How long did you allow for the sauce to drip thru the cheesecloth? Sometimes it takes overnight. You can always add more water to thin the sauce out, I have.

some apples, crab or regular, produce a thicker sauce. I hope you are using real crab apples, not the ornamental crab apples. It makes a real difference. I haven't found true crab apples for years.

Depending upon rainfall or water access, the pulp may have been more dry resulting in a thicker mixture and more viscous "juice." Squeezing would have pushed pulp through the filter.

Carol

I let the juice drip through the jelly bag for 3 or 4 hours (it seemed to almost stop dripping at this point) and only maybe a quarter of the juice dripped through by then so that's when I squeezed the jelly bag (I'm sort of impatient).

The crabapples I used were pink-fleshed, around an inch in diameter, and they were from a tree maybe 20 feet tall and wide. So it's a big, old tree.

And it makes sense that they might have been a little dry inside. The tree doesn't get any supplemental watering.

I've got both the juice and sauce in the fridge right now. Both taste pretty good at this point. Tart but good. Plus they are a nice rosey color.

Rodney

I only have one comment, Rodney. ( Sorry, but I don't have much experience with small crabapples. I also believed that crabapples were much larger than the 1" you mentioned)

Jelly bags, if dry, can absorb a fair amount of the juice ... so oftentimes we will thoroughly wet the bag (under a faucet) and wring it dry. That way, you might not waste so much juice.

It does sound, though, that your apples must have not been very juicy. If the color and the flavor is good, though, that's great! I'm certain you'll be able to do something delicious with it ... and sugar!

Let us know how it goes, OK?

It sounds to me that it was an ornamental tree, they can get just as large as any other apple tree. True crab apples, that I've found/used, are more the size of small regular apples. You can tell the difference until you bite into them. My mother had an old orchard of local college's experimental apple trees.

I don't think the ornamental part is dangerous, just they do will be drier than the average crab apple. It will take much more. Just add more water to the pulp and let it drip THRU the pulp. Personally I don't like to add water unless absolutely necessary, and when I do, I add it to the pulp to get more flavor.

As far as dripping, I've found that I'm inpatient also. I allow it to drip overnight whenever possible. Ajsmama mentioned letting it drip in the laundry room, I tried hanging the bag on the shelf over my washer/dryer and it worked great.

I poured boiling water through the jelly bag before adding the juice, so it was pre-moistened. Water drains through it fast, just not my juice. lol

Well it appears my choice of crabapples was the problem. It took nearly 6 pounds of crabapples and 6 cups water just to get 3 1/4 cups of juice. (didn't measure the total amount of applesauce) At least now I know how much apples I need to use if I decide to make this again. Or find juicier crabapples.

And the jelly is done. This morning I made the jelly and sealed it. I got 4 half-pints, plus an extra half-cup that I didn't process. It's cooling on a towel on my kitchen counter. It tastes great. I used a turkey baster to suck the juice off the sediment that accumulated overnight. What really surprised me is that when I was boiling the juice and sugar together, it cleared up nicely.

As for the applesauce, I added enough water to loosen it up some and enough sugar to sweeten it. It tastes great as well (I left it somewhat tart). I froze it instead of canning it though. I thought about using apple cider instead of water to loosen it but decided that I wanted a pure crabapple sauce.

Thanks everyone for the help. Very much appreciated.

Rodney

Crab applesauce is great if you like tart applesauce. I would have canned the applesauce, but that's me.