I have a friend here that could score a good deal on apples and I got the wild idea to make applesauce with them. Since this was my first time, I only bought (2) 10 lb. bags of apples-- one Sweet 16 and the other Honeycrisp. I knew we'd eat a few of the Honeycrisps, but we wouldn't be able to finish them all off.
I borrowed a food mill to help me do the process a little more quickly, but it still took me nearly 4 hours and I only ended up with 3 quarts of applesauce. The Honeycrisp apples hardly made a sauce, it was more juice.
It did feel good to try something new and accomplish it by myself... my mom is a pro-canner when it comes to tomatoes so I've always leaned on her for this sort of thing. However, when it comes to applesauce, I don't know that I'd do it again. I paid $20 for apples and spent way too much time in the kitchen making a huge, sticky mess. If I have an apple tree one day, I might sing a different tune, but for now, I'm stearing clear from making applesauce.
Have you ever done applesause before? Or do you do apple butter?
Friday, November 02, 2012
Canning Applesauce
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
2 comments:
Good for you! I have done applesauce before, but I like to peel and core my apples first with an apple corer/peeler (mine has a crank handle). I boil them until they're soft, then use my blender to puree them. I have done applesauce in a food mill, and I think it goes much faster with the blender.
If I'm in a spot where I can't finish at this point, I put the puree in the fridge and come back to it later. When I'm ready, I heat the puree, fill my jars, and process them in the canner. It is a ton of time, though!
One idea I heard was to just can the apples themselves, and then to blend them into applesauce when you're ready to eat them. However, I found that I don't want to use those jars over the sauce. I'd rather get the finished product instead of having to deal with it later!
I would sometimes make applesauce when I was making baby food for James. But I would just steam the apples and then puree them (kind of like Heidi said above). I don't know how different that is from the actual process of making applesauce, but it seemed pretty similar to me. Then I'd freeze them in ice cube trays along with the other baby foods I made - because I have no clue when it comes to actual canning!! Way to go for trying out the canning, that's so impressive! :)
Post a Comment