"And then she
went to a secret lonely chamber, where no one was likely to come, and there she
made a poisonous apple. It was beautiful to look upon, being white with red
cheeks, so that any one who should see it must long for it, but whoever ate
even a little bit of it must die. When the apple was ready she painted her face
and clothed herself like a peasant woman, and went across the seven mountains
to where the seven dwarfs lived."
Aren’t
apples good looking? In fairy tales, you seldom read about oranges or pears or
bananas. The tree of life is an apple tree. And what about the golden apples
heroes have to steal? And remember Adam? Or even Isaac Newton? What about Chris
Martin’s and Gwyneth Paltrow’s daughter? And the Big Apple? Or the apple of our
eye? It’s always apples. Red, shiny,
firm, not too sweet, those are my favourite to eat. But for jam, they’d better
be sweet and not as firm.
My mum goes
to the open market every Friday and buys tons of apples and pears and oranges. Then,
when I go to see her, about once or twice a week, she gives me carrier bags
with fruit enough to feed ten people for a week. So I decided to make some jam
so that all this fruit wouldn’t go to waste.
Now, it is
known that the best time to make apple jam is November. But I made some a few
days ago and it was delicious. I didn’t add pectin. Some recipes recommend it,
but I disagree, since apples are already rich in pectin. My apples were already
very sweet and I even halved the sugar in the original recipe.
- 7 cups
apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced (try to include apples of the same
kind)
- 3-4 cups
sugar (depends on the apples really, my recipe asked for 6 cups of sugar but I
added 3 and a half)
- 1/4 cup
lemon juice
- 2 tbs
cinnamon
1. Place
thinly sliced apples in a large saucepan over a high heat.
2. Add the
sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon while stirring continuously.
3. Let the
mixture boil for about 20 minutes or half an hour until thickened, removing any
scum that may rise to the surface. Don’t forget to stir continuously. Some
water might be needed, again, depending on the kind of apples you are using.
4. Pour the
mixture into jam jars, seal and store away. It’s delicious on toasted bread and
butter, or with crepes, or cakes, or tarts.
Nathaniel
Hawthorne-Mosses from an Old Manse-The Old Manse
- Apples and Oranges - Pink Floyd
- Appels and Oranges - Smashing
Pumpkins
- Rotten
Apples - Smashing Pumpkins
- Little
Apples- Momus