Shirl, my apple peeler is an older one and I love it, although the apples can't be too large and can't be a weird shape or it doesn't work well. Ashley got a newer one and I don't think it works as well. And I always wet my surface before sticking that suction cup down.

I can apple pie filling in a water batch. I peel and slice the apples, and can them in a mixture of apple cider (which we press), along with some sugar, spices of your choice and Clear Jel. I don't much like the texture of Clear Jel but it makes for a very convenient and quick pie filling, with a consistency similar to store-bought canned stuff. I am happier with just canning apple slices and then using them for pie, crisp, whatever we want, including savory dishes if you like fruit with meat. Season as you wish that way.

Check out the website for the National Center for Home Food Preservation, they'll give you recipes and times. I did my pie filling in quarts for 25 minutes and the sliced apples for 20 minutes. Here's a link to the pie filling, maybe it'll help.

Have fun!

Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Pie Filling

Annie are you saying you do not cook your apples first before canning, either the apple pie fill or just apples. Yesterday I cooked a batch of apples tender with splenda, splenda brown sugar, cinnamon and King Arthurs sure-jel. Put in a quart jar and a water bath for 20 minutes.
They looked good.

Oh I wish my Mom was here so I could call her and ask, so you all will just have to play Mom

Shirl

It hasn't been all that long ago that we were cautioned against canning pie fillings due to food safety reasons from the thickeners in them. Now, Dr. Stan Wallin, Food Technologist at the University of Nebraska has developed safe recipes for canning apple and cherry pie fillings. Dr. Wallin cautions that windfall apples should NOT be used due to the higher exposure to bacteria from contact with the ground. It is also important that bottled lemon juice is added to increase the acidity and get the proper pH. I'd avoid any recipes that do NOT have an added acid (lemon juice, citric or ascorbic acid) for apple pie filling. They may not be acid enough.

As a certified canning instructor, I only use, and only suggest others use, the tested recipes found at the National Center for Home Food Preservation, "So Easy to Preserve", a book by the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension now in its 5th edition, or "The Ball Blue Book of Home Canning" (a new addition for up-to-date information). The NCFHFP recipes have been tested for heat penetration and pH and have been tested after being subject to storage. The Ball Blue Book is the only commercial book that goes by the USDA standards. I'd avoid all other recipes, especially if they are pre-1989 - or if there aren't any adjustments for altitude.

If in doubt, check with your County Extension Office (Food Service Agent) for up-to-date canning information.

-Grainlady

What is the easiest way to get the core off the apple peeler? That tends to be my biggest problem with my peeler.

I'm not fond of the apple peelers that have the suction cup. I attribute my choice to being an old lady use to old things. Right now I have two peeler/slicer/corers that clamp to the counter top or table top in the kitchen, one very, very old and one only about a couple of months old. I only peel or peel and slice with my newer one, then I use a great corer to take care of that chore. Works for me. In fact, tomorrow I'll be doing a peck of Idareds for apple pies.

Madonna

I remove the core by making sure it is completely through the end of the corer and grab it off. In one swoop I can pick up the peel and pull the core off and toss them in the scrap bowl. (Option for the core and peel scraps - make apple jelly from them.)

My apple, corer, peeler has a suction cup attachment, and this is the first year I've had one (hubby bought it at Menards for me). After more than 150 pounds of apples so far this season, it's still working fine. If I find a quality clamp-on model at a reasonable price, I'll get it. I have a rolling cart with a wooden top I use for clamping things to, like my flaker mill, wheatgrass juicer, Porkert Seed Mill, meat grinder, etc.....

I cut the apple slices through in the middle when I take them off the core and toss them in an acidic water bath to prevent browning and add a little vitamin C. From there I give them a slow spin in the salad spinner before placing them on the dehydrator trays.

-Grainlady

Shirl, the apple slices get 5 minutes in the boiling liquid, just enough to soften them, then they get packed into quart jars. The pie filling requires me to just put the apples in boiling liquid for a minute, then take them out and thicken the liquid with Clear Jel, fold the slices back in and pack the jars with the mix for canning.

Both "recipes" are available at the National Center for Home Food Preservation at the link. And time depends on your altitude, of course, as the tables show.

Like Grainlady, I use the peeler/corer, then cut the apple in half so I have crescent moon shaped slices. I put them in a big bowl of water with about 5 or 6 vitamin c tablets that I crushed in the mortor and pestle, it keeps the apples from oxidizing and browning. Capsules work too, just break them open and sprinkle the contents into the water. It's a lot cheaper than Fruit Fresh and doesn't add flavor like lemon juice does. Plus my Mother is allergic to lemons and I don't want to chance her eating something mistakenly that will cause problems, so I don't use lemon.

As for the cores, my model has a little lever that I can push with my thumb to draw the "skewer" back. So, if I run the apple all the way through the eye that cores it, when I pull back the skewer the core pops off about 99 percent of the time. Sometimes I do have to pick it up off the floor where it goes flying, though. (grin)

If the apples are soft, and the core sticks on, then I have to pull it off, but that's not very often. If I want bigger slices than I get with the peeler, I just use the machine to peel the apples then use one of those apple corer/slicing things that push down over the apple and give you 8 wedges while taking out the core.

Annie

Thank you all.....for your knowledge......I will work on all this....sometimes you just need others expertise before you try a job yourself. Shirl