Homemade Applesauce

Eating real food.


What does that mean, exactly? In a country which is geared toward convenience food and everything travels miles (sometimes thousands and across country borders) to get to the grocery shelf, it may be more complicated than you think.

To explore this idea of eating real food, my boyfriend created a website titled just that. It will showcase articles of sorts to eat local food, more sustainable food, practices, etc. It will also showcase recipes made with food that fit in with these principles. To check it out, go to http://www.eatingrealfood.com/.

On that note, I will be writing recipes for that site & if you frequent both, my recipes here may be double-posted there (although I will try to make the posts a little different & spice it up a bit).

I posted yesterday on eatingrealfood about making homemade applesauce. I know of 2 different ways to make applesauce. Growing up, my grandpa owned an apple orchard. So every fall, we had our fair share of fresh apples to use and there were lots of pies and applesauces made. :) My mom used one method, my grandma used another. Don't tell...but I've always preferred my grandma's method.


My mom's method was to wash & core the apples and to slice them into a pot filled with maybe an inch of water. You will want to adjust the water level according to how many apples you are using (obviously you don't need a ton of water if you are just cooking up 4-5 apples). Cook the apples on medium to medium-low heat until they are soft & mushy. Remove from heat and strain through a food strainer to strain out the skin. If you use red apples, this applesauce usually turns out pink in color. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste. That's it! Fairly easy (unless you don't have a food strainer...which brings me to.....)

My grandma's method was to wash, core, and peel the apples & then cook them in a pot (same way as above). This time, once the apples are done, mash the leftover bits with a potato masher until a smooth-ish/chunky sauce results. This applesauce usually is a white-ish/tan color. Add sugar & cinnamon to taste. This applesauce may take slightly longer to cook as you need to make sure its mushy enough, & peeling all those apples is hard work (but you don't need much in the way of equipment).

Now, you may be wondering what apples to use? Well, I never paid close attention to which kind my grandpa grew. The batch I made for these pictures used 4-5 Viking apples (which are very tart) & one Pink Lady. Tart apples, IMO, yield a better taste even though you have to add more sugar, but it is up to you. I made a batch the other day with Fuji apples (which are supposed to be excellent for applesauce, or so I read), but they didn't cook down hardly at all & left more chunks after mashed with the potato masher. So just experiment with your favorite type of apple. If you are making a large batch to can, I would suggest using a few different varieties of apples.


I plan on making a larger batch to can for the winter as it gets further into the fall & apple season, so stay tuned!