Thursday, November 15, 2012

Making Vermont Applesauce

The fall apple harvest up here was a bumper crop.

We bought several bushels to eat and then to make into apple crisp apple pie and applesauce.

 
A dear friend came over and started boiling up the apples, with the skins ON.
 
Then we got out the vintage applesauce press and started squishing the soft apples thru the strainer.

 
The wooden plunger is critical to getting the apples mushed so they go thru the strainer.

 
All that is left is the skins of the apples. The chickens and ducks love the warm left overs!

 
 
 Leaving the skins on gives the applesauce a wonderful flavor and a pinkish color.

I sometimes sprinkle cinnamon on some when I put it in my bowl for lunch, but it does not need sugar or any other additions to it as it is sweet enough!
 


Once the applesauce has cooled, just dish it into containers so you can freeze it OR it can be added to muffin and cake recipes. There are so many uses for tasty applesauce!  I add it to my kefir smoothies.

Some people add a little fresh apple cider to the applesauce to give it a stronger flavor of apple.

Have you made any applesauce lately?

What are your favorite kind of apples?
~

6 comments:

  1. I like to combine several varieties, so that the sweet and tart mix nicely, with no added sugar. Two favorite combinations are Cortland and Macintosh...and Ida Red and Crispin. I like when the skins turn the sauce pink!

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  2. I have some favorite trees to get my sauce apples from but a late spring frost during blossoming negated my usual production. I usually pick up drops along the roads for my chickens but not this year. Even the commercial orchards had a reduction in quantity.

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  3. I so enjoy making applesauce, I love the smell of my kitchen and knowing there is nothing artifical going into my product.I use a mixture of apples picked from a local orchard. You are right my chicken's too happily devour any leftovers. I usually take some of the apple peels, add whole cloves, and cinnamin sticks put them in a pot of water on the wood stove and let simmer. Wonderful...

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  4. I love apples, but they don't love me. So this year I had access to a pear tree with lots of pears and made pear sauce.

    I have a food mill similar to the one you used. But I could not use it due to the bugs in the pears.

    I ended up peeling the pears also. I simmered the pears for about 1 hr with a few cinnamon sticks and some vanilla added. I think I made 16 qts or more.

    It will be used mostly for making pulled pork, but some is suitable for just eating.

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  5. I just bought a food mill yesterday to make some apple sauce. Yours looks delicious...such a pretty pink color.

    Visiting from Clever Chicks Blog Hop with my "Easy Gift Idea". Have a wonderful weekend.

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  6. We make our applesauce with the peels on too, and it does make for more flavorful sauce, I think (and easier to prepare... I hate peeling apples). What a gorgeous vintage applesauce press! We are just finishing our last batch of apples from our tree, and we'll make some more applesauce and some dried apples (the kids eat them like candy!). Thanks so much for your visit earlier. :)

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