The other week we went to the apple orchard and picked some delicious Jonagold apples for canning applesauce. We went to a local apple farm Beilke Family Farm and picked 2 buckets worth, about 44 pounds of apples. They charge $9 a bucket and each bucket holds about 22 pounds...that is $.41 a pound people! Doesn't get much better than that. Three quarter of the apples that we bought were for canning and the rest are for our tummies.
Make sure to wash your apples. Still very important even though we remove the peel.
Last year my mom bought the BEST apple tool ever! It peels the apple and cores it all at the same time. If you are going to make applesauce yearly I highly suggest getting this, it is such a time saver.
Once you have peeled and sliced your apples, put them into a large pot and add a couple of inches of water. I say inches because it is not an exact science-you just need some water to help the breaking down process. Because my apple gizmo makes such nice small slices of my apples it breaks down pretty fast.
This is what you are aiming for. It can still have some chunks in it, you will work those out when you put the apples through the strainer.
Into the strainer your cooked chunky apples go. This will get out any peel or core that may have been missed when you peeled them and it makes for a nice smooth applesauce.
Once all of your apples have gone through the strainer you want to return it to the pot. This is the time to add your sugar and cinnamon. I don't measure out how much I am going to put in I just do it by taste. For a large pot of applesauce I probably only use 3/4 cup of sugar and lots of dashes of cinnamon. Just keep tasting it until you reach your desired taste. Bring to a boil.
Make sure that your jars are warm when you put your hot applesauce into them. You don't want to shock the jars into cracking. These are pint jars which feet about 2 cups of sauce. Make sure to leave 1.5-2 inches of space between your applesauce and your lids. Cap with warm lids and screw on the lid.
I use a steam canner but you can also use the boiling method. It is the same amount of cooking time for each- 20 minutes. When steam canning don't start the time until you have a steady stream of steam coming out. When boiling them make sure to cover the tops of the jars with at least 2 inches of water. When the time is up remove the jars to cool. Leave them be for 24 hours before moving them to their new home. Enjoy your delicious applesauce!!!
He sure did!
Total cost per pint of applesauce: $.54 Yes that is 54 cents!!!
My 30+ pounds of apples made 24 pints
