Real! Pre-1900 Shelf Stable Apple Butter, a Lost Art

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elkhound

elkhound

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Old Time Gardens: Newly Set Forth
By Alice Morse EarleUPNE, 1901


“ But of greatest importance, both for home consumption and for the market, is the staple known as Apple butter. This is made from sweet cider boiled down to about one-third its original quantity. To this is added an equal weight of sliced Apples, about a third as much of molasses, and various spices, such as cloves, ginger, mace, cinnamon or even pepper, all boiled together for twelve or fifteen hours

snippet talking about apple butter without using cider..which means cider/juice was traditionally used as noted..this was written in 1840


Directions for cookery, in its various branches, Eliza Leslie
Carey & Hart, 1840

APPLE BUTTER WITHOUT CIDER.—To ten gallons of water add six gallons of the best molasses, mixing them well together. Put it into a large kettle over a good fire; let it come to a hard boil, and skim it as long as any scum continues to rise. Then take, out half the liquid, and put it into a tub. Have ready eight bushels of fine sound apples, pared, cored and quartered. Throw them gradually into the liquid that is still boiling on the fire. Let it continue to boil hard, and as it thickens, add by degrees the other half of the molasses and water, (that which has been put into the tub.) Stir it frequently to prevent its scorching, and to make it of equal consistence throughout. Boil it ten or twelve hours, continuing to stir it. At night take it out of the kettle, and set it in tubs to cool; covering it carefully. Wash out the kettle and wipe it very dry.


Next morning boil the apple butter six or eight hours longer; it should boil eighteen hours altogether. Half an hour before you take it finally out, stir in a pound of mixed spice; cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and nutmeg, all finely powdered. When entirely done, put up the apple butter in stone or earthen jars. It will keep a year or more.

It can, of course, be made in a smaller quantity than that given in the above receipt; and also at any time in the winter; fresh cider not being an ingredient, as in the most usual way of making apple butter.
 
History of the Counties of Lehigh and Carbon, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, (1884)

The quilting-party and the apple-butter party were institutions of former days....

apples are plentiful. The Pennsylvania Germans are noted for their apple-butter, which is different from any other, and pronounced by competent judges the most palatable article made. It is not a New England sauce, to be eaten with spoons, nor a Shaker apple-butter, with its pumpkins used in connection with the apples and cider. It is a marmalade, made of sweet cider and schnitz. Schnitz are a Pennsylvania German product, for which there is no English name. At the apple-butter party the schnitz are made. The young folks are seated around a large tub, peeling the apples and cutting them into slices (schnitz), which are thrown into the tub until bushels of them are made. These are poured by the bucketful into the cider, boiling in a kettle which frequently holds a barrel. As the cider concentrates by boiling, and a fresh supply of apples is continually added, the apple-butter thickens.
 
The New England Farmer, Volume 12Thomas W. Shepard, 1834


The following has been furnished to us, by a correspondent, as a correct account of the best way of making Apple Butter, so little known in the southern states, and so much valued in the northern:

"First, boil down the best flavored cider, of selected fruit, (and sweet is the best to keep) to two thirds of the quantity put in. To every barrel of cider, put in six bushels of apples, of best quality, pared, quartered, and cleaned of the cores, and free from rots and bruises.
"As soon as boiled down one-third, as above, feed in the quartered apples as fast jas they boil away, which must be done in brass or copper. It is best to have two kettles, in order to supply the finisher from the other, which keeps it from boiling the apples too much. It will require from 12 to I5 hours constant and moderate boiling, when it must be stirred at the bottom to prevents its burning, by a long handle, with a piece of wood three or four inches wide attached to the other end.

"To know when it is done, cool and try some of it on a plate, till the liquid ceases to run from it. Towards the close of it, some put in cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

"If only one kettle is used, each parcel of raw apples must not be boiled or brought down too much before another supply is added. If it scorches in the operation, it is ruined. As soon as done, it must be taken out immediately from the kettle into wooden vessels to cool, and afterwards into crocks, or stone ware, or wood; but in order to keep it best in summer, crocks of stone were are to be preferred."
 
Old Time Gardens: Newly Set Forth
By Alice Morse EarleUPNE, 1901


“ But of greatest importance, both for home consumption and for the market, is the staple known as Apple butter. This is made from sweet cider boiled down to about one-third its original quantity. To this is added an equal weight of sliced Apples, about a third as much of molasses, and various spices, such as cloves, ginger, mace, cinnamon or even pepper, all boiled together for twelve or fifteen hours. Often the great kettle is filled with cider in the morning, and boiled and stirred constantly all day, then the sliced Apples are added at night, and the monotonous stirring continues till morning, when the butter can be packed in jars and kegs for winter use. This Apple butter is not at all like Apple sauce ; it has no granulated appearance, but is smooth and solid like cheese and dark red in color.

very interesting the bold part of how they described what applebutter looked like...nothing i have seen,help make or ever heard of looked like this at all.being like cheese means it was very stiff...traditionally speaking.this type item also meant that more calories by weight and bulk could be carried by a person or by wagon/horse.
 
It's a staple here, and had to chuckle about the schnitz. Yep. At that fried mush and liverwurst meal I just attended, I sat with my favorite cousin. You could put cream gravy, syrup, or tomato gravy on the fried mush, but she spooned on apple butter. If you can it like any fruit, it'll last years on the shelf. Have made pear butter in a similar manner.
 
Sad that the generations that follow have no interest in these things.

It is wonderful to read and see so many who are active in keeping the tasks and Knowledge of real survival by families and groups of neighbors.

When I was 12 years old I could live in the woods for a while, Make a bow and arrow and shoot it well enough to hunt, work up a spring, build a filter for the water with sand and layers of twigs and try to do a catch basin for rainwater. There are A lot of other things you need to know to be able to stay out for a while.
I always tried to keep a strong Magnifying glass to start fires, it is much easier than a friction or steel for the right times.

Thee processes are so important in times of conflict and economic stagnation that they need to be taught to every child as a primary life skill.

Thanks for presenting another method of doing them.
 
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