When I think of applesauce, I think of July, hot days, my neighbor's crabapple tree, and a winter full of great dessert. I'm guessing that most other people are thinking more about fresh corn and mouth-watering melons which are just starting to become ripe and make their appearance at the farmers'  markets.

But crabapples are ripe in July, and, to me, crabapples mean applesauce!

The Neighbor's Crabapple Tree

My neighbors have a giant crabapple tree that yields a bumper crop of crabapples every other year. For over 30 years, my neighbor has made applesauce from those apples. When we moved into the neighborhood, she called us up one hot day (it's always a hot day when the crabapples are ready) in July and asked us if we wanted some crabapples to make applesauce. I said OK,  but I didn't know how to make applesauce so she supplied us with instructions and a food mill. That applesauce was fantastic, tart from the crabapples and sweet from a bit of sugar. We were hooked! We eventually bought a canning pot and some basic canning equipment and went to town canning applesauce every summer on the hottest day in July.

That experience brought us into the world of canning sauces: applesauce, plumsauce, and pearsauce – and other canning projects to make jams, peach halves, apricot spread, apple butter, pumpkin butter, rhubarb sauce, and tomato sauce. It's a slippery slope once you start learning how to turn ripe fruit into another form that you can eat the rest of the year.

Last week, when I was at my neighbors’ house scavenging for an old hot water fixture, they mentioned that their crabapples were ripe and asked when was I going to come and pick them? Lucky for me, a friend was in town visiting, and on a hot afternoon a couple of days later, the two of us picked the tree clean (or almost clean because we couldn’t quite reach everything even with a tall ladder and fruit picker). Afterwards, we walked home with a wheelbarrow full of crabapples and promptly rewarded ourselves with an apricot smoothie made with frozen apricots that we had harvested during June's apricot extravaganza.

Making Applesauce

The next afternoon we started making the applesauce. Applesauce is one of those things that requires a lot of elapsed time,  but you’re not necessarily busy the whole time. The timing also depends how much sauce you're making. You can make applesauce for one evening's dessert with 5 apples or you can make applesauce to last all winter long with a wheelbarrow full of apples. Dinner applesauce takes less than an hour, whereas 8 quarts of canned applesauce takes about 3 or 4 hours.

Prep & Cook for 5 Apples

If you're making applesauce with 5 apples, prep the apples by peeling, coring, and coarsely chopping the apples. Then throw them into a pot with 1/2 cup of water at the bottom. Piece of cake! Bring the water to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer until the apples are mush,  maybe 20-40 minutes. Stir occasionally during that time. Eat the applesauce warm or cold.

Prep & Cook for a Wheelbarrow of Apples

If you're making applesauce with a wheelbarrow load of apples, borrow or purchase a food mill. There are two types of food mills: the cone shaped ones and the ones with the attached handle (often called a Foley food mill although many companies including Oxo make them). We use the cone shape one. The importance of using a food mill is that you do not have to peel or core the apples,  the food mill does that for you! That is especially good news for small sized crabapples and pears.

Use a large heavy-bottomed pot; do not even think of using a cheap thin walled pot, you will be very unhappy when you spend time later scrubbing the bottom of the pot. Fill the pot with about 1/2 cup of water. Wash all of the apples, cut off any bruises, and place the whole apples in the pot. Turn the stove on high until the water boils. Then, turn the heat down to medium low for an hour or more until the apples are dissolved into mush. Important Notes: (1) Stir every 10 minutes or so and get down to the bottom of the pot so that apples don't stick there. (2) Do NOT get impatient and turn the heat up, otherwise you will spend additional time later scrubbing the bottom of your pot. (3) Pay attention to your pot so that it doesn’t boil over so that you will not have to scrub the stove later.

While the apples are cooking, set up the food mill. My setup involves placing a cutting board on the counter so that my pot can sit there. I get out a 2 cup measuring cup to use as a big ladle, and I use a flat bowl as a place to put the very messy 2 cup measuring cup. For ergonomic reasons, I place an upside-down milk crate or aerobic stepper on the floor near the counter. If you are of average height, then increasing your height to use the food mill will relieve stress on your shoulder and arm while you use the food mill.

When the apples in the pot have fallen apart and no longer resemble whole apples, place the pot on the cutting board on the counter. With the 2 cup measure cup, ladle the hot apple liquid into the food mill and start milling the apple liquid. The core, skin, and seeds will remain inside of the mill. Very cool! Scoop this stuff out, and put it into the compost. The output of the food mill is the applesauce.

When you have finished milling all of the applesauce, carefully pour it into a clean heavy-bottomed pot. Place the pot on the stove and turn the burner on simmer. Add sugar to taste, and stir the sugar into the hot applesauce to melt it. If the fruit is picked very ripe, you might not need any sugar at all.

If you’ve got access to ripe raspberries or blackberries, they make an excellent addition to the applesauce and turn it a fabulous purple color. You’ll need to add a lot of berries to get the flavor to come through.

Canning or Freezing the Applesauce

If you've got a giant freezer, you can pour the applesauce into canning jars, let it cool, and place it in the freezer. Otherwise, if you're going to store it in your cupboards, you'll need to go through the canning process.

Basic Canning Supplies
To make your canning experience a pleasant one, buy the basic canning supplies which are usually available at your local hardware store. The basic supplies, often times available as a package, include:

- a canning pot
- a wide-mouth funnel (to minimize spills when you pour into jars)
- a long magnet (to pick up the hot lids)
- a wide-mouth tongs (to pick up the hot jars without burning yourself)
- a rack (to store the canning jars)
- a Ball Blue Book (with information on how to can, recipes, boiling times, etc.)
- canning jars and lids

Canning: The Process

While the apples are cooking, wash all of the jars and lids, and fill the jars a little over half full with water. Raise the rack in the pot, and fill the pot until the water comes up to the bottom of the rack. Place the pot on the stove, and put the jars in the pot. Lower the rack of jars into the water.

When you've finishing milling the applesauce and have placed the applesauce pot on the stove to simmer, turn on the pot of water holding the jars to boil. Turn up the heat slightly on the applesauce so that it comes to a slow boil, but be careful not to scorch the bottom of the pot. Stir often! And, watch the pot. If you’ve got a simmer burner on your stove, you can turn the heat up higher – but you still need to stir. Boiling the water pot and the applesauce pot will probably take 40 minutes.

Set up your counter with a cutting board where the applesauce pot will go – the 2 cup measuring cup and flat bowl, the wide-mouth funnel, the long magnet, and a towel to use as a hot pad.

Place the flat part of the lids in a small pot with water to cover the lids. Place the lids rubber-side up, rubber-side down, rubber-side up, etc. so that they don't stick to each other. When the applesauce is almost done, heat the water with the lids, but don't boil the water.

When the applesauce has reached a slow boil, turn it off and bring the pot over to the cutting board. Use the tongs to grab a canning jar from the boiling water pot and carefully pour the hot water from the jar into the pot. Place the canning jar on the cutting board, put the wide-mouth funnel into the jar, use the measuring cup as a ladle, and ladle the hot sauce into the hot jar keeping ½" gap at the top of the jar. Use the long magnet to grab a lid from the hot water. Place the lid on the jar, and tighten the ring on the jar using the towel to grab the jar. Use the tongs to move the jar back to the pot of water.

When you've used up all of the applesauce, lower the rack of jars into the pot and bring the pot of water to a boil. If the water doesn't reach the neck of the lids, add more water. When the pot has reached a round boil, boil the jars for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, place a thick towel on your counter, this is where you'll place the jars when they come out of the pot. After 20 minutes at a rolling boil, turn off the water, raise the rack, and remove the jars with the tongs. Within 10 or 15 minutes, the lids will have "popped" signifying that they are sealed. When the jars are cool, press each of the lids. If any of the lids pop back up, then that jar has not been successfully sealed. You will either need to re-can, refrigerate, or eat it right then. Before storing your jars, label them with the contents and the date.

Now you're ready to bring out homemade applesauce during the depths of winter, what a fabulous thing!

Other Sauces

To make pearsauce and plumsauce (a fabulous deep purple color), use the same methods as for the applesauce.

Putting Berries in the Sauce,
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