Making Easy Homemade Applesauce

Canning a year's supply of healthy applesauce can save a lot of money, and provide local organic fruit all year round as well. It may seem daunting to process so much applesauce, but there is a simple non-taxing approach that will make wonderful applesauce, ready to can and store so it can be enjoyed through the winter and right up till the next apple harvest. This plan will produce lots of all-natural, no-sugar added applesauce with minimal work.

The specialty supplies needed to follow this method of making applesauce include a slow cooker (the larger, the better, and more than one is nice if it is available), a food strainer, regular canning supplies, such as new lids, clean sterilized jars, and a water bath canner. Regular kitchen items will be used as well, such as cutting boards, knives, ladles, and spoons.

The apples should be washed in a water and vinegar solution, and then rinsed with clean rinse water two to three times. This is needed because the skins are left on during processing and have to be free of chemicals (if the apples are not organic) and bugs or dust or dirt. The apples then can be quartered with a chef's knife and put into the slow cooker. There is no need to remove the stems or seeds or peel the apples. However, any worm or bug holes or soft or dark parts of the apples should be removed before they are put into the cooker.

I fill the slow cooker as full as I can get it, since the apples will shrink down as they cook. With my slow cookers the apples cook on high for four to five hours or on low for about six to eight hours, but that can vary according the model. When leaving the cooker on the high setting, a half a cup of water should be added in the beginning to keep the apples from scorching before they release their own juices. When the apples are mushy and are easily smashed with a fork or spoon, they are ready to be pureed and processed.

I use a Victorio Strainer to puree my apples, but a regular food mill will work as well, if not as quickly. The Victorio Strainer allows food to be fed from a large hopper into the milling mechanism, and it separates, seeds, peelings, and stems from the good apple puree. The waste comes out the end of the grinding spiral and the applesauce pours down the chute into a waiting container. The applesauce should be poured back into the slow cooker to keep hot until the whole batch has been pureed and it's time to start canning. The waste that's left over, which is the pithy cores, the seeds, and the peelings, all cooked and ground into a sort of dry mash is great for a lot of different things. I give it to my chickens as a treat because they just love it. It could also be used as mulch or added to the compost barrel.

If the sauce seems too watery, it can be cooked down in the slow cooker with the lid removed for a while before canning, but I find this method actually produces a thicker and richer applesauce than recipes that call for peeling the apples before cooking do. This is because the peels contain a lot of pectin that is cooked out into the sauce, and adds to a thicker, creamier mouth feel for the finished product.

After the sauce has been pureed and is heated through, it can be canned in the water bath canner following standard procedures and safety precautions. The sauce should be ladled into sterilized quart jars, with a half an inch of headspace, the lids and rings applied, and the jars processed for 20 minutes. Processing time should always be counted from when the water in the canner returns to a rolling boil, not from when the jars are put into the canner.

This sauce is really good, and turns out pretty sweet when sweeter apples are used, so if a tart flavor is more popular with your family, you'll want to mix in some tart apples when you start cooking them. I find that mixing up lots of kinds of apples turns out the best sauce. My favorite mix is Ida Red, Jonagold, and Fuji. Also, this applesauce does turn out to be brown with a pink tinge. The brown is just because apples oxidize and is harmless, and the pretty pink comes from the peels being left on during cooking. Sugar can be added if desired, but I'd recommend processing the jars without any added sugar. If the sauce is unpalatably tart, brown sugar could be sprinkled on the servings, or honey mixed in. This is unlikely though, since apples have so much natural sugar, adding processed sugar is usually both unnecessary and undesirable.