Making Apple Butter

-

My Gravenstein apple tree was full of apples this year. Sadly I did not take advantage of as many as I could. I have an issue.. we don’t eat applesauce (I buy fresh fruit, which is preferred by my family) and the apples are way too small to be made into apple pie filling .. so what to do? I wanted to take advantage of some of them and the deer will enjoy the rest of them. I ended up making apple butter. I know we will eat that and I have enough jars now to give away as well. A few days ago my daughter Leanne and I picked about 25 pounds of apples. I turned them into some delicious apple butter!

I began by searching for a recipe for apple butter. I found one that looked pretty good: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/apple_butter/  I ended up using 20#’s of apples which was 5 times the recipe.

I cut the apples in half and discarded bruised areas and such. I put them in a big pot with the water and apple cider vinegar called for in the recipe. I put this all in my big canning pot and let it cook for about a half hour..



I then pulled out my Victorio Strainer. I have had this for years. I love this thing!! I have used it in the past for applesauce (when my kids were young and they ate it! ), pumpkin puree, and tomato puree.. It saves tons of time!


You put your cooked apples skins, core, and all into the large funnel, crank the handle and out comes apple sauce on one side and the skins, cores on the other…







After I ran my cooked apples through the strainer I had 30 cups of sauce. The recipe states adding a ½ cup sugar for each cup of sauce. I added the sugar and spices called for and let it come to a boil and reduced the heat and let it simmer for a very long time.





By the time I had gotten to this point it was late at night and I turned it on the lowest setting and let it simmer all night long. By morning it had cooked down, but not enough. So I upped the heat and let it continue to cook until I felt it was done (according to the directions in the recipe)…
At this point it was time to start canning. I washed and sterilized several jars. I had everything from 8oz, 10oz, and 12oz to 16oz jars. I ended up with 16 jars of sauce…



With enough left over to partially fill another jar and we have been enjoying that one currently. 

The Victorio Strainer.....

Comments

  1. MandiSeptember 11, 2012 at 3:09 AM

    You can also make it in a crockpot. Just leave the lid on sideways so that the steam can escape. I find this easier so I don't have to worry about scorching.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BelindaSeptember 11, 2012 at 3:35 AM

    Yes, The crockpot works wonders with apple butter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. CherylSeptember 11, 2012 at 4:00 AM

    I also use the crock pot for my apple butter. The last two years we have turned our apples into cider and then canned it.

    Have a wonderful day.

    ~Cheryl

    ReplyDelete
  4. CrystalSeptember 11, 2012 at 3:36 PM

    Thank you all for the info.. I was aware you could make it in the crockpot.. but my crockpot could not hold 20# of applesauce.. LOL.. so I chose this way to make it. Another lady on my FaceBook page said she did it in her roaster oven.. I may try that next time and see how it goes.

    Crystal :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Red Brick FarmhouseSeptember 12, 2012 at 11:11 AM

    Mmmmmm.......there is nothing better than homemade apple butter!

    I have never made it in the crockpot. I think I'll stick to the same way I've been doing it for years, on the stove or over the fire!

    Blessings!
    Laura

    ReplyDelete
  6. aimeeSeptember 13, 2012 at 10:06 AM

    Yum! I LOVE apple butter:)
    Blessings,
    Aimee

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

All messages are moderated. After approval your message will be posted. Thank you for your comments!! Crystal :)

Popular posts from this blog

Canning Chicken Noodle-less Soup

-
Image
Today was one of those busy days that it seemed I was moving from the time my feet hit the floor until this evening.. But, I got so much done and that is a great feeling! :) One of my accomplishments today was canning 14 jars of chicken noodle-less soup. I call it “noodle-less” because you can’t can noodles. They end up falling apart. So I canned the chicken, veggies and broth. When I go to use the soup I will bring it to a boil and then add a handful of noodles (any type of pasta will work) and cook it until the noodles are done. Because I plan to add the pasta after the fact I wanted to make sure there was enough chicken broth to do this. So I only filled my jars about half to two thirds with chicken and veggies and then filled with chicken broth. Here is how I did this…. I started off with 2 chickens that were a total weight of about 10lbs. I put them in my 14 quart stock pot… I then added 2 gallons of water.. And 3 tablespoons salt.. I brought this
Read more

Canning Cabbage

-
Image
I had 4 large heads of cabbage that weighted about 25 pounds. We had some really hot days and I figured I better get the last of them picked soon. My daughter Sierra and I ended up processing 3 of them yesterday and I have one left for a meal on my menu this week. I made pickled cabbage and then canned up the last of the cabbage. Here is the recipe for the pickled cabbage (according to how I made it)… 8 pounds cabbage 1 large onion 1 ½ red peppers 1 lb carrots ¾ cup salt 9 cups water 12 cups white vinegar 10 cups sugar 1t mustard seed 1t celery seed Slice cabbage thinly. Slice onion and peppers. Grate carrots. Mix all veggies together in a very large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix in well. Let sit for 2 hours to soften veggies. Rinse veggies well.  In a large stock pot (mine was 14 quarts) combine water, vinegar, sugar, spices. Bring to a boil. Add cabbage/veggies. Bring to a boil. Fill hot pint jars with veggies using a slotted spoon. Fill jar with brine to
Read more

Canning Beef Stew

-
Image
In my last blog post I shared that I had bought 10 pounds of beef roast. I cut it all up and used 4 pounds in 2 crockpot freezer meals ( http://homesteadinghomemaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/two-more-crockpot-meals-for-freezer.html ) . I used the other 6 pounds of meat along with potatoes, carrots, onions and celery to can beef stew. Here were the general proportions I used in canning 7 quarts of beef stew.. 6# beef 2# potatoes 2# carrots 1# onions 1# celery After I cut up the meat and got the freezer meals done I moved to the beef stew. I peeled and cut up the potatoes and carrots. I chopped up the onions and sliced the celery. I pulled out 3 quarts of veggie stock from my freezer to use for liquid in the stew. You can use beef or chicken stock or you can use water. I did not add anything to thicken the liquid as usually thickeners don’t hold up in canning. You can thicken the broth after it is opened if you would like. I added 1 teaspoon salt to each of my
Read more