Geneva Green Market: Geneva, Illinois - A Local Food Green Farmers Market

Directions for Making Applesauce

Ingredients and Equipment:

• Apples (see step 1)
• Cinnamon
• Jar grabber (to pick up the hot jars)
• Lid lifter (has a magnet to pick the lids out of the boiling water where you sterilize them.
• Jar funnel
• At least 1 large pot (at least 8-quart size or larger)
• Large spoons and ladles
• Ball jars 1 Water Bath Canner (a huge pot with a lifting rack to sterilize the jars of applesauce after filling. You can use a large pot instead, but the canners are deeper, and have a rack top make lifting the jars out easier. If you plan on canning every year, they’re worth the investment.
• Sieve: KitchenAid with the Sieve/grinder attachments ($370) or a Foley Food Mill ($25) or if you are really into a tedious, time-consuming method, a simple metal sieve.

Recipe and Directions

Step 1 - Selecting the apples

The Fuji’s and Gala’s give it an aromatic flavor! Honeycrisp and Pink Lady are also excellent, sweet, flavorful apples. Macintosh with some Jonathan mixed in make a more tart applesauce.

Step 2 - How many apples and where to get them

You can find large quantities of locally grown, organic apples at the Geneva Green Market, NFP.

You’ll get about 12 to 16 quarts of applesauce per bushel of apples.  Count on 13 or 14 quarts per bushel.

Step 3 - Wash the jars and lids

Now’s a good time to get the jars ready, so you won’t be rushed later. The dishwasher is fine for the jars; especially if it has a “sterilize” cycle, the water bath processing will sterilize them as well as the contents! If you don’t have a dishwasher with a sterilize cycle, you can wash the containers in hot, soapy water and rinse, then sterilize the jars by boiling them 10 minutes, and keep the jars in hot water until they are used. Leave the jars in the dishwasher on “heated dry” until you are ready to use them. Keeping them hot will prevent the jars from breaking when you fill them with the hot applesauce.

Put the lids into a pan of hot, but not quite boiling water (that’s what the manufacturer’s recommend) for 5 minutes, and use the magnetic “lid lifter wand” to pull them out.

Step 4 -Wash and chop the apples!

I’m sure you can figure out how to wash the apples in plain cold water.

Chopping them is much faster if you use one of those apple corer/segmenters - you just push it down on an apple and it cuts it into segments.  Note:  You do not peel the apples! You will put the entire apple into the pot to cook.

Step 5 - Cook the Apples

Pretty simple put about 1 inch of water (I used either filtered tap water or store brand apple juice) on the bottom of a huge, thick-bottomed pot. Put the lid on, and the heat on high.  When it gets really going, turn it to medium high until the apples are soft through and through.

Step 6 - Sieve the cooked apples

There are two ways to squish the apples through a sieve,  either through a :

hand-cranked Foley food mill (about $20 or through a KitchenAid sieve/grinder (with the attachments, about $300, but it lasts a lifetime).

You can also use a simple metal sieve, but it will be very tedious, hard work - if you plan on making applesauce every year,  spring for the 25 bucks for the foodmill.

Basically, you put the cooked apples (including the skins, seeds, cores and stems) into the top hopper, and use the wooden plunger to push it in.

Note: for those on a very tight budget or making just a small batch of applesauce.

You can make applesauce without a food processor or a $25 foodmill, but it’s much more work, and really only suitable for making a quart or two of applesauce at a time… but it can be done.

The device pushes it against a sieve and the applesauce comes out underneath (in the chrome pot in the photo at left ), and the debris shoots out the side into the sink.

If the idea of shelling out about $200 for KitchenAid, plus the additional $120 for the grinder / sieve attachment doesn’t appeal to you, you can still make applesauce using a Foley Food Mill, pictured at right.  You can order one here for much less than I’ve seen them elsewhere (see the link below the picture at right and click for more info). Obviously, you have to crank it by hand, which is ok if you have child labor and aren’t making a lot.  If you are only making a dozen or two jars or don’t have other uses for a KitchenAid, then this is a practical alternative.
There is also a very nice, versatile strainer pictured at far right! The VillaWare model can handle higher volumes than a Foley food mill (without giving you cramps!).

Step 7 - Season and keep the applesauce hot

Put the applesauce into a large pot. Add cinnamon to taste.  You should not need to add any sugar.

The applesauce does not need any further cooking; just keep it hot until you get enough made to fill the jars you will put into the canner (Canners hold seven jars at once, whether they are quart or pint size).

Step 8 - Fill the jars and process them in the water bath

Fill them to within 1/4 inch of the top, wipe any spilled applesauce of the top, seat the lid and tighten the ring around them.  Put them in the canner and keep them cover with at least 1 inch of water and boiling. if you are at sea level (up to 1,000 ft) boil pint jars for 15 minutes and quart jars for 20 min. If you are at an altitude of 1,000 feet or more, see the chart below.

Recommended process time for applesauce in a boiling-water canner.

Process Time at Altitudes of:
Quart Size    0 - 1,000 ft    1,001 - 3,000 ft    3,001 - 6,000 ft    Above 6,000 ft
Pints            15 min            20                         20                         25
Quarts         20                   25                         30                         35

Step 9 - Remove and cool the jars - Done

Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight)  You can then remove the rings if you like. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that’s a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it’s usually ok.

Other Equipment:

• Jar lifting tongs - helpful to pick up hot jars
• Lid lifter - to remove lids from the pot of hot water
• Lid - disposable - you may only use them once
• Ring - holds the lids on the jar until after the jars cool - then you don’t need them
• Canning jar funnel - to fill the jars