applesauce
 

I posted this on preserving the harvest and didn't get an answer maybe someone in here can help

I want to do applesauce this year and wanted to know which apples are best

I will have to buy them as I don't have any apple trees
thanks for the help in advance

I've made applesauce with any apple I get my hands on (as soon as they start looking 'off', I make applesauce). If I do it with a cooking type apple or anything tart (Granny Smith, etc), I add sugar, but everything else I just use straight. Now, I'm not canning, just making it for fresh or freezing. So canning you might *need* to add sugar.

That said, I like things like Pink Lady the best. The best applesauce to me comes from the apples I like to eat. For long term storage this may be different though!

Any apple with a "bite" is best like Jonathan, Granny Smith, etc.
Do not use Delicious, your applesauce turns out kinda grainy.

I like to use Golden delicious and another kind, like Grimes Golden because I like mine sweet and don't like to add sugar to it. My friend uses a tart summer apple because they like tart applesauce. It depends on what type of apple you like as to what you use.

Mountain Micks Apple Sauce
Granny Smith a little lemon juice and a few whole cloves Plus sugar to taste and tiny pinch salt, , Peel apples slice and diced add lemon juice and sugar and cloves plus salt now boil to boil and now simmer until apples break down , take whole gloves out sieve for smooth sauce or lightly stab blend up for course sauce, now bottle and can as you need for you altitude Enoy MM

We make applesauce out of any available apples, as long as it's a mixture. Much more flavor than straight run! And if you can get some Red Rome apples to put in with the others, they turn the sauce the most gorgeous -- and appetizing! -- pink color.

No seasoning for us; we save that for when we use the sauce. And usually, since it's from mixed apples, the flavor is fine and we eat it as is.

I agree with Marcia. It is better to get a mixture of different types of apples if canning your own. Mix cooking apples with eating apples so that less sugar is required and the sauce doesn't have a "grainy" texture.

Think pink!
 

My favorite sauce apple (but hard to find) is the Pink Pearl. Nice spicey flavor and fabulous pink flesh. Great pies too. My #1 all-purpose apple is the Pink Lady - only the skin is pinkish, but the flesh is very fine textured, the core is quite small, and the flavor is complex.

Like Montana KJ and Marcia in Mt say, a mix is best. I used a juicer once to "try out" my options when I wanted some special stuff for gifts. That was too much fun. The fresher the apple, the better the sauce.

I use equal parts of Golden Delicious, Stayman Winesap and Jonathan. But those apples are readily available in my area. I also cook the stuffings out of them, so by the time I put the product through the seive/cone, all that stays behind is the seed coat, the skins have completely dissolved.

thanks everyone

Honey crisp (expensive), McIntosh or Granny, or my personal favorite is Courtland.

I guess it's all personal preference but I like the red skinned apples. I cook 'em up till they're mushy and run 'em thru my Victorio strainer (at least 3 times) The applesauce comes out pink. You just re-boil the applesauce, season w/cinnamon & sugar to taste, and put in jars. Nice tart flavor and it keeps well.

But in answer to your question, I guess you could use most any apple except (from what I've been told) Red Delicious. I won't even eat those things any more. They've been so over-bred they're not what god gave us any more.

A mix is nice.

I don't make applesauce, but my favorite cooking apple is Newton Pippin. If it makes good pies, it should make good flavored applesauce. Or maybe not. It holds its shape when baked. That's not a good quality for applesauce.

I see yellow transparent recommended for applesauce, but I've got one and it is a waste of space. I use those apples to make dog food. No person around here will eat them. They are mushy and flavorless. They do fall apart almost instantly when heated, but the sludge they turn into has no flavor.

I've got some Gravenstein which would make good applesauce. The apples get soft fast, but they have great flavor. They make excellent dried apples, too.

Make friends with the produce people in the grocery stores. Although they're not supposed to be doing anything with the produce they pull off the shelves but throw it away, I've had them give me apples when I asked nicely. A nice assortment, and the price was right!

free produce
 

our little stors produce guy gives me a lot of good deals on the older produce I can get 6 to 8 pounds bananas for 99 cents makes good fruit leather

here is the rule of thumb....

the sweeter the apple the less sugar you will need.

you can use a any combination of sweet apples.

the granny smith is used as a baking apple because of its firm flesh. It is sour and therefore needs something to sweeten it up.

Depends entirely on your taste. I used to have Gravenstein and Granny Smith trees, and made sauce from a mixture of the two. I canned it up without any sugar or spice, because that is the way I like it. DH has a sweet tooth, so when the jars were opened I mixed sugar in for him. A mixture is best, as others have said. Sugar is fine, if you want, but isn't necessary if you'd rather not. And can always be added later.

Just a link that may give you some ideas of how to make homemade applesauce. Applesauce: How to make homemade applesauce, easily! (directions, recipe, with photos and free)

Me I make crock-pot apple butter an it's good.. LOL..

Have fun....:)

I usually use a mix of apples, but the best applesauce I ever made was with Northern Spy apples, which are very hard to find here. There's an old saying, "Spys for pies.." Anyhow, I got quite a bit and after freezing some I made the rest into sauce. It needed no sugar, and cooked down to velvet. Haven't found them since.

applebutter
 

that sounds very good how do you do it

Gala's are our choice and we like to add some cinnamon to it or sometimes red hots for a treat. No sugar is needed. I also put ours thru the food processor since my son and I have some texture issues with our food :rolleyes:

Crock Pot Apple Butter 3 QT. Recipe
Put 3 quarts of apples, sliced thin, in a crock pot and cook overnight on high.
Next morning, add 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 3 cups sugar.
Cook all day on low.
Tastes like old-fashioned apple butter that is cooked in copper kettle.

You can use applesauce if you do not have time to prepare the apples.
The crock pot makes it possible for apples to cook a long time without being stirred


Crock Pot Apple Butter

5 quarts finely chopped apples
4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
4 tsp. cinnamon

Fill a 5 quart crock pot heaping full with finely chopped apples. (Tart apples are best.)
Drizzle 4 cups sugar (or less, depending upon sweetness of apples), 4 teaspoons cinnamon,
and 1/4 teaspoon salt, over the apples.
Cover. (Lid may not fit tightly at start, but apples will shrink as cooked.)
Begin cooking on high, then lower heat and cook all day until thick and dark color.
Stir occasionally.
Place in small peanut butter jars, cool and freeze.

;)

apple butter
 

sounds fantastic thanks so very much