir over a newfound way to use the green apples that are falling in the yard. They are not yet ripe and sour with a hard texture. We know there will be apples a plenty for saucing in a month, but we eager hounds want to cook up a little something now. So we searched (and searched) the Internet and found exactly what we were looking for. First, very important information about the Healthful properties of unripe apples (see here), and then a recipe for pectin jelly (see here) which you can eat as it is OR use when making Conserve with the berries you are picking right now, or in the next weeks. We found Miss Lindy's narrative instructions hard to follow, so we are recipifying it all right here for your convenience and ours:

July Pectin Jelly
for eating and the preservation of fruits

7 pounds green apples (such as crabapples in late July)
13 cups water
8 cups sugar (or stevia equivalent) (or 4 cups per quart of juice)
1 large lemon

Wash green apples and pluck off stems - they are bitter and maybe even toxic, we're not sure. Cut in quarters, leaving on the skin. Bring nearly to a boil, then turn down and simmer 30 minutes. Press all through a jelly-making cone-shaped sieve with the help of a dowel. Then (who could imagine?) hang it all in a jelly bag and catch the juice. This they said would yield 2 quarts of clear apple juice but for us it was only one. Chill for sediment to sink to the bottom. Reserve apple pulp for the applesauce recipe below.

Sterilize 8 1-cup jars in a dishwasher or canner, and lids with rings.

Pour clear juice into big old saucepan, cast aside sediment into the pulp pile for the applesauce recipe below. Add the juice of 1 lemon and sugar or stevia. Bring to boil. Boil on medium high or high heat for 10 minutes or until temperature reaches 220 degrees F. Skim off foam throughout the boiling extravaganza.

Pour jelly into sterilized jars. Wipe rim with a wet cloth and screw on lids. Turn jars upside down for 5 minutes and then back up to foster sealing. Make sure the lids seal - the middle button should be contracted and not give (or boing) when you press down on it.

Apple Sauce
Run the apple pulp and sediment from the jelly recipe through the jelly-making cone-shaped sieve with wooden dowel again. Add sugar (or stevia, our preference) to taste. Store in fridge or heat it up and can it.