This website is reader-supported - thank you! As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
24 Comments
How to make spiced crab apple butter using foraged fruit, brown sugar, and autumn spices. Use this delicious wild preserve as you would other apple butters or fruit preserves or as an accompaniment to savory dishes such as pork.
580 Shares
Poking around in a hedge the other day I happily discovered some bright yellow crab apples. Actually, they were flowering quince which are very similar and used in the same way as crab apples. I collected them from the branches and came home to find a good recipe for them. Crab apples, and flowering quince, can be very tart and aren’t ideal for fresh eating. They are wonderful in cooked dishes and preserves so I settled on making crab apple butter with them.
Crab apple butter is a rich, dark preserve, that you can serve as jam or jelly in many dishes. Spread over cakes, topping scones and crumpets, or in plain ole P&J sandwiches. The tartness of the apples paired with the deep rich sweetness of brown sugar gives it a versatile flavour that you could even use in savoury dishes.
Types of Crab Apples
The idea of making a spiced butter came from another foraged item – The Countryside Cook Book by Gail Duff. While on one of my forays to the local recycling centre, I came across this book piled up with a load of old encyclopedias and paperback novels. It was free for the taking and includes some wonderful information on wild food throughout the seasons as well as various recipes for their culinary and medicinal uses. I especially love the illustrations by Linda Garland.
The Countryside Cook Book
Crab apples are listed towards the back of the book in the ‘autumn’ section along with quite a few ways to prepare them. Recipes for crab apple and date wine, lamb with crab apple stuffing, crab apple crumble and pork chops with crab apple crust sounded all very tempting but in the end I settled on spiced apple butter. I adapted the recipe for the amount of crab apples I’d been able to find and the result of the below instructions is a full 450g jar. You can also just make out the original recipe if you open the below image to its full size. The final product is delicious gelatinous spread and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys sweet-and-sour or winter spices
More Foraged Preserves
- Simple Blackberry Gin Recipe
- Hedgerow Jelly Recipe
- Elderberry Jelly Recipe
Spiced Crab Apple Butter Recipe
Makes one 450g (15oz) jar so feel free to scale up for more. If you have some crab apples and want to try this recipe, do give it a go! I’d also really recommend picking up Gail Duff’s book and having a flip through her other recipes. Be it hop, hawthorne or damson, she provides great ideas on serving it up in inventive and delicious ways.
- 500g (17oz) Crab Apples and/or Flowering Quince
- 410ml (14 fl.oz) Water
- 1 tsp Whole Cloves
- Dash of Nutmeg (about 1/8 tsp)
- 1.5″ stick of Cinnamon
- 245g (8oz) Dark Brown Sugar
1. Halve the crab apples and put them into a suitable sauce pan with the water, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. Bring them to a boil and then reduce heat to keep a steady simmer on for about forty-five minutes or until it can be beaten into a thick pulp. Make sure to stir occasionally.
2. Put the pulp through a vegetable mill or fine sieve and measure the final weight of the resulting apple purée. Return it to the cleaned pan and stir in 350g (12oz) of dark brown sugar for every 450g(1lb) of apple purée. I ended up with 313g (10.5oz) of apple purée with my small batch so used 245g (8oz) of dark brown sugar.
3. Set the pan on a low heat and stir for the sugar to dissolve. Bring to a boil and keep boiling, stirring frequently, until the butter is very thick. If you draw a spoon through the mixture it should leave a path behind it. This can take up to an hour to achieve but mine only took about twenty-five minutes.
4. Put the butter into a warmed and sterilised preserving jar(s) and tighten the lid immediately. Water-bath the jars and store for up to a year in the kitchen cupboard.
Leave a Reply
I will be trying this recipe next year for sure! My rose garden is planted in a large (field) with apple trees scattered through it. Thank you for the recipe….it looks yummy!
Reply
You're very welcome! I bet you could even make a variety using rose-hips form your rose garden in the butter as well.
Reply
Hi – thanks for the post. I have a tree in the garden that has these exact type of 'crab apple' – yellow, waxy skins, fragrant, but very sour and the exact look of seeds as in your pic. My tree is a flowering quince though.
Just thought you may be interested to know.
LReply
Haha! Actually, I found this out shortly after this post. I kept thinking the bush they were on in the hedge was different from an apple. Flowering Quince are related to apples and have similar flavour and pectin content to crab apples so I left this up. Thank you for pointing this out though :)
Reply
I just made this, it's amazing! the jar is cooling right now :)
I added some slices of fresh ginger and two large pinches of ground cardamom, and cut down on the cloves a little.
I'm wondering, is that ratio- about 3:4 sugar:fruit one I can apply with other fruit?
Thanks for sharing!Reply
Sounds delish with the cardamom and cloves! And when calculating your own recipes the ratio of sugar to fruit is generally correct but you also need to choose fruit based on pectin levels or it wont set.
I've heard that preserves in the US are sometimes/always processed in a water bath due to the threat of Botulism. Botulism is far less a threat in the UK so pouring the jelly into sterilised jars and allowing the lid to seal into a vacuum while cooling down is perfectly fine and the contents will be good for at least a year. This method is of course only true for high foods preserved in vinegar or sugar.
Reply
Joy – Haha! It's no matter if you keep coming back…a dessert on a screen is only zero calories ;)
Jo – Apple Butter is more of an American preserve, which is why you might not have heard of it yet. It's a more rustic take on jam using dark sugar instead of white and using apple puree instead of apple juice. And I thought the same about the book – how could anyone toss it out? But I'm glad they did :)
Reply
You're welcome Jennie :)
Hi Sunnybrook! Pumpkin butter sounds delicious as well – shame about your apples though. And I think you're right about the copper kettle rule…it must be more of a tradition!
Reply
In the rural areas of Virginia and I suppose other places, they cook apple butter in huge copper kettles, not sure why but it is part of making it for some people, they swear it has to be in a copper kettle. I think that large kettles were copper and lighter years ago so a tradition got started. I made pumpkin butter this year as the stink bugs have destroyed much of the apple crop, crab apples are a rare item in my area. Your apple butter looks to be a step above what I am used to!
Reply
I've never heard of apple butter before, I bet it's delicious. The book looks very interesting too, and great that you picked it up for free.
Reply
Tanya I have to stop coming over here because you drive me mad with all of your wonderful home made goods ! LOL .. Hey, great choice on the mask girl !
Joy : )Reply
Hugs back Minna :) And thanks for stopping by!
Reply
Wow, looking really yummy! Love you blog Tanya, and all the things you make. Just wonderful! Thank you for your lovely comments at my place, the mean a lot! Hugs,Minna :) p.s. I hope I could limit my mess to one room :)
Reply
Hi Fran – I hope you enjoy your weekend project :) And fortunately you'll be left with jars you can store in a cupboard rather than hog up any space in your compact fridge.
Reply
Thanks for stopping by my blog Heiko :) I'm a gatherer at heart and love free things – especially wild food. Let me know how you get on with this recipe using your own type apples!
Reply
Hi Sheffy – It's nice finding useful and tasty things for free :) And do give apple butter a go…I'm sure you'll find it delicious.
Reply
Thanks for commenting on my blog, this way I found yours. What a beautiful looking book! And for nothing! The recipe sounds lovely and I might try it with some of the sharper ordinary apples I've collected the other day.
Reply
Thanks Elaine, I have just been given a ton of crab apples and was wondering what to do with them. Now I know and this is my weekend project ! x
Reply
I haven't heard of apple butter before and it seems easy enough to make and a great idea. Love the idea of finding a great cookery book for free!
Reply
Hi Arsenius – I'll bet your wife could whip up a fantastic apple butter! I'm not sure what kind of crab apples you'll have in your area but you could maybe try to get a hold of some of them to mix with the orchard apples? Conventional apple butter is really sweet but some crabbies will give it a proper kick :)
Reply
I've had apple butter from a store but never any fresh made. I'll have to ask my wife if we can try it. In the part of the Blue Ridge mountains we live in, there are many apple orchards and this is the season.
Reply
Thanks Elaine :) It does sound like we have a lot in common! I'll definitely have to check out your Windfall Marmalade.
Reply
That spiced apple butter looks yummy – I really enjoyed this post and will certainly look out for the book – you're a girl after my own heart
Reply
