SC - Re: crab apple verjuis

[ChannonM at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/10/00 12:09:50 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
owner-sca-cooks at ansteorra.org writes:

<< There's a pretty straightforward recipe in Markham's "The English
 Hus-Wife" (1615 C.E.) which calls for it to be made from crabapples.
  
 Adamantius
 - --  >>

A few years ago, I made verjuis from crab apples. I took a quart basket, put 
a quart of water on the stove, crushed the crabs and simmered them for about 
1 hour. In retrospect, if I had a juicer, I wouldn't have added the water. I 
think that maybe by the final boil, alot of the water would have evaporated, 
but then I'll bet there were some characteristically different aspects to raw 
squeezed vs cooked (like sugar content and possibly co-agulated starches) I 
then strained the mash and squeezed out as much as I could. Using a fine 
seive I tried to remove as much of the apple as possible (there still ended 
up some in the bottom of the resulting jars)I then used sterilized jars, 
brought the juice to a boil and canned the stuff. The product was a light 
yellow, clear, but with a sediment on the bottom. It was just last month that 
I tossed the final jar, the seal had never popped, but it was 3 years since I 
canned it. I chose not to temp fate. 

The result was tart, yet a hint of sweet. I used it in some 14th C French 
recipes, as I had no way of getting unripe grapes at the time. Worked for me.

Hauviette