The Meat Sweats: Apple Butter 2008

Once again this year, my wife's family has taken a weekend to come together and make home made apple butter. A post talking about last year's endeavor can be read here.

From AppleButter2008

This year's festivities were just as fun and resulted in a TON of great tasting apple butter. The biggest change from last year was that this year we had it at Em's and my new house (in the backyard, under where the fire pit is normally) and that my parent's were able to join in on the fun.

The basic plans/timeline were the same as last year but here they are again (in an abbreviated form).

Fearing that a neighbor, unfamiliar with our family tradition, may call the police/fire dept. upon seeing the smoke and fire, the week before I put in for a bonfire permit with our local government. A couple days later I was in procession of permit #38 and was legally able to build a fire up to 5'x5' (FIRE!)

On Friday (b/c Em and her parents were off work) the pealing/coring/slicing/juicing was done. It took 4 people 2-3 hours to core/slice/peal 3 bushels of apples (~40 lbs each). When that was finished, Em's mom brewed half of the peals in water to create a strong apple juice.

Saturday morning Em had to go into work to give an ACT, so her parent's and I started the fire around 7:30 am and had the apples in the huge copper pot along with some water by 8am.

From AppleButter2008

Over the next 8 hours my parents came by and everyone took turns constantly stirring the kettle. Along with stirring, everyone enjoyed some homemade chili and tons of doughnuts and other misc food items.

After an hour or two the juice was added, after ~3 the seasoning glove was added, and after ~5 the sugar (10 lbs per busshel). After 8 hours the apples had gone from pieces in water, to smaller pieces, to a thin apple sauce, to a thick dark apple sauce and reduced by aprox. 2/3rds in volume.