Crab Apple Jelly, Phase Two

OK, So today is Phase Two of the crab apple jelly making. The pulp has been straining through the bag all night and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed in the amount of juice I've managed to collect, plus it seems to be a bit cloudy, which I don't understand, because I didn't touch it once, let alone squeeze the bag as all the recipes instructed me not to.

Still, I've done the work, I've got some juice, I'm going to make jelly from what I've got and try and figure out what's gone wrong, because there is no way that 1 1/2 pints of juice will make the promised 5lbs of jelly.

Perhaps I didn;t cook the fruit enough. It said soft and pulpy, but perhaps it needed to be actual mush. Also, even though the juice has made the whole house smell deliciously sweet and appley it tastes as sour and bitter as aloes - I really hope that adding the sugar makes the difference...
Would it be worth adding more water and boiling up the pulp again to see if more juice can be made?

Exciting Day!

So I made my first foray into jelly making today - very exciting, especially as I've only ever made jams with my mum and we never ventured into the wonderful world of jellies, so doing this on my own was... well, scary, but I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

Right now the pulp is in a jelly bag straining through into a large bowl and tomorrow - the jellifying!

I used the recipe from this amazing cook book that my mum always used for *everything* - The Times Cookery Book by Katie Stewart. When I first moved in with my (now) husband I was determined: I needed that book. It wasn't in print any more, so I went to a second hand book shop and asked them about it. Apparently it was very in demand and they didn;t have any copies available, so they took my number and said they'd call me back. A year later they finally did and for only £30 (THIRTY WHOLE POUNDS) a copy was mine! Hurrah! It tells you everything, from roasts to pies, jams to tarts, puddings to bread - essential.

In other news - hubby and I had our usual strange effect on the natural world and got chosen as rescuers for an animal in trouble. A wee hedgehog was sitting right in the middle of our front lawn today. Every time there was a loud noise it curled in a ball, so we had to do something. Hubby gave it some cat food and put it in a box while I called four different people (whose names I found on a website) to see if there was someone in our area who could take him in. Eventually I contacted Sonya, five minutes away, who was happy to have the little chap. This isn't the first time some lost or broken animal in distress has landed on our doorstep (no mean feat considering that up until 2 months ago we lived up three flights of stairs!). I wonder why the universe keeps choosing us,m it can;t just be coincidence...

Photos below are of my ingenious jelly-straining apparatus (on a table so the cats are less likely to stick their noses in) and a close-up of the apple pulp. The photo on the right is of Sonic the hedgehog (yes, hubby chose the name).