Don't get me wrong - if you invite me over for dinner I will gladly eat whatever applesauce you place before me, but if it's up to me I will not buy the canned or jarred stuff from the grocery store.
Why is it that the texture of commercially prepared applesauce is so different from homemade applesauce? Can anybody out there in the webosphere tell me? I have a hunch that they just grind up raw apples, add sugar and citric acid and put it in the cans. To me it tastes mealy rather than smooth like homemade.
It is possible to get really good commercially canned applesauce - they have it in France. It's called compote de pommes and it's delicious.
Every fall we make several trips up to the Hendersonville, NC area to purchase apples. We go most often to Lyda Farms. We eat a lot of them raw and I use some for some of our favorite apple dishes such as apple pie, apple dumplings, etc. After a while the apples start to shrivel up a bit and then it's time to make applesauce.
Today I used up the last of the fall apples and made a batch of applesauce and some apple butter. One tool that we purchased many years ago makes making applesauce a lot easier - the Victorio Strainer.
Here's the process:
Wash the apples and remove any leaves.
Cut the apples in quarters and remove any bad spots.
Place in cooking pots with a small amount of water and cook until they are very tender - the cut surfaces will look fluffy.
Assemble the Victorio Strainer.
Place the cooked apples in the hopper and crank the handle.
The applesauce comes out of one side and the peels, cores, and stems come out the other!
Sweeten to taste, place in jars, and process in a hot water bath.
Here are the finished jars. This should keep the doctor away for some time.
Becka
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