Apple Butter: Making Good Food and Great Friendships

Preparation

Apple butter making usually takes place over a span of several days.  The first couple of days involves the preparation of the apples.  The apples need to be washed, peeled, cored, sliced, checked for missed peel and bad spots and then washed again.  Bushels and bushels of apples and lots of man hours go into this process.  And we have not started to cook them yet!

Cooking and Hardware

Cooking the apples is traditionally done in a large copper kettle.  I have heard of folks using other methods bu

t to make “real” apple butter, especially in large quantities, the copper kettle is the only way to go.  The apples, as they cook, need to be stirred constantly in a back and forth motion.  This is done with a large, wooden paddle (as seen in the photo).  As the stirring is done, the person welding paddle moves, slowly, in a circle around the kettle.  This ensures that no area of the bottom of the kettle is missed, allowing for the cooking apples to burn.  And believe me, if this is not done right you can ruin a kettle of apple butter in a hurry!

Ingredients

The ingredients to make apple butter can be a highly guarded secret.  Obviously apples are needed but the

other ingredients are not necessarily as obvious.  While we are on the subject of apples, there are preferences here, too.  Winesap, Fugi, Gala, and Empire are a few that are popular.  You want something flavorful and in the sweet-tart category.  Most people say that Red and Golden Delicious are not good choices for apple butter though.  Cinnamon is almost always used, sometimes ground and sometimes liquid extract.  Nutmeg is often included in the recipe, too.  Not as obvious is the use, by some of cider vinegar.  Water or apple cider are more often used than vinegar though.  All recipes call for sugar, but it may be brown or white or a combination of the two or, believe it or not, honey.  Cloves and allspice round out the other most common ingredients.

Cooking Day

Cooking, if we are doing it the old-fashioned way, begins early in the morning, usually before sun rise.

Beginning with a kettle about 2/3 full the cooking begins over an open fire.  As the apples break down more apples are added, a process that goes on through out the day.  Eventually, all the apples will be in the kettle, or kettles in our case, and then the sugar goes in.  The apples have natural sugar to start with and adding more makes the opportunity to burn the apple butter even greater, thus the “pole man” must be extra vigilant from this point on.  We are now looking for a couple of things: the color of the product and the thickness.  As the sugars caramelize the apple butter begins to take on that beautiful dark color that apple butter should have.  The consistency is an often over looked item.  Many kettles of apple butter are not cooked down enough.  To get the premium stuff we want, as much liquid as possible need to evaporate.  This takes extra time and effort and bodies that are willing to put that extra work into the process.  But I assure you it is worth it in the quality you get from the apple butter you produce.

The spices are added at different intervals and in different quantities, depending on what you are using and the flavor you wish to achieve.  Mostly the spices if they are ground, wither fresh or pre-ground, are added sooner so they can cook into the apple butter properly.  If liquid extracts are used they have to be added very late in the cooking process, after the kettle has been removed from the fire, otherwise the heat will evaporate the extract and you will get little or no flavor from them.

The final step is canning.  Some folks like quarts and others prefer pints.  That is up to the makers/sellers of the apple butter.  This is “assembly line” work, with many hands involved in the process in a

short period of time.  The piping hot apple butter is ladled into the jars, the jars are wiped, lids and then rings are applied, then tightened, wiped again and then given the final “strong arm” tightening to seal the jar.  All of these steps involved handling very hot glass and metal.  Extreme caution is needed to avoid serious injury.  More often than not, at least a few folks (usually the “strong arms”) will end up with a blister or so.  And if that is all the injury you end up with you have had a successful run!

Taking Inventory

After a long, hot day of work it is time to start taking inventory of the fruits of your collective labor.  Counting the jars made, comparing them to the projected number and filling orders seem like a piece of cake at this point.  While these tasks are being done the apple butter is starting to cool.  As the apple butter cools the lids begin to seal.  What a sweet and rewarding sound it is to hear all those jars begin to, at random, pop, giving audible notice the job is truly done.

Friendships Built

During this multi-day apple marathon many people are taking part.  Usually, the same folks come out on at least a couple, if not every, work day.  The fellowship and camaraderie that takes place during these hours is absolutely priceless.  Friendships are made, built from scratch, and renewed.  Their is much work to be done but time is always found to talk about family, church, life, politics and, well, just about every topic that you are interested in.  And of course there is plenty of time for friendly ribbing of one another (at least in our case there always is).

Apple butter time is a much anticipated event.  We know the time and work that we face but we also know the rewards that it brings each of us.  It is a time of reflecting on the “old ways” and a time to slow down the pace of our busy lives and reflect some.  And it is also a time of anticipation: anticipating getting to taste that wonderful dark, caramelized spread that is so synonymous with fall.