canning applesauce

we didnt have to go to the apple orchard this year because the grocery store actually had paula reds! they're excellent sauce apples.

after peeling and coring and slicing up, then add a small amount of water and cook down.


cores and peels for my compost bin


a fan is necessary canning equipment. it gets hot!


sterilize the jars and rings


after cooking the apples to softness, we use a stick blender to smooth it out.


yummy yummy applesauce


filling the jars. we used some jelly jars this time for 'single serve' portions.


put the lids and rings on


load up the canner with jars




after processing, use the jar lifter to remove the hot hot jars from the canner


mmm, homemade applesauce. nothing but apples.


moms pantry. there is salsa, cherries, pears, peaches, jelly, and applesauce on those shelves, along with the few remaining empty jars. the pickles are kept in another cupboard. and i have a few jars of everything at my house too.


we started with 16 apples (7 lbs at 1.39 a lb, $9.68). they were pretty large sized apples. and as you can see from the picture, they filled the stock pot up good.

paula reds are soft apples, and being as soft as they are, i had trouble running them thru the apple peeler/corer. three times the prongs you stick the apple onto managed to spin around until they were free thru the apple. had to peel and slice the rest of those three apples by hand. they taste great though.

we filled 8 jars. 2 were pints, one was almost a pint, and the other 5 were half-pint jelly jars for single servings.