Rowan Jelly

[Tack]

Hi,

Last year I made a batch of rowan jelly but it turned out to have too much of a sharp taste to it for my liking.

I'm looking for suggestions as to what I can add to leesen the sharpness.

As ever all help gratefully received.

Tack

 

[copper_head]

Never made rowan jelly, but I am a chef. So from a culinary point of view adding sugar or honey would counteract the sharpness, not sure if this is what you were after but its my 2p's worth

 

[combatblade1]

Wouldnt mind seeing your recipe, could you post it or pm it to me?

 

[spamel]

Gotta put honey in it, surely. Natures own sweetener! And some port!

 

[Toddy]

Tell me you didn't *just* use Rowans

Rowan Jelly:
Per kilo (about 2lbs) of apples add one large spray of rowan berries.
Wash fruit and leave wet. Cut apples into quarters or eighths, strip the rowans off their stalks and add to the apples in either a jelly pan or a big pot. Just cover, and no more, with water and slowly simmer the whole thing until the fruit is mushy.
Strain.
This really matters if you want jewel like clarity in your jelly. Strain thoroughly through a jelly bag or layers of muslin. Allow to hang until the juice stops dripping. Do not squeeze.
If you don't mind cloudy, just strain through a fine sieve.

To the juice add in proportion, 1ltr of juice needs a little less than a kg of sugar, and it can manage with quite a lot less if needed, say 800g. That's a pint to a pound for the imperialists.

Add sugar to juice in a jelly pan or heavy bottomed large pot and bring slowly up to the boil stirring to make sure the sugar dissolves. Then, stirring continuously, bring up to a gentle rolling boil for about ten minutes.. Remove any scimmings which form. Drop a little of the jelly on a cold plate to see if it's ready to set. Once the setting point has been reached, remove the pan from the heat and allow it to sit for a few minutes. Then pour into heated, sterilised jars and seal.

More rowans can be added if you really like bitter, but too many make a jelly that overpowers everything else.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Greg]

According to RM in his new book - Wild Food, he states that rowan beries can cause serious side effects in some people. I personally have decided to leave them alone, but I don't know what other people think!

 

[Toddy]

I've never heard of this, and I've eaten them all my life. I think that the quantity someone consumes may be an issue though. However, they are so bitter that I don't think one could eat all that many with any great pleasure anyway.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[spamel]

Maybe the side effects are due to the fact that we drink fluids from the udder of a beast of the field, and consume way too much meat and other produce that we shouldn't really be eating. What was the first person who drank milk actually doing?!

 

[Toddy]

Maybe just trying to feed a hungry child; but who would have ever thought of milking a camel It's how they discovered cheese that worries me Some sort of rennet is needed; maybe they slaughtered a calf with it's belly full of milk for that one

cheers,
Toddy

 

[spamel]

Gross! It does make you wonder how some foods are discovered. I saw the geese getting fed in France ready to be used for making foie gras. They stick a funnel into their gullet and pour seed into their stomach. It is a horrible process.

 

[Tack]

Wouldnt mind seeing your recipe, could you post it or pm it to me?

Hi,

The recipe is basically the same as Snoddy's however I only used rowan berries. (this is one of those Homer, Doh! moments).

I'm going to have another bash because the rowan berries are huge this Autumn, apples too.

Thanks all,

Tack

 

[xylaria]

Maybe just trying to feed a hungry child; but who would have ever thought of milking a camel It's how they discovered cheese that worries me Some sort of rennet is needed; maybe they slaughtered a calf with it's belly full of milk for that one

cheers,
Toddy

That really expensive coffee that is fed to civets. OK I can see in times of famine maybe the pangs of caffeine addiction may drive some to wash off the scat and make a brew, but how desperately hungry would the civet have to be to eat coffee beans. A famine without coffee I can envisage but a famine without any mice for a cat must be horrid.

I have tried making rowan jelly, and i couldn't make it palatable. I have some whitebeam fruit that i going try instead. The fresh berries are nowhere near as acrid as rowan. whitebeam is use in sweden to make a sauce for reindeer meat, i can't find a recipe, so I will use the rowan recipe with the apples.

 

[Toddy]

I make some Rowan jelly every year, my elderly uncle is very partial to it, and HWMBLT takes a notion to it every so often. Like a bitter marmalade. Commercial stuff I've tasted was awful, far too sweet and no bite, or all bitter and no jelly jam taste at all.
I did make it once and added whiskey after a recipe I spotted somewhere.....not needed, a waste of good whiskey A teaspoonful of orange oil stirred through just before pouring it into the jars was good though

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Ed]

I did make it once and added whiskey after a recipe I spotted somewhere.....not needed, a waste of good whiskey A teaspoonful of orange oil stirred through just before pouring it into the jars was good though

Great Idea... deffinatly going to have to try those

Ed

 

[demographic]

That really expensive coffee that is fed to civets. OK I can see in times of famine maybe the pangs of caffeine addiction may drive some to wash off the scat and make a brew, but how desperately hungry would the civet have to be to eat coffee beans. A famine without coffee I can envisage but a famine without any mice for a cat must be horrid.

I have tried making rowan jelly, and i couldn't make it palatable. I have some whitebeam fruit that i going try instead. The fresh berries are nowhere near as acrid as rowan. whitebeam is use in sweden to make a sauce for reindeer meat, i can't find a recipe, so I will use the rowan recipe with the apples.

I have had some of the Weasel coffee, the stuff that the vietnamese weasel has eaten then barfed up, not the civet crap one.

My step daughter went through a phase of buying loads of weird stuff from Firebox so I got to try out some weird foods.

The weasel stuff was rather nice actually.