Apple Butter

Ingredients

• nine gallons of cider
• three gallons of apples
• sugar to suit the taste
• spice to suit the taste

Method

1. 1

   Boil down one-third of the cider; add to the boiling cider the apples that have been pared and quartered; boil rapidly for two hours, stirring to prevent burning.

2. 2

   Add sugar and spice to suit the taste, and stir constantly until reduced to a thick, smooth pulp, which takes about thirty to forty minutes.

3. 3

   Place in crocks and tie cotton batting over the mouth.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The complete cook book (1900) by Rees, Jennie Day Mrs., page 136. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

APPLE BUTTER. Take nine gallons of cider, boil down one-third ; add to the boiling cider three gallons of apples that have been pared and quartered ; boil rapidly for two hours, so as to prevent them from sinking; when they commence to sink, stir so as to prevent them from burning; add sugar and spice to suit the taste, stir constantly until the mass is reduced to a thick, smooth pulp — this gen- erally takes from thirty to forty minutes. Place in crocks and tie cotton batting over the mouth of crock. TOMATO BUTTER. One bushel ripe tomatoes, one-half bushel of ripe apples, five pounds of brown sugar, one ounce cinna- mon, one ounce allspice, one ounce cloves ; first allow tomatoes to come to a boil, then add the apples peeled and cored ; let cook together, watching very carefully for about three-fourths of a day, then add the sugar and allow to boil until juice is cooked out of them ; one hour before taking off add the spices. ORANGE MARMALADE— DELICIOUS. Quarter the oranges and take out the seeds and white strings. To every pound of pulp add a cup of cold water, and let it stand thus for twenty-four hours. Boil some of the peel in several waters until quite ten- der; then to each pound of pulp, add one-quarter of a pound of boiled peel, and one and a quarter pounds of white sugar. Boil this slowly until it jellies, and the bits of peel are quite transparent. HOW TO MAKE TUITA FRUITA, OR THE ART OF PRESERVING ALL FRUITS AS THEY COME IN THEIR SEASON. Take one gallon crock, or one gallon stone jar, first put in one pint of the best alcohol, then one cup of sugar (granulated), then one cup of fruit, and then one cup of sugar, and continue to do this in this way until you are The Complete Cook Book 285 finished ; but you use only one pint of alcohol for the gallon crock and this you place in at first. List of fruits in their order to he preserved : Strawberries, red raspberries, blackberries, bananas and oranges, cher- ries, plums, apricots, pineapples, peaches and pears; always keep the jar or crock covered and when you have completed work, put a piece of brandied paper on top and cover crock securely. 286 The Complete Cook Book. PICKLES, ETC. THE MOST IMPOVED METHOD FOR MAKING PICKLES. Make a brine of four pails of water, six quarts of salt, a piece of alum size of an egg, one and one-half ounces of saltpeter, and stir until thoroughly dissolved. Test to see if brine is strong enough ; see that it will balance an egg or a small potato. Put in your small or medium-size cucumbers, and leave in from fourteen to twenty-four hours, according to how salty you desire same. Then transfer pickles into a vessel of fresh cold water for twenty -four hours, mixing grape leaves in water as follows : A layer of grape leaves and a layer of pickles, and so on until vessel is full. The last five hours of the twenty-four, put a piece of ice on top of pickles large enough to chill them; this will harden them. Boil the vinegar made as described, put pickles into stone crocks or jars, pour hot vinegar over same, put a piece of writing paper on top of vinegar, then a thick layer of cotton batting, and seal jars or crocks. Tie cotton batting over mouth of crocks. You will find by processing pickles by this formula they will not be soft, and fungus or mould cannot form on top, HINTS ON THEIR MANAGEMENT. Pickles should always have vinegar enough to cover them ; those intended for immediate use should be kept in wide top stoneware jars. Keep a cloth folded upon the pickles, and the jar covered with a plate or wooden vessel ; they should occasionally be looked over, and the softest and least likely to keep, used first. Pickles in- The Complete Cook Book. 287 tended for use the following summer should he assorted from the remainder when first made; choose those most firm and of equal size; put them into stone, or glass- ware, with fresh vinegar to cover them ; cover the ves- sel close, with several thicknesses of paper, or a tin cover, or if wide-mouthed bottles are used, cork them tightly. Cucumhera may be put down in a strong salt and water brine, to be greened and pickled as they are wanted. Keep them under the brine. When wanted, freshen them in two or three changes of water, for two or three days, until by cutting one open, you find it but little salt ; then pour scalding vinegar over them three times, and keep them covered; add spices and season- ing to the vinegar to suit the taste.

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.