Crab Apple Sauce is sweet, tart, delicious, and reminds me of my childhood. My parents have lives in an old farmhouse for over fifty years. It’s nearly 200 years old now. They have a beautiful, large crab apple tree in their yard. It was large when I was a child and that was a long time ago. I remember picking crab apples from the lower branches and biting in to the sour goodness.
That tree is still there. My kids go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house and do the same today. I have to wonder how many kids over the years have eaten from that tree. Were there children there before me?
If you like Crab Apple Sauce, you might enjoy How to Make Crab Apple Butter and How to Make Crab Apple Jelly.
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Tools you will need for making Crab Apple Sauce
A large sauce pan
Paring knife
Bowl or other pan to run the food mill over
Measuring cups and spoons
Prepared canning jars and lids
Clean damp cloth
Cooling Rack or clean dry towel
Ingredients for Crab Apple Sauce
2 ½ to 3 pounds crab apples
*Select apples that are fresh, firm, ripe and blemish free.
1 cup water or apple cider
1 cup of pure cane sugar per quart of crab apple pulp (optional)
Instructions for Crab Apple Sauce
Wash and quarter your crab apples. Place them in a large sauce pan, add 1 cup of water or apple cider to start the cooking process, and heat to simmering. Cook until crab apples are softened, stirring them often to keep them from sticking to the pan.
Run crab apples through a food mill or sieve and return the apple pulp to your sauce pan. I added ¼ cup of pure cane sugar per cup of apple pulp (1 cup of pure cane sugar per quart of crab apple pulp). If you like tart apple sauce, skip the sugar.
Slowly, simmer the mixture until it is your desired thickness, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Enjoy it now…or can it for later.
Canning Crab Apple Sauce
Ladle your crab apple sauce into hot prepared canning jars to within ½ inch of the rim of the jar. Wipe the rim of your jar with a clean, damp cloth. Place your lids onto your jars, making sure the rubber seal meets the jar rim. Screw on the metal ring/band firmly.
Use a jar lifter to place your crab apple sauce in the metal canning rack in a boiling water bath. Process pints and quarts in the boiling water bath for 20 minutes (times indicated for 1,000 feet above sea level).
When the time is complete turn off the heat, remove the canner lid, and allow the canner to cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove your jars of crab apple sauce from the canner; place them on a cooling rack or dry kitchen towel two inches apart to cool. Some of the bands may seem loose at this point, do not re-tighten them.
After 12 hours, check to see if the jars have sealed, the center of the lid should be concaved and not able to flex. Remove the metal bands/rings; carefully try to pull the lid off with your finger tips to check the seal again. Place any unsealed jars in the refrigerator and use as soon as possible or reprocess starting over with new jars and lids.
Allow sealed jars to cool for 24 hours. Wash the jars (especially the threads) and label them with contents and date. Store your crab apple sauce in a cool, dry place away from light.
Thank you for visiting Mama’s Homestead!
~Nelle
- Ingredients for Crab Apple Sauce
- 2 ½ to 3 pounds crab apples
- Select apples that are fresh, firm, ripe and blemish free.
- 1 cup water or apple cider
- 1 cup of pure cane sugar per quart of crab apple pulp (optional)
- Instructions for Crab Apple Sauce
- Wash and quarter your crab apples. Place them in a large sauce pan, add 1 cup of water or apple cider to start the cooking process, and heat to simmering. Cook until crab apples are softened, stirring them often to keep them from sticking to the pan.
- Run crab apples through a food mill or sieve and return the apple pulp to your sauce pan. I added ¼ cup of pure cane sugar per cup of apple pulp (1 cup of pure cane sugar per quart of crab apple pulp). If you like tart apple sauce, skip the sugar.
- Slowly, simmer the mixture until it is your desired thickness, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.
- Refrigerate and enjoy it now…or can it for later.
Hi Nelle! I’m new to your site, having just looked up crab apple sauce because I picked a pile of them today. You’re so lucky to have the history of your family farm and all the homestead teaching 🙂 I think I was born too late and also love “old-fashioned” ways of doing things. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I’m sure I’ll be snooping around on your site 🙂
Ahhh! Thank you for stopping by. I was certainly born too late also and am so grateful for my upbringing.
Hi Nelle!
Re: your crab apple sauce recipe
Like Jodie, we’re new to your site also, and just about to picked some perfectly ripe, though small crab apples. My (Ken’s) question is, however, regarding the cores (after quartering them). I.e. coring them
Did you maybe forget that very (I presume) time-consuming step, or (not having one.. yet) is that something the food mill step handles?
Thanks Nelle, (and), isn’t fall wonderful 🙂 It’s almost begun.. up here in Canada!
Ken
Sorry it took long to get back to you, it’s been a busy season. Yes, the sieve/food mill takes care of the crabapple cores. It would take a long time to core those tiny apples. Lol!
Thanks, Nelle, for the crab-applesauce receipt. I, too, grew up in a small town in Ohio (Paulding County). I always enjoyed my mother’s and grandmothers gardens and fruit trees. I now live at 8,000 feet in Wyoming and the fruit trees are conspicuously absent….except for chokecherry and crabapple trees. I do gather gooseberries and currants from the stream banks, but I’m competing with the bears and they usually have the upper “paw” on that market. Thanks, again.
just what is a food mill? is a sieve good enough to use to make crab applesauce?
I LOVE this recipe! Thanks for sharing! I’m going to try canning. How long do you leave the filled pots in the boiling water bath to process?