Martha Stewart’s Prison Recipe is Only Two Ingredients

Photo by Cottonbro Studio / Pexels

When food options are limited, creativity kicks in, and no one proves that better than people in prison — and apparently Martha Stewart. Incarcerated folks have long been known to improvise, transforming ramen packets, chip bags, beef jerky, and powdered coffee creamer into surprisingly inventive snacks and meals. Entire cookbooks, like Prison Ramen, have been dedicated to these makeshift recipes, featuring classics like the infamous “prison burrito.”

Even Martha Stewart didn’t shy away from this common practice, despite being behind bars for only five months from late 2004 to early 2005. Always candid about her stint in prison, Stewart has often commented on the lack of food options available there, but made it work with what she had, as many inmates do. “The only thing I’ve been dreaming about is a cappuccino,” she told Fox News at the time.

But while Stewart did say she made use of the available microwave and vending machine, it wasn’t the commissary food items that she was resourceful with. Instead, she took to the prison grounds to forage for edible plants. Her most unexpected find? Not wild berries or mushrooms, but crab apples. “Some of the food was dated three years prior so I made crab apple jam from the trees,” she revealed to the Daily Mail.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Martha Stewart (@marthastewart)

Stewart then went on to publish her prison-style crab apple recipe in an Easter 2005 party planning printout. (In case you’re curious, it’s still currently available to download through her website.) “If you make this jelly in the fall, when crabapples are plentiful, it can then be canned and enjoyed throughout the year,” she wrote alongside the recipe.

This may very well be the bougiest prison recipe ever, and yet it’s only two ingredients. She is Martha Stewart, after all. Check out the full recipe below if you want to try it yourself — no foraging required.

---

Martha Stewart’s Crabapple Jelly

Ingredients

• 4 pounds crabapples
• 3 cups sugar

Directions

1. Wash and quarter apples; place in a 6-quart saucepan.
2. Add 6 cups water; place over medium-high heat; bring to a boil.
3. Reduce to a simmer; cook until very soft, 45 to 60 minutes; remove from heat.
4. Pour into a bowl through a fine mesh strainer lined with two layers of damp cheesecloth.
5. Gather cheesecloth; tie into a bundle. Suspend from a wooden-spoon handle set over bowl; drain, without pressing solids, 1 hour, to yield about 4 cups juice.
6. Place juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes; skim foam.
7. Add sugar; stir to dissolve. Clip on a candy thermometer; cook until the temperature reaches 220º, skimming foam.
8. Pour into jars, let cool, and keep refrigerated for up to 6 months.