This topic was brought up a while back, and I have a question for those more experienced than me.
I've made lots of grape jelly, but this year decided to try and expand my jelly-making.
We have a flowering crab tree by our driveway, and it's always full of what I am assuming are crabapples. They're little, and their color goes from yellow to red (they're not bright red like regular apples). I've been looking for recipes to make crabapple jelly, and they all say to remove the stem and blossom ends and quarter them. Guys, these suckers are only about the size of a cherry!!!!!!!!! There's no way I can see that you can do all that cutting on these little tiny things.
So, does anyone have experience with the TINY crabapples? Just from reading, it seems that there are different sizes of crabapples, and most recipes are for ones about the the size of a plum.
Any and all help would be appreciated. I did find one thing that showed the fruit the same size as mine, and it just said to cook them stems and all and strain them....but it was apparently out of a British cookbook, as there were some directions I didn't understand (weights and amounts, mostly....and it didn't mention pectin, which most other recipes said were necessary because even though apples have pectin, it's generally not enough to get a well-set jelly).
Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most pectin boxes have recipes for "apple or crabapple" jelly. You wouldn't absolutely NEED pectin in it, but it's a little insurance, so to speak. As for the stem and quarter, if you pick the stems off with your fingers and scrape off any blossom end that sticks out, then give them a good washing, they'll work fine. When they cook, they'll soften and you can smoosh them with a potato masher. I'm pretty sure the main idea of quartering the big ones is to get them to cook more quickly.

We have made jelly from both the tiny ones and the huge ones, and the huge ones are easier to use , but the little ones work fine too.