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Rosehip and Apple Jelly Recipe

Rosehips in our garden

Rosehips in our garden

Rosehips are ripening and perfect for picking now. Some people wait until after the first frost, when the rosehips will be soft. We start picking from the first week in September. They need to cook for longer but we know that they’re really fresh. They’re high in vitamin C and a great asset for the self sufficient smallholder. As a child, I remember my Mother giving us rosehip syrup (a dessert spoon daily). It was rather good. Nowadays, we make apple and rosehip jelly.

The rosehip flavour combines well with the apple. This is a delicate jelly with a fuller taste than plain apple jelly; good with toast for breakfast and excellent served with chicken, pork or a mild cheese.

Incidentally, I recently heard that rosehip concoctions are good for sore throats. Perhaps we should all toy with a spoonful when we’re next in bed with a bug.

Rosehip and Apple Jelly recipe

 

Ingredients:

 

  • 2 lb/900g rosehips
  • 4 lb/1800g of sweet eating apples. We use windfalls as they won’t keep
  • Zest of half a lemon (add to the apples)
  • Juice of half a lemon (strained). Half a medium lemon equates to one tablespoon of juice.
  • Sugar – 1pt/600ml of strained juice to 1lb/454g of white granulated sugar
  • This recipe makes 14 half pound jars. So adjust accordingly.
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Method:
As the rosehips can take longer than the apple to soften I always cook them separately. In this way both are cooked for their individual optimum time. I cook the rosehips on one evening, straining it overnight, and then cook the apples on the next evening. The juice will keep well in the fridge for a couple of days, in covered containers. Split over three evenings, the jelly is not a palaver and can be easily fitted into a busy routine.

 

  1. Remove stalks from the rosehips and place in a large pan. Don’t use an iron or aluminium pan as this will strip away the vitamin C. A large glass or enamelled saucepan is ideal. I use a large non stick, stainless steel stock pot or Maslin pan. Barely cover the hips with water and bring to the boil and simmer gently until the hips are soft. This can take quite a while if the hips are still firm (when I was making this jelly, the hips took a good hour and a half to soften). Keep an eye on them, stirring from time to time. Top up with water if necessary. (I mashed them gently with a plastic potato masher to hurry them along). If you are using my three evening method, strain the rosehips through sterilised muslin (see points 3 and 4 below)
  2. Wash the apples, cut out bad bits and chop roughly. There is no need to peel or core the apples. Add water to cover of the fruit – they should just be floating. Add the lemon zest. Bring slowly to the boil and simmer very gently until all the fruit is soft and squishy. (This can take anything from 20 minutes to an hour, depending on how ripe the fruit is.)
  3. Pour the cooked fruit through sterilised muslin into a large clean bucket or bowl (how do I sterilise muslin/the jelly bag? See tips and tricks below). The muslin is often referred to as a “jelly bag”. We use tall buckets to catch the drips from the jelly bags. Rather than hang the bags (conventional method-between the legs of an upturned stool) I find it easier to line a large plastic sieve with the muslin. This clips neatly onto the top of a clean bucket. The sieve is covered with a clean tea cloth to protect against flies.
  4. Leave the jelly bag to drip overnight (or about 12 hours).
  5. Measure the juice the next day.
  6. Pour the juice into a deep heavy bottomed saucepan and add 1lb/454g of white granulated sugar for each 1pt/570ml of juice.
  7. Add the lemon juice.
  8. Heat the juice and sugar gently stirring from time to time, so as to make sure that that all the sugar has dissolved before bringing the liquid slowly to the boil.
  9. As there are apples (high in pectin) in this recipe only continue to boil for about 10 minutes before testing for a set. This is called a rolling boil. Test every 3 to 5 minutes until setting point is reached. (What is testing for a set? See tips and tricks below).
  10. Tossing in a nugget of butter towards the end will reduce the frothing that can occur.
  11. When jelly has reached setting point pour into warm sterilised jars using a funnel and ladle. (How do I sterilise jars? See tips and tricks below).
  12. Cover immediately with plastic lined screw top lids or waxed disks and cellophane tops secured with a rubber band.
  13. If you don’t think that the jelly has set properly, you can reboil jelly the next day. The boiling reduces the water in the jelly. I have done this in the past. Ideally you should try for the right set the first time.
  14. Label when cold and store in a cool, dark place. Away from damp.
  15.  

Tips and tricks:

  • What is a jelly bag?
    A jelly bag is traditionally a piece of muslin but it can be cheesecloth, an old thin tea cloth or even a pillowcase. The piece needs to be about 18 inches square. When your fruit is cooked and ready to be put in the jelly bag, lay your cloth over a large bowl. Pour the fruit into the centre of the cloth and tie the four corners together so that they can be slung on a stick to drip over the bowl. Traditionally a stool is turned upside down, the stick is rested on the wood between the legs and the jelly bag hangs over the bowl. We experimented and now line a sieve with muslin, place it over a bucket and cover the lot with clean tea cloths (against the flies).
  • How do I sterilise muslin/the jelly bag?
    Iron the clean jelly bag with a hot iron. This method will also sterilise tea cloths.
  • Jelly “set” or “setting point”?
    Getting the right set can be tricky. I have tried using a jam thermometer but find it easier to use the following method.
    Before you start to make the jelly, put a couple of plates in the fridge so that the warm jam can be drizzled onto a cold plate (when we make jam we often forget to return the plate to the fridge between tests, using two plates means that you have a spare cold plate). Return the plate to the fridge to cool for approx two minutes. It has set when you run your finger through it and leave a crinkly track mark. If after two minutes the cooled jam is too liquid, continue to boil the jelly, testing it every few minutes until you have the right set. The jelly is far more delicious if it is slightly runny. It does get firmer after a few months.
  • How do I sterilise the jars and lids?
    We collect jars all year round for our jelly, chutney and jam making sessions. I try to soak off labels and store the clean jars and metal plastic coated screw-top lids in an accessible place. The sterilising method that we use is simple. Just before making the jam, I quickly wash and rinse the jars and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160c (140c fan-assisted). When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The jars will stay warm for quite a while. I only use plastic lined lids for preserves as the all-metal lids can go rusty. I boil these for five minutes in water to sterilise them. If I use Le Parfait jars, I do the same with the rubber rings.
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139 Comments

  1. Hi fn – someone told me its been a particularly good year for fruit and nuts? Sussex if full of berries and hips too and I’ve noticed far more hedgerow birds this year so plenty of natures fayre to go round! Tis a shame about those bugs perhaps someone clever can tell why its a problem this year?(My apple and rosehip jelly took longer than usual to get to setting point this year, boiled it for ages, bottled it, had to start again as not set but worked fine on second attempt – wonderful colour!) K.

  2. Fiona Nevile

    Yes Kaz, I totally agree.

    However the hedgerows are full of wild hips that in East Anglia are still firm and have few nasty residents.

  3. It does seem so unfair that the bugs have got to those lovely red jewels before us! and yes despite my best efforts to deny it – gross. However, I’m reminded of my childhood when I was actively encouraged to eat fruit directly off our garden bushes and trees, washing them first was just not done…….so I must have consumed a wide avriety of bugs and beasties and I now feel that if I was going to suffer from them I would have done so by now. I also think that jelly making is the best punishment for the criters and as long as you boil up to jam making temperature and use a good quality muslin to seive through you’re a winner!! x

  4. janet desmarais

    thanks Kirstin, glad I’m not the only one grossed out…..anyone out there have any solutions to this problem?

  5. Hi,
    Im in the process of making the Rosehip and Apple Jelly, I have made many Rosehip Recipes before. Just wondering, you mention the ammount of apple jucie to use with the sugar (1 pint apple juice to 1lb of sugar) But do not mention the ammount of R/hip ligiud to add to the last and final stage of the recipe. I have strained my R/hips and have managed to get approx 3/4 pint, how much of this do I put with the Apple liquid ?
    Hope you can help ? Many Thanks 🙂

  6. Janet,
    We had a similar experience with the rosehips we picked. They were riddled with larvae. I scooped them out with seeds, but after about 1 hour (seed removal is such a labour intensive task) I got so disgusted by the whole thing, I gave up. I made up a batch of jelly (I think it made 2 jars) – I figured the heat would kill off anything else still in there. I have yet to try the jelly as there is still part of me that is grossed out by it. I plan to go picking for rosehips in the next few days and we’ll see if any of them are ok. Part of me tries to stop being so squirmy.. I am sure the commercial jams and jellies are full of bugs that get boiled to blazes

  7. Hi Fiona.
    Thanks for all the wonderful recipes, so inspiring. Made the rosehip and apple jelly the other day.I have noticed that there is a cloudy sedimenty appearance at the top of the jars, the set is fine and the excess that I put into a ramekin tasted great. Is this cloudy bit a problem? If so, any ideas or should I throw it (really don’t want to)and start again. It’s a lovely sunny Devon day so I shall go and get more rosehips so I can try again aswell.

    Thanks for all the inspirartion and tips.
    Inge

  8. janet desmarais

    I was all excited to try making some rose hip syrup. I picked a couple cups of hips, rinsed them and started to pull off the stems and flower remnants. In doing so I saw a small white lavae. I squeezed a few more hips and found several more. Needless to say I threw the whole batch out.

  9. suebeedoo

    I finished this last night, oh it’s delightful! Am now scoping out hedgerows further afield for more rosehips!

  10. yoganmahew

    Thanks very much for the recipe.

    Made a batch last three nights and tasted it this morning. As with lavinia above, I had a sort of tea like liquor after the apple boil. Since there’s no frost due for a while, the hips were as hard as nails and gave off a very disappointing amount of water, so I tipped the mash in with the apples and added extra water. As there was extra water, I did a reduce boil before adding the sugar and strained it (good for getting rid of bits of sludge).

    The result, like lavinia’s, is like honey.

    PS for those who like to use a thermometor, when the boil temperature hits 105c seems to be the right one.

    Delicious!

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