Apple Butter Tutorial

After mentioning a batch of apple butter last week, Sam requested a recipe. Umm...OK. Here's ya a recipe :)

Go ahead. Eat me. Make my day

Start with a LOT of apples. I had half a paper sack full. The great thing about apple butter is you can use those funky home-grown apples- cracks, blemishes, etc. are all fine. Mine were from a tree in Mom's yard we always forget about and harvest late. These apples were way past their prime- I'm sure I couldn't have eaten them if I wanted to keep my vow to never touch alcohol. They were POTENT! You'll also want a food mill and a crockpot. You could punt and do without, but they make this a lot easier!

So, take your apples and cook them soft. It will go faster if you halve or quarter them first. I microwaved mine, but you could boil them too. Mine were soft enough that they didn't need much help.

Once your apples are soft, start loading the hopper of your food mill. You can see my set up below- I clamp it onto an extendable bread board under the counter with a 9x13" pan to catch the puree and a small bowl to catch the waste. (I actually traded the small bowl for a 9x9" pan later. Do whatever works for you.)

Once your apples are in the hopper start using the wooden pusher to start mashing them through, while turning the crank on the side. The corkscrew inside mashes everything against a fine sieve- the puree comes out the side and down the chute, while the nasty parts (skins, seeds, stems, etc.) head straight through. It's REALLY a good idea to have one of these- go borrow one! (Mine belonged to my sweet MIL...who swears she was never able to use it for applesauce and had to borrow HER mother-in-laws. Which makes me wonder...do I have Great-Grandma's food mill??)

Once you've churned through all those apples, dump the whole thing into a crockpot and crank it to high for the rest of the day. Keep it on low over night, and then crank it again in the morning. You want to go from this....

to this. It will take quite a while, but keep the lid off and it will cook down and won't scorch. It's hard to do this on the stove top without scorching it! If you like you can add cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, sugar, or whatever floats your boat. Me, I like straight up apples.

Once it's nice and thick, ladle/push it into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4 inch head space, and process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. My half bag of apples made 2 pints of apple butter, so you'd need a LOT of apples if you wanted to make a lot of apple butter. The good news is that most of the work is hands off. You could also start with store-bought apple sauce.

Enjoy!