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Have apples?
Make apple butter with star anise
By Deborah Madison
October 5, 2009
Boy, do I have apples! My dozen trees are all heavy with fruit. I have no idea what varieties they are, but the original owner of my house once told me, “They’re the best Kmart had.”
I think I have Gravensteins, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, maybe an Arkansas Blacks, and Jonathans. Each tree is different. But regardless of the variety, the nasty coddling moth, which leaves a worm in nearly every fruit, invades them all; otherwise I’d happily give them away. An apple with a worm in it isn’t considered much of a gift.
The apples are falling daily. And nightly. The raccoons eat them right to the core — while leaving them hanging on the tree. Mostly they knock them to the ground, as does the wind, and when they fall, they bruise.
Applesauce is the perfect use for these apples, because you can cut around the bruised spots and the wormy parts and use whatever is left, which is often a lot. So I chop the apples into large pieces, throw them in the pressure cooker, and then pass them through a food mill, which separates the inedible parts from what is now sauce.
Finally, I add sugar, spices, and lemon as needed. When the quince come in, which they will shortly, I throw one or two in with the apples. They tint the sauce rose, and give it a more interesting flavor.
With four big batches of sauce in the works, my friends and neighbors saturated, and no more space for storing it, I decided to make apple butter — mainly because it would reduce the quantity significantly. I seasoned and sweetened applesauce, cooked it slowly for a few hours, then let it rest overnight. The next morning I canned it in my nifty new canning unit.
The butter is dark, sweet, spicy, and beguiling, and I’m hooked. I’d never been a big fan of apple butter, but I am now. I especially like it with the star anise. I know it will be much more interesting in an apple fool or a cake than applesauce, and it might make a good fall ice cream.
I know everyone’s been canning like mad this season, and for good reason. It makes you beam with satisfaction, knowing you’ve used what you had instead of wasting it, plus you have gifts for others.
Here’s my method for making apple butter. It’s pretty improvisational, the apple varieties are mixed, and the amounts are based on proportions.
Apple Butter with Star Anise
- Chop apples into large pieces, skins and cores included, and put them in a pressure cooker, filling it two-thirds full. Add 2 cups water or apple juice. Bring to high and maintain for 15 minutes. Reduce the pressure, either slowly or quickly.
- Work the cooked apples through a food mill to make the sauce. Measure the contents and transfer to a wide pot.
- For 8 cups of sauce, stir in 2 cups sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon cardamom, and 3 whole star anise. Also add the zest and juice of 2 lemons. Cook over very low heat until very thick, 2 to 3 hours. (Because it will plop and spurt and make your stove sticky and dirty, cover it with a Flame Tamer.) Every so often, give it a stir with a whisk.
- When it’s thick and dark, taste it. If it needs more acid, add more lemon, or aged red wine or balsamic vinegar. Now you can go through the whole canning routine.
Deborah Madison is the author of numerous award-winning cookbooks, including Local Flavors. She lives in New Mexico.
Local Flavors | |
| Deborah Madison, the celebrated cookbook author and local-food advocate, feeds us with her occasional reflections. Her latest book is What We Eat When We Eat Alone. | |
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There are 9 comments on this item
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1. by City Farm Girl on Oct 5, 2009 at 10:08 PM PDT
I’m curious if you throw the cores in even if they have worms. My apples all have worms too, and I’ve been carefully cutting out all the cores.
2. by rozcummins on Oct 6, 2009 at 6:09 AM PDT
Last Saturday I went to a talk about preserving given by Eugenia Bone. She was trying to get people to overcome their fear of using pressure cookers. I am quite fearful of them because when I was little one of our pressure cookers blew up in the kitchen. My mom never used a pressure cooker again. My memory is that she complained that there were shards of glass everywhere and “fish on the ceiling,” but looking back as an adult that just doesn’t sound right to me. How much glass could there have been? And, unless she was preserving tuna, who cooks fish in a pressure cooker? Fish cooks so quickly on its own. So, I am sure that I have conflated two completely different kitchen disasters in my mind, but the fact remains that I have to get over my fear of using a pressure cooker.
3. by Kathryn H on Oct 6, 2009 at 7:22 AM PDT
The new generation pressure cookers have lots of built-in safeguards so they can’t explode. I love mine and use it every week for beans, whole grains and other things cook for long periods of time--steamed, whole beets in 10 minutes, anyone?
I also use the pressure cooker to make large batches of applesauce, but for sauce I usually only add about 1/2-cup liquid, depending on the apples, and cook about five minutes--that’s a bit different than Deborah’s recipe for apple butter, but it works in our house!
4. by Deborah Madison on Oct 6, 2009 at 8:55 AM PDT
City Farm Girl! -- I definitely don’t use the cores that have worms in them!
In fact, I put them out with the trash instead of with the compost as I don’t want to encourage their futures any more than I have to. But if the cores are
okay, in they go! Thanks for asking ...
5. by sj.breeze on Oct 6, 2009 at 9:58 AM PDT
I’ve made a couple batches of apple butter (so far!)--one with a bit of Marsala added just for kicks, and the other is a maple apple pear butter that is just incredible. Those jars are going to be saved for really special people!
6. by ruth_117 on Oct 6, 2009 at 1:24 PM PDT
Roz, your mom could have been canning fish in a pressure cooker! I have heard of several recipies for canning fish (especially abundant species like freshwater suckers) in a pressure canner which makes them taste like canned salmon.
7. by debra daniels-zeller on Oct 12, 2009 at 8:04 AM PDT
Love the recipe. In Washington gardeners swear by nylon footies placed on the fruit when it’s developing to prevent coddling moth from invading the fruit. Farmers don’t generally do this as it’s too labor intensive. They say apples are one of the hardest fruits to grow because of the coddling moth.
8. by Deborah Madison on Oct 12, 2009 at 1:27 PM PDT
I"m sorry to hear that the Northwest is plagued by these critters, too, but footies for apples? Even with 10 trees that would be a lot of work! Coddling
moths are the main reason for making lot of applesauce and apple butter. I long to make baked apples, but can’t quite trust even a flawless looking ones —On the other hand, all those apple cakes popping up next to me on Culinate are certainly good possibilities. Thanks for the tip!
9. by debra daniels-zeller on Oct 13, 2009 at 2:51 PM PDT
!0 trees does sound like a lot. I asked my friend who works at the WSU ag extension and tends the apple orchards there and he said he thins the fruit on their apple trees before applying these “footies” now called “maggot barriers” in nurseries. By thinning, the apples left get bigger. Just a thought. Coddling moth is all over Washington except just north of Spokane. Many organic farmers spray a fishy spray on to deter them. Love the photos you took.
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