I've done that with my pears, and this past weekend, did it with my grapes. Makes a nice sauce.

If it's too thick, it will not process safely. Just add some juice back into it.

Or make jam or butter out of it.

Agree. Make Apple Butter. it requires much less cooking down this way and you can beef up the flavor too with cinnamon or vanilla or red hots etc. And like Marla says, add some juice or water back if needed to make it the right consistency for canning.

Dave

This post was edited by digdirt on Tue, Sep 10, 13 at 15:29

Plus if you've milled it to get rid of the skins and seeds, it's really not good for jam (except maybe Linda Z's Caramel Apple Jam).

I'm doing grapes right now but have 3 bushels of apples sitting in my garage I'm going to be busy. They're unusually large this year for our neglected tree (only got off 1 tree this year, none last year but that was more due to weather) so I'm going to try selling the biggest ones but still have a lot of apple butter to make!

I've got more than a 1/2 of my 22 qt roaster with apples already sauced and cooking down. I strain the juice out and use the juice for jelly, leaving the pulp (sauce) for butter. I haven't decided to make it regular (plain), cinnamon or spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.

I'm afraid apple butter is not an option now that my husband is a diabetic. Unsweetened sauce is OK in moderation and now that pies and apple breads and apple butters are not served in this house, sauce is about the only way I can preserve the apples by canning. Thanks for your input. I was afraid about removing juice I could affect the acidity by leaving mostly fibre and by removing the water (the density) for canning sauce. I'll either add some water back into it or freeze it.

Add some lemon juice or ACV - or citric acid - if you're worried about acidity. And you don't need to add sugar. Make it just like sauce but thicker.

My husband is diabetic also, and my apple butter has NO sugar or sweeteners. I like to use a mix of Yellow and Red Delicious apples when I can get them. All butter is a more cooked down sauce.

You have a good point there, but he saves his bread servings for things like sandwiches and the sugar free jams I made him are still sitting on the shelves so I suspect butters would suffer the same fate.

Well, then, you'll just have to add a bit more liquid - I would make sure some of it was lemon juice or ACV not just water. Fruit juice would be best, for the flavor, but I guess that's counterproductive. And without sugar, you'd have to be inventive to get the flavor. Do you have any berries?

Or I guess you can put it up unflavored to use in baked goods later, to add fiber?

This post was edited by ajsmama on Wed, Sep 11, 13 at 6:18

My husband isn't as brittle as evidently yours is. He enjoys a peanut butter and jelly sandwich several times a week. the peanut butter is very good for a diabetic, since it's a slow acting protein to help maintain the blood sugar. It also is a very thin spread of jelly, and the peanut butter helps to counter the jelly.

double post

This post was edited by myfamilysfarm on Wed, Sep 11, 13 at 11:27

He is not brittle. In fact he has excellent control, primarily through diet, and I give him his carb allowance, just like I'd give a kid his money allowance, and let him decide where to spend them to suit his fancy. He usually prefers to do fresh fruit instead, but also will do most fruits I can with water or occasionally splenda. Yes, he does peanut butter often but mostly on some apple slices. We are thrilled that it's been so easy and he seems to have no problem with cutting out the sweet stuff entirely. I cook almost entirely from scratch, and love to bake and that was what led him into temptation in the first place with an otherwise good, healthy diet. I'm an ex-nurse and we turned the diet thing into a fine-tuned program and are not having a problem with having to revert to 'special' foods. But thanks for suggestions. I share what works for us too.

Mine too. Also, Splenda is the only artificial sweetener that can be canned. Only drawbacks I've found are the color fades and it takes 2x as much fruit per jar.

I've heard from a fellow vendor that fructose does well in backing, while splenda leaves the baked good feeling 'heavy'.