Apple Butter?

Well, I suppose most people, when making something new, would start with a recipe.  In a case like this, perhaps from some spiral bound cookbook put out by a Lutheran church frequented by some long passed relative.

Not me.  I knew the basics.  It is apple concentrate, usually with sugar added, cooked down in an open pan or a slow cooker with the lid removed.  I opted for my turkey roasting pan.  From the Regent apples gathered last weekend I still had half a bushel to deal with, which is about 25 pounds of whole apples.

I cooked the apples, about 3/4 of a gallon at a time, in a heavy bottomed saucepan until they were soft, then I mashed them with a potato masher, added some sugar, then dumped into the turkey roaster in the oven.  The whole process was started around noon.  The oven temp varied from 250 to 350 over the course of the day, because I cooked dinner in the oven as well.  I stirred it every 30 or 45 minutes until midnight and then just left it in the oven to cool.

This morning it was concentrated down so far that to pack it into canning jars I had to heat it back up to about 200 degrees before it softened.  All told, those 25 pounds of apples fit into 4 pint jars, and 1 half pint jar.  There was still a bit stuck to the sides of the roaster pan but the kids did a good job over the course of the day scraping it out with spoons.  It tastes incredibly intensely apple.  <grin>  And really really good.

Patti thinks I might have cooked it down too far.  Kids are not complaining.  I have the roasting pan full of hot water in the tub trying to soften what little bit is left in it so I can scrub it out.