Making applesauce? Use caution!

Every fall my mother-in-law Edna produced dozens of jars of applesauce. Her sweet but tart recipe was given more notoriety than any other food item on the holiday table except for her West Virginia yeast rolls. More on this later.

Now the responsibility and the tradition to make applesauce has fallen on my husband and me! The word tradition connotes a lovely sentiment. Can we say the fruit of our labor is a messy six-hour time commitment?

“It’s an important tradition,” my husband quips, as I move the wooden pestle in a circular motion, watching the apple juice ooze into a bowl under a three-legged aluminum stand.

This method is easier he claims because you don’t have to peel the apples, you just need to core them. Core them and core them. This year I purchased two effective apple corers with handles on them.

We use Macintosh apples from Kauffman’s in Lancaster, Pa. Several neighbors make this yearly pilgrimage and even though we couldn’t make the trip, they were kind enough to bring an ample amount.

Cooking apples and eating apples are not the same.

A quick google search reveals there are 7,500 varieties of apples, 2,500 of which are available in the United States. Johnny Appleseed would have a heart attack. There seems to be a new variety every fall in the grocery stores.

On Sandy Patton’s blog Selecthealth, she writes, “The most grown apple variety is the Red Delicious. It was introduced in the 1880s in Iowa and is well-known for being bright red, crunchy, and mildly sweet. Though it has faced its fair share of critics, Red Delicious has remained steady in popularity. It’s predicted, however, that the Gala may soon take hold of the number one spot, Red Delicious will move to second, and Granny Smith will take third place.”

Edna used a pressure cooker to seal the jars, but we use a pressure cooker to cook the apples. Using a pressure cooker can be dangerous. After about 6 minutes the little topper on the cooker starts jiggling and steaming and looks like it will blow up to the ceiling. Our cooker takes about 8 minutes a batch to make a pot of apple goulash.

Next you remove some of the liquid, transfer the mush to the cone sieve, and then push the apples through the strainer using the wood pestle. Mix in sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to taste and place the confection into jars leaving a half inch space at the top.

Place the boiled lids and seals on the tops of the jars and delight in listening to the random pops and pings all evening which tell us that the jars are sealed.

The following day we freeze our applesauce to ensure its freshness, and that’s the sole reason we purchased a second refrigerator for the garage. I thought people who own two refrigerators are very wealthy and spoiled but maybe they need freezer space like us.

Now about that other family tradition, yeast rolls. My mother-in-law spoiled all of us. After Edna passed in 2002, my family expected me to pan rolls the evening before Thanksgiving like she did. During dinner, they pictured me retrieving hot buns from the oven while everyone else got to dig into mashed potatoes and gravy. Let’s not talk about gravy.

I was spoiled rotten by her good graces and was never as patient as she was. Her generation did not dine out. They canned what they grew so they could eat in the wintertime.

Today, I am feeling quite proud of myself, now that the jars are sealed and stored for the year’s enjoyment and gift giving.

You can still find the 1950s stand and pestle Wearever Aluminum model on Etsy for $75 and other modern versions on Amazon in case you decide to embark on this endeavor.

We have two of these 1950s models and two wooden pestles, so we can mash apples in harmonious matrimony. The pressure cooker is not the only danger. Two adults must occupy the kitchen at the same time to achieve the desired results.