Mama's Apple Butter

I recently bought a gallon-sized can of applesauce in the discounted section.It does
have a couple of dings,but still good for making apple butter.Pour the applesauce into
a large crock pot then add the following...
4-cups of dark brown sugar
1-package of Sure-gel pectin (pink box)
Spices...I really don't measure these and always use more than any recipe calls for.
Cinnamon I use lots of it
Nutmeg about 1 teaspoon and a half
Cloves only about 1-teaspoon
Mix all of the ingredients together and cover with the lid.Set your crock pot for 6 hours
and do whatever you need to do.After 3 hours,remove lid and stir well and leave lid off
until finished.When the apple butter seems thick enough you can go ahead and process it.
This size batch usually makes around 7 pints of apple butter.I run it through the water
bath canner for 20 minutes.

a reply to: mamabeth


Applesauce was another staple of my childhood diet. I hate it as adult so I appreciate the recipe — our figs have another 25-40 days before I bust out the crock pot for jelly/preserves/etc.

a reply to: mamabeth


Will this go swell with porkchops?

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: mamabeth


Will this go swell with porkchops?

Breakfast ? Sure.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

I dropped eating pork with applesauce, I only eat it with Apple Butter. It goes great with any pork.

a reply to: mamabeth


MMMMMmmmmmMMMmmmmMMMMM!!!

That sounds GOOooooD!!

(I'd probably back off on the nutmeg though. Not a huge fan of nutmeg at all).

ETA...Holy Mackerel, a whole tablespoon of nutmeg???? Wow...a whole tablespoon of nutmeg would last me a century or longer!

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I am not sure how much nutmeg I put in it.I did shake out
about a teaspoon worth.I did post tablespoon and I will have
to change that.

a reply to: mamabeth

Funny story about nutmeg; when I was working over in Malaysia I had a few Malay gals who worked admin for us. One day they brought in this dried fruit they were all raving about. It looked like candied ginger (same color roughly and same consistency). They were just gobbling this stuff up like candy, and were insisting I try some. It had some Malaysian name, and I had no idea what it was. It didn't particularly smell like anything really, maybe just the slightest hint of nutmeg.

So I popped just the tiniest piece in my mouth and bit down on it. OMG...OMG...AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHH!! It was this unimaginable eruption of nutmeg, like 100,000,000 times stronger than anything I'd ever tasted before!! I mean, just unbelievable, incomprehensible...NUTMEG flavor!! Probably the strongest, most pungent, flavor of anything I've ever tasted in my life! It like consumed your whole body the instant you tasted it. It was so far over the top of anything I'd ever tasted before it defies description (and I'm not EVEN doing it justice here with my description). My whole upper torso just instinctively convulsed (no kidding either!).

I immediately yanked it out of my mouth, and I'm standing there gasping and holding on to it at arm's length like it's a piece of radioactive Cobalt or something, but it was too late. I couldn't even speak. The girls are all standing there giggling (and eating this stuff like mad). When I finally managed to speak I asked them "What the heck is this stuff????". They said what it's name was in Bahasa Malaysian, and then said "you probably refer to it as 'nutmeg'"

Turns out it was the fruit of the nutmeg. The seed is what gets ground up for the spice nutmeg, but they dry the flesh of the fruit too, and then candy it with sugar. Prior to this I didn't really mind nutmeg really, but after that experience I can only take nutmeg in very small (think microscopic) amounts. I can smell it from a mile away, even just a few grains of the stuff. It took like 2-3 days to get that taste out of my mouth, and the whole time every single thing I tasted or smelled tasted and smelled like nutmeg. And, I am not exaggerating one bit about this either.

It was unbelievable!

Sorry, off-topic, I know, but I thought I'd share.

ETA...and before anyone goes there, yes, I have had Durian fruit...and this was 10,000x times more powerful than Durian fruit could ever be!

Here is another apple butter recipe which is different from
mine.I learned from a similar recipe and tweeked it to suit
my tastes.
www.cleverlysimple.com...

a reply to: mamabeth
Pity your not in the UK I could have given you a virtual tree full. After having apple pie, apple dumplings, apple crumble etc. etc (not baked apple eurg). I still threw a good 6 gallon in the compost.
Do you know there are not many people out there that wants to cook with the real fruit. They'll eat apple products but if you say "I got some apples, I'll give you some if you want" they look at you gone out. Ah well.

a reply to: crayzeed

I would have taken them and made apple pie filling and
canned them as well.

After you get your bacon and eggs out of the way then eating a few toasts with apple butter spread on with a hot cup of joe is a big trip back to the past and more familiar times for me. Family get togethers and holidays and most all in great happy spirits. Who has the best to buy??? I have had none in decades.

Great recipe! I will try it, maybe my son will like it.