How to Make Apple Butter Recipe

Image Gallery Great-Gran stirs an old-fashioned pot of apple butter.

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OLD-TIMEY APPLE BUTTER

Nowadays, Great-Aunt Helen Douthit calls her annual apple butter-makin' Saturday "just an old-time project," but there was a period when it meant a heck of a lot more to her. Some of you new farm folks trying to make a living out there on the land may find that the same idea means a lot to you, too.

Fifty years ago, Aunt Helen and Great-Gran Mitchell started making a yearly affair of the early fall apple butter season. Then, when things got rough during the Depression, the Douthits transformed their autumn get-togethers into money in the pocket by increasing production and selling the delicious spread and other goodies at a roadside stand.

Apple butter was — and still is — a popular item at farm stands, and the Douthit family continues to make it. They feel that the preparation of the treat is a great way to get the clan together for a harvest celebration and earn a little money at the same time. Great-Gran, at the age of 90, supervises from the sidelines while Aunt Helen and numerous sons, daughters, grandchildren and others pitch in.

SAVE MONEY: MAKE HOMEMADE APPLE BUTTER

A quart of apple butter costs from three to six cents if you make it yourself — less if you have your own apples — and can easily bring 90 cents a quart or $3.50 a gallon at a roadside stand. (If you plan to sell such a product, you should check out any and all local laws dealing with the marketing of home-cooked foods. Most places don't enforce such regulations, but you'd better be aware of them anyhow.)

Money apart, this tasty preserve is a great way to put by some apples for the winter. Here's the recipe, distilled from a conversation with Great-Gran Mitchell herself.

HOW TO MAKE APPLE BUTTER: THE RECIPE

First of all you'll need the right tools. The Douthits use a 30-gallon copper kettle with a rounded seamless bottom. The caldron rests on a specially designed tripod which holds it about a foot off the ground.

Equally important is a paddle for stirring the butter. The foot of that tool is as long as the kettle is deep and has three sections. The center portion is about an inch narrower on each side than the upper and lower thirds and the bottom section has five or six 1 inch holes drilled through it to keep the apple pulp circulating. The foot of the paddle is also rounded to fit the bottom of the kettle. The mixture has to be kept moving at all times while it cooks to ensure that it doesn't stick and burn. The seamless copper pot and special paddle are designed to help prevent that accident.

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