that "massive amount of boilover" is no joke. I make sure my apples come to a full boil, at which point the batch will do a serious foam up in the pot. Once that happens, I know they got hot enough to release all the air in the fruit. If you don't do that before you pack them, it will happen while processing. When you open the canner and find your jars floating because the release of air pushed all the liquid out of the jar . . . I've even had it happen with apple sauce if I did not make sure to get a good boil going ot release the air from the fruit. Apples are really prone to this. Though I don't do a wide variety of fruit, apples are the only one I know of that have a serious air retention issue. It is also why when you bake a double crust apple pie, as it cools and settles, you end up with a big hollow under the upper crust because the apples lost all thier air. That is one advantage of using canned apples for filling. Since they are already cooked, you can pile them high and when the pie is done, you still have a full pie as the apples did not have all that air to release. BTW - you don't need to cook the pie near as long with already cooked apples as you would with fresh.

Linda, no matter how much I like it, I can only eat small amounts of pie at a time, and DB is not much of a pie eater either. However, when apples are in season, I make a bunch of apple pies, and we get tired of them. If I take one to work, it will get inhaled within a matter of seconds, and so that is one way to cut down on inventory. I have found that keeping pies in a pie keeper works well in the refrigerator, and I warm the pie before eating it. I go through ice cream much faster than I do pie, and so if I make ice cream when I make pies, the pies go faster. BTW, I've never seen mold on a cream pie! The apple pies I made last year were the best ever because I used the vodka pie crust recipe I found here. It's almost time for me to make some more. We still have apple juice from last year that we froze in an empty plastic gallon vodka bottle. I'm going to have to start collecting those again - they work well for freezing apple juice. We got four gallons last year when we decided to pick at the end of the season. The juice was really too sweet for me, and that's probably why I still have it. Lars Here is a link that might be useful: Pie Keeper from Container Store

I made another pie on Tuesday (because I had made enough pie dough for two 2-crust pies) and brought it to work for our product development meeting. Two people were absent from the meeting, and so I have two pieces left over, and I'll probably refrigerate those this evening, if we don't eat them. Next time I'll consider freezing part of it. BTW, Tuesday after work we went to BBB and I bought a rotary device that peels, cores, and slices the apples in one fell swoop. This saved immeasurable time from having to do all the apples by hand, as I am very slow at peeling and coring otherwise. So now I am ready to make another batch of pies! I might freeze one raw and freeze part of another one after baking. I really do want to make good use of the huge amount of apples we have, but I was not up to the task until I got this device. I enjoy making pie crust, but peeling and coring apples was another story. Thanks for the advice! It's going to be nice to be able to have pie that can hang out in the fridge or freezer without getting moldy. I like to heat it up in the toaster oven before I serve - it tastes better warm to me than cold, but my co-workers eagerly ate it cold. Lars

Granny Smith hands down for me. Here on the east coast, Cortlands and Empire. Also can use Golden Delicious, and Jonagold which is what they are selling around here by the bushelful. I guess they're a late apple. You don't want Honeycrisp. A FANTASTIC eating apple, becomes totally bland when cooked. Just the opposite actually of Granny Smith. Same with Fuji. But that is just my opinion and experience. I see on the Web that others love both Fuji and Honeycrisp for baking. Hey, put enough brown sugar and cinnamon on an apple and they all taste yummy. Most people bake what they like to eat raw. All apples are pretty good baked IMHO. If you're a Honeycrips or Fuji fan, I'm just sharing my tastes. Your mileage may vary. Supposedly Rome and Johnathan are good for pies but since I don't like eating them I don't buy them much. Also some people like Macs for their tart flavor. I go for my all around fave apple Empire, which has the flavor of a Mac but the crispness of a Delicious. Braeburn is another all round good eating apple that may be OK baked. I am such a fan of Granny Smith, Cortland and Empire that I buy them all the time for pies so haven't had much experience with the Braeburns. Actually I hardly ever make pies, what I make is cobbler and baked apples and apple cake. But pies too. I plan to be making a lot more apple stuff with my new toy, an apple peeler!