Posted: 10/18/2025 10:20:54 PM EDT
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Apple butter was a tradition in my family growing up and I have been making it off and on over the years. When I was a kid my mom and grandmother would make a big batch every year and I would come home from school and the whole house would smell like it. I haven't made any in quite a while but decided that I would make a big batch this year to share with my family. It's really a two day project. One day to go to an orchard to buy apples, come home, peel and slice, and then cook down into basically apple sauce. The next day is getting all the jars, lids, rings, pots, etc together then adding the sugar and spices and cooking until it is the right constancy. Finally the jars are filled and then I use a water bath canning method to finish it off. I bought 2 bushels of second quality apples since they are considerably cheaper and a few bruises don't matter for cooking. I ended up peeling and slicing one full bushel of Mutsu apples and not quite a half bushel of winesap apples. The mutsu's were much better and I would have only bought them if I had tried them in advance. After cooking the apples down into apple sauce I had 57 cups. After making adding the sugar and spices and cooking it down it made 23 pints and 28 half pints for a total of 37 pints. Attached File Attached File Attached File Attached File Attached File A little video of using my apple peeler. I has the capability of spiral slicing and coring but I don't use that function since it always leaves some core in the apples and wastes some of the apple.  Apple peeler |
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Originally Posted By CPshooter1: Neat. How exactly do you enjoy the stuff? On toast? As a topping on some other food? Enlighten us. On toast or biscuits mostly but it is also good on pancakes and waffles. It’s a family tradition and I made it mainly to give to my family, we are having a big get together at Thanksgiving. Way too much sugar and calories to eat on a regular basis. |
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Originally Posted By TN-MadDog: On toast or biscuits mostly but it is also good on pancakes and waffles. It’s a family tradition and I made it mainly to give to my family, we are having a big get together at Thanksgiving. Way too much sugar and calories to eat on a regular basis. |
| My mother used to make apple butter almost every year, she made pear butter too. When I was available my job was to push the cooked apples through the conical strainer with a pestle to smooth the mixture out. The aroma is wonderful, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. |
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Team Ranstad
Team Ranstad
West Virginia born and bred
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Here is the recipe that I used Approximately 1.25 (maybe just a bit more) of apples Peeled and sliced (I used an apple peeler, makes it much easier). I ran the apples through a food processor just long enough to make the pieces smaller, I didn't want pureed since I like the final product to have some small lumps. Then I cooked the apples ( I added two cups of water) until they were soft enough to mash them up with the potato masher. Basically made unsweetened apple sauce. About an hour. Next I measured the cooked apples to determine how much ingredients to add. Then I added all the ingredients and cooked for about another hour and half, stirring frequently to keep from sticking and to finish mashing it. It needs to cook until it thickens up some but not too much. Ingredients: 57 cups of cooked apples 28.5 cups sugar 6 teaspoons allspice 5 teaspoons ground cloves 5 heaping teaspoons cinnamon. After adding the sugar and spices I cooked it for 1.5 hours until it “looked right”. Poured into jars and used a water bath canning method for 15 minutes. Made 23 pint jars and 28 ½ pint jars for a total of 37 pints. |
