Canning Applesauce

Finished rose applesauce, awaiting entrance into my belly.

I’ve already professed my love for applesauce and let it be known how easy it is to make.  For happiness, everyone should try to make applesauce at least once.  If it’s for your happiness, why not do it?

Prepping the Jonathan and Golden Delicious apples.  It's best to core and quarter your apples.  Don't be lazy like me.

Something that I admire in others is the ability to eat seasonally.  I have not mastered this and one of the best ways to be able to eat seasonally, or at least not go to the grocery store as often, is to can.  I love applesauce so much that it is a main priority to save when apples are in season.

This may look like a pot full of fun, but if you pile your apples into your pot like this you'll never stir them.  Do a little at a time.

This year I was a bit lazy and didn’t actually get around to buying apples until Thanksgiving when my brother and his wife took us to a nearby orchard for apple fritters.  The apple fritters and donuts were indeed delicious, and available for purchase was a variety of apple baking accoutrement, but I was eyeing the apples.  My most favorite applesauce was from Jonagold apples.  The orchard didn’t have Jonagolds when I was there, so I improvised.  We purchased a peck each of Jonathan and Golden Delicious apples with the hope that an applesauce made of the combination of the parents of Jonagolds would be as delicious as Jonagolds themselves.

Applesauce in the making!

The result is a not-too sweet, pink applesauce.  The initial boil of the apples was done with their skins on since we just used the food mill to take the skins out.  I believe what happened is the red of the Jonathan apples colored our applesauce pink!  Kind of like making a rose wine, apple-style.

The food mill set up.

We had a small catastrophe as our applesauce was jarred and making it’s way to the canner for sealing.  One jar broke.  This hadn’t happened before and I was desperately trying to save the applesauce to put in another jar.  Thankfully Andy stopped me before I started licking applesauce off the counter with the sage observation that there may be glass shards in the applesauce, and we should probably dispose of it.  It took me awhile to accept that we were a jar down and not get misty-eyed about it.  (I do love applesauce.)

The food mill in action!  One bowl catches perfectly textured applesauce, the other bowl catches skins.

Ultimately we ended up with 5 and ¾ quart jars of wonderful applesauce. I’ve been rationing it, as 5 jars won’t get me through to the next apple season.  It’s great to have a shelf full of canned goods.  Someday we’ll have a well producing garden and put up enough food to last the winter.  For now, I’m satisfied practicing my canning techniques and learning from mistakes (make sure your jars don’t cool down before filling with hot stuff).

In memoriam: 1 quart jar of pink applesauce