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Aug 29, 2011

Feeling a little saucy...applesaucy that is.

Saturday a friend of ours offered her apple tree up for the taking.  Since my  motto during canning season is "The best fruit is the free fruit!" we headed over to grab the goodies.  We came home with two laundry baskets full of apples. 


 Summer apple

These little babies pack a nice little punch.  I have no idea what kind they are but they are a perfect mix of sweet and sour.  Dean cut up 24 cups the first night.  We tossed those with cinnamon and sugar for pies later on in the year and stuck them in the freezer.  The rest of the apples sat glaring at me Sunday. 

Bruised apples

Monday morning I woke with the deep desire to sauce those little buggers. So that is just what I did.  However I did things a little differently and utilized them more than usual.

Steam juicer

First I quartered the apples then I threw them into my steam juicer

Steamy apples

I let them steam until they were soft then I sent them through the food mill

Food mill

Steaming them released the juice so in the end I got a gallon of juice and 11 quarts of nice thick sauce.

Homemade applesauce

By steaming the apples, the excess juice was released and the sauce was thicker because of it.  Now I don't know about you but I like my applesauce nice and thick, I don't want apple juice with pulp.  This worked like a charm.  I was worried that once the juice was removed the apples wouldn't have as good a flavor.  No worries, it still tasted wonderful.

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