A lot of people seem to know how to can. My dad always made applesauce but I mostly just ate it. Now with my own apple trees and still my love of applesauce, I can my own. Now I hear all sorts of ways to do it and they are probably good, but I don't own a pressure cooker or an apple corer or anything special but i do have extra large pots. You will need one for the sauce and one for the jars. The kitchen will be hot and steamy so it's nice to do this on a cold day.
My apples are not just organic, they are natural. That means they have squirrel nibbles and worm holes and an occasional earwig in the middle. But for applesauce who cares. I pick up the ones that aren't rotted off the ground and all my ripe ones on the tree. I used to bother peeling but with apples, the cooked peel tastes fine and it is where the good-for-you stuff lies. I cut out the bad parts and the cores, then wash them. If you washed them before cutting you have to wash again, you are just adding extra steps and this is no fuss applesauce.
I throw them in a huge pot with water up to the top of the apples and some cinnamon, probably a tablespoon for a vat of it, and stir it around a bit to get the cinnamon mixed up. Now my dad keeps telling me to use apple juice instead of water, but I like mine the way they are. Notice I didn't say sugar. If the apples are a bit sour I will add about a cup for my vat but otherwise I wait til they are done to see if I even need it. I heat 'em the apples and water, pop the lid on and prepare my water bath.
I have got my jars filled partly with water sitting in a big pot filled
to half of the jars with water. If you don't have water in your jars
they will float and that's not good. Put your
rings and lids in a small pan.
Once the apples are squishy in a few hours and your house smells like apple cider, I will drain what was water and is now apple juice out, but keep it. I use a large bowl for this. Then turn on the heat for your jars and lids/rings so they come to a bowl while you are squishing. I squish the apples until my desired consistency is reached. It would be handy to have a potato masher but I just use a big spoon against the pot and yes it takes a while. Add some of your apple juice if it got too dry. When done squishing, I filter my apple juice through a sieve into a pitcher and the remnants in the sieve is like really smooth apple sauce that I add back
to my pot.
Now some people like a really smooth sauce, and will need to put it in a blender or food processor to do this (some people call this apple butter) but I already have a mess to clean up and I like mine a chunky so I leave it that way.
Taste it at this point. Sometimes you will need to add sugar, some apples are sweet enough.
With my oven mitts on I pull out a hot jar, dump the water back into the jar pot, and ladle some applesauce into it. I go all the way to where the jar threads are. Use a utensil to get a hot lid on it and thread the ring on but leave it loose. Place in the hot water pot with its jar friends. Continue doing this, you will notice that water that was in the jars when poured out starts to fill up the pot. You want to water to be pretty high on the jars but you may have to pour some in the next round of jars to prevent overflowing into the empty jars in the pot.
Now you leave your filled jars in the boiling water. I usually hear them pop while I am getting my next batch ready. Yes next batch because I can only fit six jars in my pot at a time. And really, once the water's boiling it doesn't take long to sterilize jars.
It took me pretty much a day to finish but I have a lot of jars of applesauce. I gave some to friends and neighbors I had so much.
So now you have delicious applesauce for the year and some apple juice for the week!
