Saturday, October 11, 2025

applesauce for canning

 Here's how I make and can applesauce to use for baking throughout the year.  My apple tree is productive every other year, and I get a lot of windfall apples.  I pick up the apples every day and toss the really damaged ones and set aside the ones that seem ok.  I have a very serious problem with coddling moths, so almost every apple is wormy, which sucks BUT it's also not a big deal.  I just cut around the worm-affected parts, any bruises or blemishes, and there's still a lot of good apple left.  When I have a 5 gallon bucket imperfect apples, it makes about 5-6 jelly jars worth of applesauce.  I've made two batches this year, not sure if I'll make more.  It seems about time to pick the apples so I'll examine - the good ones can be put into storage, the blemished ones can be cut up and frozen to use throughout the year.  Though, I'm running short on freezer space so there may be more applesauce ahead this year. I do use a foodmill - I picked up a cheapo one on a good sale and it works fine.  It's not fast or anything but it gets there with enough cranking.  

Ingredients

  • apples.  I have no idea what variety my tree is, and I also picked a bunch of apples from a person out the road who has no idea what variety hers are.  They're all good.
  • water.
  • nothing else.  I don't add any sweetener or spices because I usually use it for baking. It's also good for just eating from the jar and I could zhuzh it up later if I wanted to. 

Directions

  •  wash apples (I have them in a 5 gallon bucket that I fill with lukewarm water and vinegar, and I rinse the apples and check for dirt, etc.)  I also don't let the apples set for long on the ground
  • prepare apples.  Chop them up and remove any bad spots.  For me the cores are almost always bad because of the worms, and then any other spots.  Peeling is optional if using a food mill.  Put them in a pot.  
  • Add a bit of water - the amount depends on juiciness of apples, how closely I'm tending to the pot, etc.  I probably put in anywhere from 1/2-1 1/2 cups.  
  • Heat up the apples, stirring as necessary.  Let them cook down and fall apart.  This always happens faster than I expect, usually showing progress at about 15 minutes.  I let them cook a lot longer last time because there were some that weren't breaking down, and I used my potato masher.  Plus, I'd added too much water so that needed to cook down.
  • when sufficiently cooked, let cool, and run through a food mill to remove peels, cores, etc.  
  • Heat up the jars while that's happening. 
  • Heat the applesauce back up to boiling - everything needs to be hot for canning.
  • Put hot applesauce into hot jars and add lemon juice (note: I don't always remember to do this and I'm unsure it's really necessary; some websites say that it is, but I just checked the official canning websites and they don't require it; if using it, the recommendation is 1 T per quart, so scant tsp per jelly jar); leave 1/2" headspace
  • Process 15 minutes in water bath (for pints or smaller).  

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