Using Fallen Apples

I usually have lots of spare cooking apples at this time of year. Large unblemished apples I wrap individually in newspaper and store, but there are lots of apples that fall out of the tree and won't keep because they are bruised.

I usually cut out any bad bits, peel and core them, cook them down to a pulp, freezing what I don't want to eat immediately.

Usually I sweeten the apple pulp by mixing with home made jam, so I get a sort of stewed mixed fruit, most of which I eat with my afternoon yoghurt.

This year I thought of using apple to make preserves.

The thought came to me when I spotted bowls of apricots offered at £1-00 in the market. My bowl had 650 g of apricots, so I added the same mass of apple pulp and made it into jam.

It set extremely well, or course. The popular setting agent sold as certo is made from apple juice.

That was a couple of days ago; today it occurred to me that apple could be substituted for marrow in Ginger Marmalade. After all, the marrow functions mainly as a neutral substrate around which a gingery jelly forms. Once again, the stuff set well. I still haven't decided whether to label the result Ginger Marmalade or Apple and Ginger Jam