Apple butter question
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16 years ago
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readinglady
16 years agoUser
16 years agoRelated Discussions
Apple Butter
Comments (41)It maybe a bit out of sequence (sorry utahs.f.) but I keep meaning to post my experiences this season with apple butter, which is highly popular around here. I used Roma apples - roughly chopped, wormy bits (few) removed, and enough to fill a 3 gal stock pot, stems, seeds, skin and all. Added a couple cups of water and simmered on low until soft, 2-3 hours. Let that cool overnight, then I ran it all through the tomato strainer, resulting in a thick applesauce, seeds, skin, and stems removed. I ladled all that out (approx two gallons)and used the dehydrator to make fruit leather. Started another batch of chopped apples in the stock pot. The next morning, the leather was done, the chopped apples cooked and cooled, so I made apple sauce from that, tore up the sheets of fruit leather, and added brown sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of lime juice and put the whole thing in the 2+ gal crock pot. Turned it on 'high' until it started to blurble, turned it on low. It was all done, deep brown and so thick a fork would stand up in it, that evening, 7 hours later. Yield was 13 pints. So, I dunno, I still used a lot of electricity, with simmering the stock pot twice for a total of 6 hours, 14 hours of food dehydrator, and another 7 hours of crock pot. Pretty good stuff, though. We did this twice, used about 2 bushels of apples, and ended up with 30 pints. It seemed to me that cooking the peels and all made for lots of pectin, which thickened it up. It was really easy to run it all through the strainer, only took a few minutes. Making fruit leather with half of it kept the intense apple flavor, which went back into the final result. I think we'll do this the next time as well....See MoreApple Butter from Applesauce
Comments (14)rebel, I just made applesauce and apple butter last week and boy does it make your house smell good. I learned a few things, as it was my first time as well, and I'm happy to share. First, I strongly recommended that you use the crockpot to prevent burning- stir every 1/2 hour or so. To let steam escape, I left the lid half off at an angle. I actually discovered that my crockpot was much hotter on one side than the other so I would lift the pot out of the base and rotate it 180 every hour or two to even out the heat. I could easily see how the butter could burn in the oven or on the stove. Also, how much applesauce do you have? The sauce cooks down to an amazingly small amount butter. I made 2 batches of applesauce from about 10lbs apples each in the crockpot. I cooked the second batch even further down till it was nice and dark brown, starting to get thick, and then added in half of the first batch (which I blended first, to make creamy) with all the extra juice juice and an extra 1/2 cup of sugar. This made the butter super flavourful and rich. Think butterscotch candy's creaminess but in a Christmas-y apple flavour. Oh, so good! In the end I had 4 1/2 pint jars of butter and 4 pint jars of sauce. Good luck with your butter! -e....See MoreRECIPE: Question about Crock Pot Apple Butter
Comments (4)I posted these questions very late last night so I didn't really expect anyone to find it in time for advice -- I just took a chance that someone might still be online. So. The crock pot is still cookin' away, and this is what I did: I turned it back down to Low and left it until 4 a.m. At that point I turned the setting back up to High and it's still going. In other words, I reversed the timing and settings. This doesn't tell me what to do about adding the sugar & spices AFTER the 18 hours, but the stuff smells so wonderful I'm just going to leave it and see what happens. I can adjust the taste during the last four hours when I was SUPPOSED to add them. Now. What do I do about the BW bath? I know I have to adjust most things for my altitude, which is 4,230-something feet. I'm very new at canning, but I really am loving it and right now the Farmers' Market is just brimming with local fruits and vegetables at very good prices....See MoreCan this apple butter be canned?
Comments (13)OK, so I ended up doing a bit of a combination of the recipe above and the NCHFP recipe. I put the peeled apple slices (about 6 pounds) in the crock pot along with the apple cider and apple cider vinegar. Went a bit too far and added the sugar and spices at this time too. In the crock pot by 5pm. Left it on all night, covered. In the morning the apples were somewhat soft, but certainly not falling apart, and there was plenty of liquid...lots of liquid. So, I broke out my food mill attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer and scooped the apple slices out of the liquid in the crock pot and ran them through the food mill. I then cooked the apple pulp in a heavy pot on the stove top over pretty low heat. I added in a little bit of the liquid, after all, this is where all the sugar and spices were (and the vinegar). I added maybe a half cup of brown sugar, some more cinnamon, and cooked until it was a splattering goop. When the consistency was about right, I canned it. It turned out very tasty and all the jars sealed. Processed for 10-15 minutes. So, yes, I used vinegar during the cooking process, but only a portion of the vinegar actually ended up in the jars. I'm not sure this would qualify as using the NCHFP recipe. One thing that I couldn't work out in my mind from the NCHFP recipe: Is all the liquid added at the beginning supposed to end up absorbed/evaporated? It talks of using a food mill, but it wasn't clear to me if the pulp is added back to the liquid and then cooked down or if the liquid is discarded and the apple pulp added to a new pan to which the sugars and spices are added and then cooked to consistency....See MoreLinda_Lou
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