Home made applesauce
stock pot of home-made applesauce
My husband and I were driving around the countryside a few weeks ago and happened upon a lady selling apples for 75 cents/pound! They were huge, crisp, juicy, local apples and immediately I knew I’d be buying 20 pounds for homemade applesauce.
I made applesauce for the first time years ago when my husband came home from visiting family in the Tri-Cities and he had bought a large bag of apples from our nephew, Drew, as a sports fundraiser.
Looking at a 10-pound bag of apples sitting on my counter, I did what any grown woman would do; I called my mom. She walked me through the simplest recipe I’ve ever made. I had no idea applesauce was so easy to make.
Of course the flavor of homemade applesauce compares in no way to store-bought applesauce. You can argue with me that your organic, sugar-free, bought-in-a-glass-jar favorite is just as good. Absolutely not possible.
The prep of peeling, coring and cutting the apples is the most daunting and time-consuming part of the process. It’d go quicker if I bought a device but anyone who knows me knows I think it’s silly to buy a specialty item that I’m only going to use once a year.
This is bordering on minutia but, it takes me one minute to peel each apple so I think it ended up being an hour of prep time for the 20 pounds of apples I had. I’ve not made this much applesauce before so I’ll remember my 10 quart stock pot cooks 10 pounds of apples comfortably at a time.
40 cups of homemade applesauce
Applesauce
10 pounds of apples, peeled, cored and chopped
½ inch – 1 inch of water
Cinnamon to taste
Put water in a very large pot (approx 10 quarts). Add the apples. Put the lid on. Turn the stove heat to high. Once the heat has reached boiling, turn the stove to medium-high. Once the apples are breaking down, you can turn the stove to medium. You may use a potato masher to aid the break down process. Once the apples are broken down to the consistency you like (mine is about 20 min), cool the applesauce, spoon into containers and freeze or look up more information to can them.
Note: I put ours in 2 cup containers because that’s the perfect serving size for two people. My 20 pounds of apples yielded 41 cups of applesauce.
Viki
I am a Clark County native. I am Level 2 WSET (wine and spirit education trust)-certified and enjoy pairing wine with my passion for travel and fondness of food. My most prized possessions are the memories of places I've been with my husband, the chance encounters we've been blessed to have along the way and my carry-on bag. I can often be seen around town and in tasting rooms with our two beautiful, double-Merle Australian shepherds, Challenge and Baby Girl.