Applesauce??

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Permalink Reply by Melissa on October 17, 2008 at 12:30pm

I have been making all sorts of recipes for canning with apples (see post) this fall. So far I have canned 4 bushels of apples and just picked another bushel this week with at least 3 or 4 more bushels still on the tree that need picking. I will have to get them picked and cooked soon before the weather turns too cold. Anyway, what I do to make applesauce and apple cider at the same time: cut apples into 4 pieces each. Place in pot and just cover with water. Cover and simmer for 2 - 3 hours until water is golden amber color. Place a colander over another pot and pour apples into colander to drain off liquid. (Don't press.) Then, using a food mill or fruit sieve puree the apples into a large bowl. The cores, peels, and seeds will not go thru. Now, you can pour the applesauce into a pot, add sugar if desired, and season with cinnamon if desired and cook until hot. If you are going to can the applesauce you would then place in steril jars and process.

For the cider, bring cider to a boil, add sugar to taste, allspice and cinnamon and a few whole cloves. Simmer to reduce for about 30 minutes.

If you do not have a fruit seive, you can peel and core the apples before cooking, but you would probably need to strain the apples from the cider rather than using a colander. When I am making other recipes with the apples (apple relish, chutney, etc.) I peel and core the apples and then place the peels and cores into a pot, cover and cook as above. Then I put the peels and cores thru the seive and get off the apple sauce and cook the cider the same way. Easy, no waste, and so yummy! I have canned about 12 quarts of cider so far off of 4 bushels of apples, gotten 10 quarts of apple sauce, 17 pints of apple relish, 5 pints of apple chutney, 6 pints of apple pie jam, and 10 pints of apple butter.

I still have plans to make:

At least 6 quarts of Apple Pie Filling
Apple Spice Marmalade
Apple Pickles
Fried Apples
Apple Pepper Jelly
Apple Jelly (from the cider)
Apple Spice Syrup
More Apple Butter, Cider, and Apple Sauce
And if I can find any other recipes, I will try them out too! In fact, if anyone has a different recipe, please share!

Anyway, I know you don't have that many apples, apple sauce is easy and yummy and easy to can. For those of you who would like to can a lot of apples, look for apple picking farms in your community!

I was given a bag of wild plums last week by a church member. I cooked them down, put them through my seive and make Wild Plum Jam. Oh my it is good! I got 6 pints. I was not given a ton of plums, but it was just enough to make the jam. I am going to ask my church member tomorrow if it is possible to get some more from her! I also saved a number of seeds so we can plant them this spring. Okay, so that was kind of off topic, but I have been enjoying this so much the last few weeks. It had been several years since I canned (after canning 15 flats of strawberries one year - I was sick of strawberries and canning!), and I think I am addicted now!

Melissa Ringstaff

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Permalink Reply by Yahaloma on October 22, 2008 at 3:22pm

Oh, apple sauce is SO simple. We like it chunky, so I core and peel (the hardest part) all the apples, then cube them up. Put them into a heavy bottomed pot, with just enough water to cover the bottome a bit. Cook on medium heat until the apples start to create their own sauce, stirring occasionally. Use a potatoe masher to start breaking up the chunks some. Pour on a bunch of cinnamon if desired, and we had raw honey to taste. We like ours a bit tart, too. ;0)

Have jars handy that are hot out of the canning pot, sterilized. Pour the finished, hot sauce into the jars, leaving about a 1/2 inch head space. Place hot, sterilized lids and rings on the jars. If you have enough to keep for longer than a few weeks, process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes (be sure the water leavel is an inch over the top of the jars). Otherwise, the sauce will keep for about 2 weeks in the fridge after the jars cool.

Apple butter is the exact same thing, just boiled down to a pure mush, no chunks. You can run it through a food mill to get it as fine as possible.

With the cores, and peelings, you can then make apple cider vinegar, compost or feed them to the chickens.

We made lots of apple sauce this year, and wish I had more apples to work with for more crisps fillings!

Barucha (blessings)......

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