If it’s a good crab, rather than an ornamental, I like to eat them out of hand, or pickled. Try adding a few to a batch of applesauce, too; it kicks the flavor up a notch. Never tried using them in applebutter.
I need to head into town, and ‘steal’ a batch; they planted a bunch of REAL, decent sized fruit, red all the way through, crab apple treess in the main park, and they are ready for the taking. Any more, they seem to be hard to come by, in most areas.
Interested enough now to go out and open some up to see how they look and to taste.
Thank you