I did a batch of applesauce about a month back, but turned 100% of it into apple butter.  In tasting some of the sauce, I realized how good just it is on its own.  I plan to make some more apple butter with this batch, but first I want some sauce to can for myself.

The short version of making applesauce is this: core and chop apples, boil them till soft, and run that through a food mill.  TADA, applesauce.  Add cinnamon if desired.  It is pretty darn good as is.  Cook it down with a little cinnamon and sugar in a slow cooker for apple butter.  More on that in another post.  More detailed information can be found at Pick your own’s website.  They have good information on canning in general.

Almost none of this requires special tools, per say, but they can help make the job a lot easier.  The one tool that most people don’t have is a food mill.  The food mill takes the boiled apples and smushes/separates the pulpy centers from the skin.  The food mill I have is this model: Victorio VPK250.  I highly recommend it.  For the price it seems reasonably well built, and it can churn through some apples like nobody’s business.  An apple cutter is cheap and makes processing the raw apples fast.

Enough talk, roll that saucy footage.

25lb of Pink Ladies

Chopping apples is quick with the cutter

This part smells amazing

Turn the crank, and out comes the sauce

Dry leftovers from the mill, and boiled apple water

Half went to the crock pot, half for canning

Oops, I printed my old apple butter labels!

The water the apples were boiled in smelled great.  I thought it might be worth saving and drinking, but it had only a mild bland apple flavor.  Maybe if I boil it down it will taste more intense.  I should look up how to make apple cider.

Based on my past two runs of it seems to require about 1.5lb of apples to yield a pint (16oz) of applesauce.  This 25lb run filled my crockpot for applebutter, with enough left over for 9 pints of applesauce.  Seems how my canner can only hold 9 pints at a time, this worked out perfectly!  Next time, apple butter!

-Chase