Apple and herb jelly

Add herbs to this amber savoury jelly. Lavender or rosemary work well with lamb or try sage for pork … Makes about 7 x 500g jars

Ingredients

  • 5 1/2 lbs (2.5 kg) cooking apples
  • 3 sprigs of your chosen herb, plus small sprigs for each jar
  • 2 1/4 pints (1.3 litres) of cider vinegar
  • About 3lb granulated sugar. (Apples have plenty of pectin so you don’t need jam sugar here.)

Method

  1. Cut the apples into chunks. You don’t have to peel or core them but remove any bruised bits. Cover with 2 3/4 pints (1.5 litres) of water. Add the herbs.
  2. Bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the apples are completely soft – around 45 mins.
  3. Add the cider vinegar and cook for another 5 mins. Pour into a jelly bag or muslin suspended over a large bowl and leave it to drip overnight. Don’t press or squish the apples because your jelly will end up cloudy.
  4. The next day, measure the liquid that you’ve got. For every pint, you need 1lb sugar. Put both the liquid and sugar into a preserving pan and heat gently, stirring to help the sugar to dissolve. Bring to the boil and boil until you reach setting point (when it wrinkles on a cold saucer). Skim off any scum.
  5. Ladle into warm, sterilised jars. Put a sprig of your chosen herb in each jar, cover with a waxed disc and seal with a lid. Gently shake the jar so that the herb doesn’t stay at the top. Keeps for a year but refrigerate when open.

Sweet apple and ginger chutney

Ingredients

  • 1.35kg apples (dessert for preference but any windfalls will be fine)
  • 450g onions
  • 1 tbspn salt
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 115g crystallised ginger
  • 675g sugar
  • 280ml wine or cider vinegar

Method

  1. Peel, core and chop the apples into peanut-sized pieces.
  2. Peel and chop the onions into similar sized pieces.
  3. Finely chop the pieces of crystallised ginger and mince the garlic.
  4. Place all the ingredients into a large pan and heat gently, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
  5. Bring to the boil. Cook until the mixture is so thick that, when you draw a spoon across the bottom of the pan, you can see the base before the chutney covers it again.
  6. Turn off the heat and ladle into warmed, sterilised jars.
  7. Screw the lids on tightly and leave to cool. Store in a cool place. Refrigerate after opening.