Apple butter

Yesterday I bought a huge amount of apples at my local produce market, because they were on price reduction (i.e., about to go bad). I decided I could make apple butter, apple tarts, and applesauce with them. First on the list: apple butter.

I found an awesome recipe online that uses the whole apple - peels, cores, and all - and it seemed super spicy and delicious. Basically I boiled apples in water and apple cider vinegar, and then mashed them up with my brand new food mill. I've been meaning to get one of those for a while, since several Ina recipes call for it, but I haven't gone for it until now.

After you mill the apples through, you re-heat them with ground cloves, ground allspice, and ground cinnamon. You can also add lemon, although I didn't have any and left them out. (I'll put them in next time.) After they've been stewing for a long time, the fruit breaks down and the mixture becomes thick, but smoother than applesauce. The clove smell permeated the house and reminded me strongly of fall.

Then began the canning. You heat the jars and lids (I boiled the lids, heated the jars in the oven), then fill them with the apple butter and seal. After that, you boil them for ten minutes to set the seal.


This is the first time I've ever canned, so I don't know if it worked, but I'm hoping it did. The jars didn't explode, rupture, or leak, so that's something. They look good, anyway - nice and dark, and the product was smooth. I am hoping it will thicken up as they cool, and tomorrow I'll know for sure whether the seals took.

If this worked, I see a lot of apple butter in my future. I also have a neat recipe for orange marmalade that I've been wanting to try, so the next time oranges are on sale, I'm going for that, too. Yay for canning!