Putting Food By - Janet Greene [142]
Apple Butter
About 6 pints
5 pounds juicy tart apples, 12 to 15 (Winesap, Northern Spy,
Jonathan)
1 cup apple cider (or water)
About 2½ cups sugar, or to taste
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
Remove blemishes, core, and cut apples in eighths. Put apples and cider in a heavy enameled kettle and cook over medium heat until soft; stir to prevent sticking. Remove from heat, and when the pulp is cool enough to handle, put it through a food mill or sieve. For every 1 cup pulp add ¼ cup white or brown sugar. Return to the heavy kettle and bring it to a low boil until sugar is melted.
Now choose: (1) cook quickly over medium-high heat to a brisk boil, stirring constantly, or (2) put the kettle in a preheated 300 F/149 C oven, where you need to stir only occasionally to keep a caramelized skin from forming on top. The quick stove-top boil produces brighter color, but scorches the purée if you turn your back; the oven makes darker color and takes longer, but doesn’t scorch (any caramelized skin can be rolled off easily).
By either method, cook the purée until it mounds slightly on the spoon and has a sheen to it. On a thermometer it will be a bit under 220 F/104 C at sea level. Ladle into clean hot jars, leaving ¼ inch of headroom for ½-pint jars, ½ inch for pints. Cap with two-piece screwband lids. Process in a Boiling–Water Bath for 5 minutes. Remove jars; cool.
Variation: omit cinnamon and cloves; instead use ½ teaspoon grated zest of lemon and ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg.
Blender/food processor: instead of putting cooked fruit through a food mill or sieve to remove skins before adding sweetener, purée with skins in small amounts at the highest speed of the blender or in a food processor with the steel blade in place. Then strain the sauce into the heavy kettle, adding sweetener and seasonings as liked. The result will be smoother using the blender, and you may not want to bother sieving the purée. If using the processor, you can save time by whirring thin shavings of fresh lemon peel with 1 cup of the sugar.)
Creating “All-Fruit” Spreads
Popular today are fruit spreads made without any added sweetening: all the sugar is natural fructose from the fruit. Here is a chance to experiment (especially since these spreads cost an arm and a leg to buy).
Use a filler fruit able to provide the necessary consistency: ripe peaches, peeled plums, sieved berries, apples—even canned fruits. To add sweetness, frozen pineapple juice concentrate would help: if you fear that it’s likely to act like fresh pineapple, whose tricky enzymes prevent any sort of gel from forming, dump it into a small pot, add ½ cup water, and bring it to boiling. Concentrated grape juice would also sweeten. Be sure to cook fresh fruit with the skin and purée them, as all skins are likely to have good pectin in them. And you can always add some homemade apple pectin to help the gel. Orange zest is a charmer with blackberries; try a breath of cloves instead of cinnamon with blueberries.
When you think it’s done, ladle it very hot in ½-pint jars, leaving ¼ inch of headroom. Cap with two-piece screwband lids and process for 5 minutes in a B–W Bath. Cool upright and naturally.
Steps in Making Preserves
Wash the fruit and remove stem and blossom parts. Peel and pit peaches and pears; halve or quarter. Cut pineapples in rings or chunks; discard the core. Peel plum tomatoes and leave whole. Remove the pits from cherries. Of course strawberries, raspberries, and other berries are left whole.
To cook, carefully follow the specific recipe. Generally, soft fruits are combined with