Making Apple Butter

[maplenut]

Got ahold of some apples the other day and it is time to make some apple butter.

This evening was time to wash, core and slice the apples.

Tomorrow morning I will get the copper kettle going with some apple cider and then add the apples.

More to come...…….

 

[pc farmer]

Watching.

 

[one eyed jack]

I'm signed on. Never seen apple butter made.

 

[jcam222]

Tuning in to watch ....

 

[tropics]

I maybe getting a few Apple trees this coming year.Watching this
Richie

 

[DanMcG]

Looking forward to this, thanks for sharing!

 

[Winterrider]

Interested

 

[maplenut]

5 buckets of apples in the kettle.
Not sure I can fit the last bucket of apples in

 

[disco]

I just finished mine! Looking forward to seeing yours!

 

[DanMcG]

what's on the dowel over the pot?

 

[maplenut]

Slowly working it down.
Still need to stir for a little while.

 

[WillRunForQue]

Brings back memories of many years over the copper kettles, looks great! I cheated and used the stovetop then the oven this fall...am hoping to get a copper kettle someday! Would love to hear your other ingredient ratios if you're willing to share. Enjoy the time around the fire!

 

[maplenut]

Getting closer now.
Took the apple butter out of the kettle and put it in a steam pan to warm back up so that I can put it into mason jars.

 

[maplenut]

Brings back memories of many years over the copper kettles, looks great! I cheated and used the stovetop then the oven this fall...am hoping to get a copper kettle someday! Would love to hear your other ingredient ratios if you're willing to share. Enjoy the time around the fire!

I start off with about 1/2 gallon of apple cider in the kettle. I wait till that gets almost to a boil then I add the apples.
The buckets that I use are 2 gal each. I put the 1st bucket in and start stirring. I will wait till these apples start to break up before I add more apples.
When I do add apples I only add a little at a time then wait till they soften and break up some then add more apples.

I had 6, 2 gallon buckets of apples but when I got the 5th bucket in I knew I was done at that moment. No more was going to fit.

Once all the apples that I am going to add is in the kettle I just keep stirring till it passes the lumpy apple sauce stage and starts to get that nice light brown color. This is when I add the spices, well spice. I use just Cinnamon, and I only add to taste. Sprinkle a little in, stir then taste.

 

[maplenut]

Ok, finally finished.
Started out good, had an oh $#it moment in the middle, then another oh crap moment then finished on a high note!

The apple butter was turning a nice brown color and taste was awesome but for some reason the yellow apples that I was using the skins were just not breaking down fast enough. The red apple skins broke down completely. But not the yellow ones.
So out came the food mill. Yeah!
Once I pushed the apple butter thru the food mill and the got the yellow skins out everything was looking good, until...
So instead of heating the apple butter back up in the kettle I decided to put it in a large SS pot on the stove and warm it up so it is ready for canning on mason jars.
While the pot of apple butter was warming up started to clean things up and then I got a scent of something, this is the second oh crap moment.
I was burning the apple butter in the pot!

Luckily I caught it quick enough that I only lost about 2 quarts of apple butter. I was so worried that I would loose the entire batch to scorched pot!

This time I used my steam pan and used water and steam to warm it up, the way I should have done it to start with!

Now I have 14 pints of some tasty fresh apple butter.