This month, my little apple tree bears about 30 pounds of organic apples. This is much more than my family of four will eat fresh before spoiling. Since I am out of freezer space, I have experimented with home canning and some old fashioned recipes.
Not many can eat apples – peaches seem to be far more popular. But if you, like me, find yourself too many evils, search for something worth trying at home. Expect canning apples to be started all day, mostly reserved for the weekend if you work full time.
With bad cane at home, it is very important to read and carefully follow the instructions of the experts. Those from the USDA, the group Blue Book, or Ball’s Complete House Keeping Book, are particularly accurate and helpful. Don’t just take my word for it, take a look and follow the instructions from the experts!
I found a flat sliced apple and a sliced cinnamon and apples dried fruit, both of which I found in the Blue Ball book. Apples canned with dried fruits called cinnamon, raisins, dried cherries. I found the apples a little less necessary to fill each jar by weight than in the Blueberry pack. For the canned plain apples, I followed the basic recipe of Ball using medium sugar syrup and adding lemon juice.
Many vintage cookbooks, like my 1979 edition of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, which includes a section on home canning, emphasize the importance of using perfect, quality produce. This is also brought to light in the Blue Book. This means canning only whole apples free from insect damage, bruising, or other blemishes. Some years, this means giving half the crop. This year, I, fortunately or otherwise, can most of my apples.
I have a large pot (canner) for sterilizing and sealing jars. You don’t need to spend more than $30 on this device, which is available at hardware, discount stores and Amazon.com . It takes a long time to heat such a large pot of water. That’s why I always start heating the pot, filled about half full of water (pots take up a lot of room) when I start preparing the fruit. If your stove, like mine, has a high burner, put the canner there. If the filled canner is heavy enough to carry on the stove, place it on the burner and fill it with water using a large pitcher.
In addition to a cane, barrels, a cane rack, a pot remover, a thin spatula or chopstick, known lids, bands, a food tray, and ordinary kitchen equipment such as pots and pans. You can only reuse jars that were specifically sold for home canning. Don’t keep old jars from the grocery store, even if the lids fit. And check your barrels carefully for chips or cracks.
For canned apples, the Blue Book group calls for sugar syrup. I chose medium syrup (5 cups of sugar and 6 cups of water). To do this, heat the water and sugar until it is dissolved. then I kept the syrup warm until he needed it.
I heated the lids to seal the barrels in a pot of water at very low heat. Do not overcook. I put the jars in my oven, hot (about 150 degrees F). You can also use it in the dishwasher to preheat the barrels.
For canned apple pigments, Blue Ball recipe recipe mix 8 to 10 pounds of sliced apples with sugar, water, and dried fruits and boiling them by heating. Instead of regular sliced apples, Book Blue Ball said to heat them up like in boiling sugar syrup. I added the juice and zest of 1 lemon to each batch. acidity helps canned fruit and lemon added a nice flavor
I put the hot apple crust in the hot tubs and poured the hot sugar syrup over it. It’s important to do this job carefully, so you don’t burn yourself or spill hot syrup on the stove. I put a towel under the barrels to catch some of the runoff. It should also be noted that it is much easier to collect barrels with a wide opening than with a regular opening.
The Blue Ball book and vintage cooks emphasize the importance of using a thin, non-metallic spatula to trap air bubbles between the fruits. Lacking one of these, I used a hammer. By moving around it released a significant amount of air. Changes in the head space, which is the space between the top of the liquid and the top of the barrel, affect the seal and how well the canned apples keep.
After the air bubbles were released and I had a proper 1/2 inch head space at the top of the jar, I wiped. The lids are carefully placed with a damp cloth on top of the warm lid, and the bands are twisted to tighten. Any dirt, grime or syrup on the edge of the barrel can break the seal. So cleaning the barrels was really cool.
I put the two jars in a boiling water bath for 20 minutes. A proper, strict journey must be made, the barrels must be placed on the rack in the cane, the water brought to the boil, and the process begins at the time when the pot boils. When the time ends, I turned the heat and waited 5 minutes before removing the jars of canned apples.
As my jars of canned apples cooled, I heard a reassuring “pop” as the seal formed. But I also sealed each one in the refrigerated containers, so that it was good. I found one urn, which I did not sign. Rather than reprocess that jar of canned apples, I put it in the refrigerator and ate it within a few days.
