Appled OUT! OUT!

Two years ago I said I probably would not make applesauce the next year. Then I did. And I did again this year. It is soooooo good and wears me out but I keep doing more. It is labor intensive and my energy has waned. You see, I do it the "old way."  Way back in the far corner of the under-counter cupboards I dug, and found the large old kettle and the old Foley food mill. (I do see that there are new Foley Food Mills available. Mine is REALLY OLD)

The procedure begins with cutting them in quarters, coring, and cutting into eighths and slicing. There were as many that I had stored in one of the bottom refrigerator drawers; I think about a mixed peck of both Cortlands and Macouns. I added three cups of cold water to the kettle and then cooked them down until I could mash them with the potato masher.

Then we moved to the next step of spooning the hot slush into the Foley while the mister does the grinding. When the large pyrex bowl is filled to the level of the bottom of the Foley, I dump it into my very large plastic dishpan and we start again until the kettle is empty. 

From there it is ladled into containers and set to cool before freezing. The only thing I added was a few shakes of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. The yield is about one and one half gallons, all in small containers. Yes, we had warm applesauce at lunch.

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Quite often I'm asked why it is so pink! Well the ground up skins make it a beautiful natural pink.

OH what a cleanup too!