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.

Maybe it is a southern thing (even though the NCHFP recipe calls for vinegar) as Mom and Grandma were both from Georgia and none of the brothers or sisters ever heard of making it without vinegar either. But just out of curiosity I Googled other recipes for it and found that there are actually quite a few Apple Butter recipes that include vinegar (cider vinegar) so I guess we aren't TOO weird down here in the hills. ;) Try a small batch of it. You might just like it. And if you want to make Apple Butter Bar B Q sauce, here is our recipe: 1 1/4 cup apple butter 1 cup diced onion 1/4 cup ketchup 1-2 T prepared yellow mustard 1 t Worcestershire sauce 3 t liquid smoke Salt and pepper to taste (if you have Cavenders add 1 t) 1 t diced garlic 1-2 t cider vinegar (to thin to desired consistency) 1 t minced garlic 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon paprika Mix everything together in a sauce pot on medium heat and simmer (do not boil) for approx. 15 mins. Let cool and put in a jar. Keeps in the fridge for up to 30 days. If you prefer a sweeter sauce add 1-2 T honey or pancake syrup to taste. Dave

It's probably a quite old recipe... they used to put in a lot of water and cook it a very long time. Annie uses her grandmothers recipe (cooks it in the oven) but she cuts the water her grandmother used waaay down just so it will not take so long to cook down. This is her recipe GRANDMA'S -APPLE BUTTER 6 lbs. 1-2 quarts sweet cider (Grandma used 2, I use 1 because I can cook a shorter time. Grandma thought longer was better) 2 cups sugar 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground cloves Cook the apples in the cider and press through a food mill or sieve. Mix in sugar and spices to taste. Pour pulp into a non-reactive pan (I use an old enameled roaster) and bake at 250, stirring every hour or so, until "thick enough". If I'm in a hurry, I start at 350, then turn it down after a couple of hours. I usually double or triple the amount, so mine takes a long time to cook down. This amount will still take several hours When it's "thick enough", pour into hot jars and BWB 10 minutes for half pints or pints, 15 minutes for quarts I'd say yours is okay to BWB. kay

That sounds absolutely delicious, Dody. I love hot apple desserts (and cold ones too!). Should the glaze be very thin, the kind that would drip off the side of a cake? Or should it be thicker like a typical cake frosting? Our oven runs hot so I'll set it for 50 minutes and watch it. Thanks, Jen