Now's the time to keep all pets and small kids away!
Put on some long pants, long sleeves, and covered shoes to protect against splashes. The kids and pets need to be gone!
I put the bucket on the floor so that I don't have to lift a really heavy pot up high. Slowly pour the mashed crab apples into the strainer.
DO NOT SQUEEZE the pulp! This will make cloudy jelly.
Now measure how much juice you have. It doesn't matter whether you use cups, liters, etc.
I have 20 cups (5 liters) of juice.
That goes into your pot.
If you're not big on doing math, just use the exact amount of sugar as you have juice.
So if you have 20 cups of juice, put in 20 cups of sugar. Easy!
Now go wash your canning jars and those new lids and rings! Use hot soapy water and wash them even if they are brand new. The dishwasher works well to wash and keep them warm for canning!
Boil the jelly until it no longer just runs off the spoon. It needs to "sheet" off the spoon. Simply the drips need to be wider than the thin stream they were when you first began cooking the jelly. (See the fact sheet Ball provides below.)
P.S. If you are a beginner, lots of answers can be found on their website http://www.freshpreserving.com/faqs.html
You can now process the jars in a boiling water bath for 5 minutes.
(Sorry I didn't get a photo of this step.)
They are so pretty!
I think I'll add hot peppers to my second half of crab apples and make hot pepper jelly.