Apple Butter
Homemade apple butter is an excellent way to preserve your harvest.
We save the best apples for pies and apple pancakes, the rest are perfect for apple butter.
Apple Butter
Ingredients
- 4 pounds apples (we use Nordland apples from our tree, but others will work)
- 1 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 cups water
- 4 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 lemon
Instructions
Prepare Apples
- Quarter the apples. There is no need to peel or core them because peels and seeds will be separated in a later stage.
- Discard any bad bits.
Cook the apples
- Put a plate into the freezer.
- Using a large pot or dutch oven, add the apples, vinegar and water.
- Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes. The apples should be soft.
Purée the apples with a food mill
- Transfer the mixture to a food mill a ladle or two at a time.
- Use the food mill to push the pulp into a large bowl. Repeat until the mixture is used up.
Cook for a second time
- Transfer the resulting apple purée to the large pot or dutch oven, measure the purée as you transfer it.
- Add ½ cup of sugar for each cup of apple purée.
- Add the cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and salt.
- Add the zest and juice of one lemon.
- Cook the mixture on low heat and stir often.
- After an hour or two, the mixture should be thick and smooth. It is a bit of a judgement call about when to stop, but one test is to spoon a little onto the plate you put in the freezer. The mixture should be thick and not look runny when you tilt the plate.
- Transfer the mixture into hot, sterilized jars. Seal and process using a hot water bath. If you plan on using the apple butter in a few weeks and don't process them then seal the jars, cool, and refrigerate.
A Note About Equipment
Food Mill
We use a food mill which purées the apples by forcing them through a perforated disk. It also separates out the skin, seeds, and hard bits of the core.
Canning Funnel
The canning funnel is a surprisingly useful tool not just for filling hot canning jars with apple butter or jam, but for lots of every day chores when you need to transfer hot liquids. These are designed to fit both wide-mouth and regular-mouth jars.
Large Pot
We like to use our 5.5 quart enameled cast iron dutch oven from Le Creuset for making apple butter. The enameled surface is nonreactive to any acids in the fruit and the cast iron is great for maintaining heat.
Canning Tongs
Also called “canning jar lifters”, these are pretty much a necessity when processing jars of apple butter and other preserves. You risk scalding yourself with ad-hoc substitutes.