How to Make Apple Butter Recipe

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An old copper kettle will probably cost around $60 in a junk store these days, which is quite an investment. Remember, however, that your first batch of apple butter can pay for the pot. Also — as any old-timer will tell you — that vessel can be one of the most useful implements on the homestead. Gran Mitchell says that the family has sometimes tied cornhusks to its stirring paddle to help scrape the bottom of the clan's kettle clean, and you may want to do the same.

BEST APPLE VARIETIES FOR APPLE BUTTER

Great-Gran prefers Winesap apples mixed with a tart, drier variety such as Grimes Golden Apple, and the Douthits usually use five bushels of Winesaps to two bushels of Grimes. Gran adds, however, that any good pie apple is also fine for apple butter.

MAKING APPLE BUTTER

The family recipe calls for fruit that has been prepared with old-timey peelers and corers. The apples are then quartered before cooking. (Some folks insist on using the peels too, in which case the skins must be finely chopped before they're added to the kettle.)

To make 25 gallons of apple butter:

About 7 bushels of apples
Water
60 pounds white sugar (or alternate sweetener)
10 pounds brown sugar (or alternate sweetener)
4 gallons apple cider (optional)
1 cup cinnamon
1 cup white sugar
3 ounces whole cloves

Fill your pot about two-thirds full of apples and cover the fruit with water. Then start a fire under the kettle, and begin stirring at once. It's essential that the mixture be kept moving as long as the caldron is being heated. The going is rough with all those apple chunks in there, but Great-Gran Mitchell was doing the job three years ago, and if she can do it, so can you. To keep the apples constantly rotating, Gran recommends this cadence for the stirrer on duty: "Twice around left and back through the middle, twice around right and back through the middle."

After the apples have cooked down into a sauce, start adding more fruit, more water and the sugar. If unrefined sugar or honey is your bag, you'll have to experiment to figure out how much of the substitute sweetening to add to suit your taste. From the time the fire is lit until the preserve is done, the cooking operation will take approximately eight hours, so you must stagger your additions of ingredients. The last of the sugar should go in about six hours after the cooking is started. The apples are added until you run out, and the water is used as needed to keep the sauce from getting too thick. If you want to give your brew a more "appley" kick, take four gallons of apple cider, boil it down to one, and pour it into the pot.

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