Herb jellies!

I love candied crabapples. I canned a small batch last year and kept them whole.

Holy crap do I ever want the rosemary jelly.

What about spiced? Boil the spices whole (cinnamon bark, star anise, cloves, etc.) so the result isn't cloudy?

Lavender and rose are good flavours to use in jelly.

Also what Jennontheisland said - spiced would be good!

Shakesbear said:

Lavender and rose are good flavours to use in jelly.

Also what Jennontheisland said - spiced would be good!

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Ha! I was just coming back to suggest lavender. But rose! Yes. Please.

Even if you don't have the petals to do it that way, a bit of rosewater (I get mine at a middle eastern market) would totally do the trick.

Question... These jellies sound fabulous. What do you put them on?

BunnyMaz said:

Awesome! So, do you candy them the same as orange peel or rosehips - steep in boiling sugar syrup for 10 minutes, drain, dry and roll in sugar? Or do you have to prick them like with candied walnuts?

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I make a syrup solution and prick the crabapples with cloves. Excellent addition to Thanksgiving and Christmas meals.

In my fridge right now I have a purchased apple jelly flavoured with jalapeno - it's sweet, tangy and hot! I put this on small wedges of brie, on crackers. I bet this combo with thyme, would be delish!

kikazaru said:

In my fridge right now I have a purchased apple jelly flavoured with jalapeno - it's sweet, tangy and hot! I put this on small wedges of brie, on crackers. I bet this combo with thyme, would be delish!

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That sounds really good. Where did you buy it?

Lady MacBeth said:

That sounds really good. Where did you buy it?

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It's from a company that does parties in your house called "Sunset Gourmet" they have a lot of dips and sauces which are very good. However, I did google this combo and this recipe came up which looks good and might be fun to try.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/jalapeno_pepper_jelly/

kikazaru said:

It's from a company that does parties in your house called "Sunset Gourmet" they have a lot of dips and sauces which are very good. However, I did google this combo and this recipe came up which looks good and might be fun to try.

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/jalapeno_pepper_jelly/

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Ooh, that does look good. Thanks for passing it along. I've bookmarked the recipe.

Anyone in the northwest U.S. or British Columbia-Alberta-Yukon can benefit by researching fireweed jelly. It's made from the native fireweed plant, a thing with beautiful purple flowers that grows everywhere in the region. We have a local company called the Alaska Wild Berry Company that produces all kinds of concoctions from local wild plants, including fireweed jelly. Really really good stuff.

caw

blacbird said:

Anyone in the northwest U.S. or British Columbia-Alberta-Yukon can benefit by researching fireweed jelly. It's made from the native fireweed plant, a thing with beautiful purple flowers that grows everywhere in the region. We have a local company called the Alaska Wild Berry Company that produces all kinds of concoctions from local wild plants, including fireweed jelly. Really really good stuff.

caw

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That is interesting Blacbird, it grows like crazy here in NW Ont. It never occurred to me that it's useful as well as being pretty. Here is a recipe for Fireweed Jelly that popped up on Food.com, it looks simple and very tasty.
http://www.food.com/recipe/fireweed-jelly-208809

I don't think rose hips are as potent as rose petal - especially if the petals come from the deep red and highly scented sort of rose. A long time ago I worked in a place that had a rose garden with that sort of rose and I was allowed to harvest the roses to make rose petal preserve. It was amazing and I used it to make Groves ice cream - which is just whipped cream, add the preserve and freeze.

Spiced jellies do wonders for roasted lamb and beef joints and the gravy is to die for. I get a spiced hedgerow jelly from a local farm shop which I use with meat.

Shakesbear said:

I don't think rose hips are as potent as rose petal - especially if the petals come from the deep red and highly scented sort of rose. A long time ago I worked in a place that had a rose garden with that sort of rose and I was allowed to harvest the roses to make rose petal preserve. It was amazing and I used it to make Groves ice cream - which is just whipped cream, add the preserve and freeze.

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Hm. I added rosewater (instead of vanilla) to whipped cream once and it was not good at all. It tasted almost... cheesey? Not really cheesey, but didn't taste right at all. We scraped it off the brownies and just ate them plain. I'm wondering what I missed if Groves ice cream is basically what I did?

I used to make a hot chilli jelly, years ago: it wasn't that hot, and it did have a nice sweet taste to it too. It was made by stirring a whole heap of chillis and a red pepper, very finely chopped, into a jelly (I made it with a bottle of stuff--Cirto? can't remember) made with vinegar and sugar. It was delicious. Mmmm. But I bet making it on an apple-based jelly would be much, much better.

BunnyMaz said:

Lady Macbeth, my candied crabapples are so pretty! They were tiny - just slightly larger than cherries- so I pricked them all over with a needle, cooked in sugar syrup, drained and dried them and rolled them in granulated sugar. They are now glittering like little peach-coloured jewels while they dry.

Also stuck a sprig of rose with rosehips and leaves attached into the syrup and rolled that in sugar, too. Should make a lovely fruitcake topper.

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OMG, that sounds sooo good. I'm glad you were able to use them.

I'm planning on making my first foray into making stuff with wild food. First stop - crab apple and sloe jelly! Just as soon as I get the kit...

Last week I made a spiced crab apples and it was good. Here's the recipe

SPICED CRAB APPLES

Ingredients:
1 qt. vinegar
3 c. water
4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. each cinnamon, cloves, mace, and allspice, tie loosely in a cheese
cloth bag

Preparation:

Heat the above together and let cool. Add 5 pints crab apples and heat slowly so as not to burst the fruit. Let stand in syrup overnight. Next morning, remove spice bag and pack in sterilized jars. Fill with syrup. Seal. Process in water bath 20 minutes.

Enjoy

jennontheisland said:

Hm. I added rosewater (instead of vanilla) to whipped cream once and it was not good at all. It tasted almost... cheesey? Not really cheesey, but didn't taste right at all. We scraped it off the brownies and just ate them plain. I'm wondering what I missed if Groves ice cream is basically what I did?

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There is a lot of difference between rose petal preserve and rose water. The consistency is different - the preserve I made was quite thick and chunky and it did not water down the whipped cream. Some of the petals looked as if they were crystallised so the ice cream had some crunchy bits in it. The flavour of rose water is, imo, different from the preserve, it has what I would call a sickly quality to it and I can understand the cheesy flavour.

Incidentally I got the recipe for the rose petal preserve and the ice cream from Eleanor Fettiplace's Receipt Book - Elizabethan Country House Cooking.

eyah said:

Last week I made a spiced crab apples and it was good. Here's the recipe

SPICED CRAB APPLES

Ingredients:
1 qt. vinegar
3 c. water
4 c. sugar
1 tbsp. each cinnamon, cloves, mace, and allspice, tie loosely in a cheese
cloth bag

Preparation:

Heat the above together and let cool. Add 5 pints crab apples and heat slowly so as not to burst the fruit. Let stand in syrup overnight. Next morning, remove spice bag and pack in sterilized jars. Fill with syrup. Seal. Process in water bath 20 minutes.

Enjoy

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I've made this recipe before. It's excellent.