Once A Chef Always a Chef » preserving

Pickled Beets

Peter — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:47:03 +0000

Okay, one more post about beets, and I promise I will be done for awhile. As a kid I wasn’t fond of beets, to say the least. The first time I really enjoyed beets is when I finally gave in and tried my parents pickled beets. They were a revelation. I couldn’t believe that I had disdained these bright red root vegetables for so long, although I don’t think at age 10 I actually used the word disdained. I doubt I even knew the definition of that word at the time. Well, for the first time in my life my parents did not have to force me to eat my beets. Since then, I’ve come a long way. I love beets, and find many ways in spring and fall to incorporate them into my cooking often.

Back in October 2009 I posted a recipe for Pickled Golden Beets. You can use the same exact recipe to pickle red beets if you want. The recipe I offer up today is almost the same as that older recipe with a few small changes. Use either recipe.

Pickled Beets
makes 1 quart

1 1/2 pounds Beets
1 cup Cider Vinegar
1/2 cup Water
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
2 tsp. Canning Salt or Kosher Salt (do not use table salt)
1 each Cinnamon Stick
10 each Cloves, whole
1 1/2 tsp. Allspice, whole
1/2 tsp. Yellow Mustard Seed
2 each Bay Leaf
1 each Onion, small

Place beets in a deep baking dish. Add 1/4 cup of water, cover with aluminum foil and bake, at 375°F for 45-60 minutes or until just barely tender. Allow the beets to cool. Peel the beets and remove any stems. The skin should slip right off the beets. Slice or dice the beets to your liking. Personally I like to cut them into larger chunks about 3/4 – 1 inch in size. Peel and slice the onion into 1/4 inch rings. Toss with the beets and place into a sterilized glass canning jar. Meanwhile, combine the rest of the ingredients in a nonreactive sauce pot and simmer for 8-10 minutes. Strain, return to the pot and bring to a boil. Pour boiling liquid over beets and onions, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Top with sterilized lid and allow to cool to room temperature. Place in fridge and allow to mature for at least 2 weeks before eating.

While I usually just make these and refrigerate them, these beets can be easily and safely canned for long term storage. Follow the same directions as above, but leave the beets slightly undercooked. Once you have covered the beets with the pickling liquid, place the lids on the jars and place in a boiling water bath and process for 15 minutes. Make sure the water covers the jars by at least 1 inch, and don’t start timing until the water returns to a boil. After 15 minutes remove the jars from the water and allow to cool to room temperature. Immediately refrigerate any jars on which the lids did not seal properly. Store the rest in a cool, dark place and they should last a year.

Achieving Maximum Flavor

Peter — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:28:35 +0000

For the second week in a row we have been blessed with a good amount of cherry tomatoes in our CSA box. Last week, my wife got her hands on them and I never saw them again, so this time I made sure I grabbed them before she did. My goal was to place them into our dehydrator and turn them into little flavor bombs. Freshly picked, perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes, on the own, pack a hefty amount of flavor, but dry them out a bit and you can up that flavor to epic proportions.

It’s important to note that what I am acheiving by this is not a way to preserve the tomatoes; I don’t remove enough moisture for that. I am merely trying to remove enough moisture to concentrate the flavors and provide a bit more texture to them. Once finished, these tomatoes will need to be refrigeratored or they will go bad. Even then, this procedure will only buy you a bit more time than you would have with competely fresh tomatoes.

While I use a dehydrator for this, you can do these in your oven also. Hopefully, your oven’s lowest setting is 150°F. Preheat the oven to 150°F. Place the prepared tomatoes on a rack, covered with cheesecloth, cut side down and place in the oven. check after 1 1/2 hours and every 20-30 minutes afterwards, removing tomatoes as they are done. Doing it this way is a little less forgiving, but still not very difficult. Just keep an eye on them.

Dried Cherry Tomatoes

1 quart cherry tomatoes (or any small variety of tomato)
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. finely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp. dried oregano
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Finely mince the garlic then, using the edge and side of your knife mash it into a coarse paste. Grind the dried oregano and dried basil into a powder and mix with the garlic, salt, pepper and olive oil. Remove any stems from the cherry tomatoes and slice, in half, through the stem end. Toss with the olive oil mixture. Lay out on your dehydrator racks, making sure that none the the tomatoes are touching.

Set dehydrator to about 140°F, cover and allow to dry for 2 hours. After 2 hours rotate your trays, if necessary and continue to dry for another 1 1/2 hours. Rotate trays again and start checking the tomatoes every 45 minutes to 1 hour, removing any tomato that is done. Tomatoes are done when they have loss about 1/2-2/3 their size, are starting to feel firm to the touch, and are just slightly dry around the edges. It will take anywhere from 3 1/2-6 hours to dry. I can’t be any more specific as lots of factors affect the drying time; type of dehydrator, size of tomatoes, humidity in the air, etc. Mine took approximately 4 1/2 hours to reach the moisture level I wanted.

Once they are done place in the fridge for storage. They will last a week or 2. For longer storage you can cover them with olive oil, but you will still want to keep them in the fridge.

These little flavor bombs make a great addition to simple pastas, salads, or vegetable medleys, but really my favorite way to eat them is to simply pop them into my mouth, right out of the jar, although it is easy to get carried away and consume an afternoon’s work in just a short time!!

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Fresh Mozzarella & Tomato Panini

Peter — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 01:22:59 +0000

It’s that time of year, and the tomatoes have started popping up in our CSA share. I always look forward to these additions to our weekly boxes. For most of the year I’m not much of a tomato fan, mainly due to the fact that most supermarket tomatoes (those wrongly named vine-ripened included) are tasteless and have the texture of cardboard and water. But come the end of July and the beginning of August that all changes as local, truly vine ripened tomatoes start showing up at the farmer’s markets, roadside stands, and, especially in our CSA boxes.

The Caprese salad, that mixture of fresh tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil, has become a cliche in recent years, but it comes by that title honestly. Sure the combination seems rather tired nowadays, but let’s face it, it’s popular because it works. Those items seem made for each other. Now slap those ingredients between 2 slices of bread, grill it off, and you have the ultimate in summertime grilled cheeses.

I’m usually happy with that, but today I was in the mood to add another dimension. I often like to drizzle my Caprese salads with balsamic syrup, a mixture of balsamic vinegar and sugar reduced to a syrup consistency, but that wasn’t taking it far enough for me today. So I starting thinking what else works with those components and I came up with strawberries. Now, at first this might sound rather odd, but think about it a bit. Strawberries drizzled with balsamic has become a classic light dessert, and basil and strawberries go together well, so now it was just a matter of how to add them to the mix. Slicing and placing them on the sandwich just didn’t seem right so I decided to make a quick balsamic strawberry jelly. This worked perfectly, adding a bit of sweetness and a hint of acidity to the sandwich and perfuming it with the most subtle of strawberry aromas. It also left me with a good bit of leftover jelly to experiment with further.

Quick Balsamic Strawberry Jelly
makes 3/4 cup

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup stawberry jelly, preferably homemade (I used the freezer jam my wife made earlier this summer)

Combine both ingredients in a nonreactive sauce pan and cook until reduced by 1/2. Stir on a regular basis as this mixture has a tendency to stick and burn. Once reduced remove from heat and chill until it sets up. Will keep for 2-3 months in the fridge.

Caprese Panini
makes 1 sandwich

1 small tomato, as fresh and as ripe as possible
fresh basil leaves
fresh mozzarella, sliced 1/4″ thick
ciabatta bread or any crusty rustic white loaf, cut to this size you want
about 1 tablespoon of the Balsamic Strawberry Jelly

Pre heat a panini press. If you don’t have a panini press heat a skillet or griddle over medium heat. Core and slice the tomato in 1/4″ slices. Slice open the ciabatta and spread both cut sides with the jelly. On the bottom half layer the tomato, fresh mozzarella, and fresh basil leaves. Cover with the top slice of ciabatta and grill on the panini press until heated through and the cheese is just starting to melt. This sandwich is best if the cheese and tomato are not overly heated. You just want them heated through with the cheese just on the verge of melting into a stringy mess. If using a skillet press the sandwich, with a spatula, while the sandwich is cooking, flipping it halfway through the cooking process (after approximately 4-5 minutes).

Rhubarb Pickles

Peter — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:25:01 +0000

I’m not sure whether it was the cool weather or all the rain we had in late spring, but our rhubarb took off like crazy this year, as you can see from the picture above. Luckily, we love rhubarb…well at least my wife and I do. My 4 year old daughter isn’t so sure about it. A little too tart for her taste, but I have confidence that she’ll come to her senses and learn to love it like we do. I use it drinks, in all sorts of desserts and in sauces for both savory and sweet dishes, but I came to a realization. We tend to use rhubard as a “fruit” although it is a “vegetable.” I guess that’s because rhubarb is usually pretty tart and requires copious amounts of sugar to tame that tartness.

I wanted to try to use some of our rhubarb in a more traditional “vegetable” preparation so I decided to try and make some rhubarb pickles. I consulted various sources (numerous cookbooks and the web) and didn’t find many recipes for rhubarb pickles. Sure there were some, but not many. Maybe they know something I don’t!!! Well, I decided to go ahead and try to create my own anyway. I’m happy with the recipe I ended up with, but I will admit this recipe isn’t for everyone. You definitely have to like tart foods to enjoy this pickle, but since I am a fan of “tart” these were perfect for me. My wife, on the other hand, wasn’t so enthusiastic about them. She didn’t dislike them, but wasn’t overly thrilled with them. If you are a huge fan of rhubarb and/or like tart foods then I suggest you give these a try.

Before I get to the recipe though I have a couple of thing to make you aware of. First, these are meant to refrigerator pickles. They are not “processed” as I think the processing would turn the pickles to mush. Secondly, in the picture I provide, the rhubarb it cut into long strips. I found that this doesn’t work out well. Pouring the hot liquid over the raw rhubarb leaves them with a bit of crispness without overcooking them and turning them to mush, but it also doesn’t soften the fibers of the rhubarb. It is noticable trying to bit through a long spear of these pickles, but I found if you cut them into 3/4″-1″ chunks you don’t notice the fibers at all, so the recipe states to cut the rhubarb into chunks while the picture shows spears.

Rhubarb Pickles
makes 2 pints

2 pounds rhubarb
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. mustard seed
6 each cloves
1 each cinnamon stick
8 each allspice berries
2 each bay leaves
10 each black peppercorns
1 Tsp. salt
4-8 each Dried red chiles (optional if you want a bit of heat)

Wash the rhubarb and cut into 1″ chunks. Pack into 2-1 pint canning jars that have been sterilized first. Add the dried chiles to the jars also, if using. Combine the remaining ingredients in a nonreactive pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Strain to remove all the spices and pour the hot liquid over the rhubarb, covering completely but leaving at least 1/4″ of headspace. Cover with a sterilized canning lid and ring. Allow to cool to room temperature then place in the refrigerator. The pickles will be ready in about 5 days.

Making Sausage-Mexican Chorizo

Peter — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:04:36 +0000

When I was first introduced to Mexican Chorizo I was very confused. What I knew as “Chorizo” came from Spain and it was a dried sausage, so the first time I ordered Chorizo and Eggs I was perlexed by what I received. My consternation didn’t last long, however, after taking my first bite. I immediately fell in love with this new (well at least new to me) form of sausage. And I’ve been in love ever since.

Chorizo is a great way to add a little spice and Southwest flair to just about any meat dish that calls for ground meat. I often like to add it to chili, use it to fill tacos and burritos, add some into fried potatoes, or a pot of refried beans, and, of course, in the ever popular Chorizo and Eggs, for breakfast. But one of my favorite things to do with chorizo is to make my Southwestern Chorizo Burgers. It’s a combination of chorizo and ground beef and it makes one of the best nontraditional burgers around. You can find the recipe on my blog here.

Making Mexican Chorizo is a pretty simple process, especially so since I find no need to stuff it into casings. The vast majority of uses requires it to be crumbled and browned so there is no need to bother with the hassle of stuffing. To be honest, as much as I love chorizo, it is a pretty spicy product and I’m not sure that I’d enjoy eating it as a link.

Mexican Chorizo

4 pounds pork butt
2 Tbs. paprika
1 1/2 Tbs. ancho powder*
1 Tbs. chipotle powder**
1/4 tsp. ground clove
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. dried oregano, crushed
1 tsp. ground black pepper
5 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground coriander
1/3 cup cider vinegar

Cut the pork butt into 1 inch pieces, making sure to remove any glands you might come across (for a description is my post on making Italian Sausage). In a nonoreactive bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and mix into the pork.

Add the vinegar and mix well. Cover and place in the refrigerator for, at least 2 hours, or overnight. Before grinding place all grinder parts in the freezer to chill. Grind once using the coarsest die.

Mix the sausage to help distribute the seasonings even more then grind, again, through one of the smaller dies. Make a small patty and cook it up. Taste and check for seasoning. Adjust seasoning to your taste. This recipe makes a full flavored sausage with just a bit of heat. You can up the ancho and chipotle, or even add a bit of cayenne if you want more. I usually then package it into 1/2-1 pound packages that I freeze until needed. While this sausage is ready to go after grinding, I find giving it another day, for the flavors to meld, improves it even more.

*If you can’t find Ancho powder, take a couple of ancho chiles (the dried form of the poblano pepper) and roast them in a 350°F oven for 10 minutes. Allow them to cool completely, remove the stem and seeds (you can leave the seeds in if you want it hotter), crumble it up and grind in a spice grinder.

**If you don’t have Chipotle powder puree 1-2 chipotles en adobo as a substitute. You can find these in most Hispanic sections at the grocery store nowadays.

Making Sausage-Spicy Italian Sausage

Peter — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:36:32 +0000

This past September my wife and I bought 1/2 a hog and I had promised to write about some of the things I did with the meat. Well, as usual for me, I did a few things, like make bacon, which you can read about here, but then didn’t write much about it after that. It’s not that we haven’t used any of the pork we got, it’s more the fact that I was too lazy to write about it, or didn’t think that the simple roasts we did were worth writing about. This past week I was determined to change that so Sunday was “Sausage Making Day” at the Martin household. With just under 10 pounds of pork trim, I figured that I would make 2 of my favorite fresh sausages, Spicy Italian and Mexican Chorizo. Someday I would like to do some dry cured sausage and salami, but in our current house that probably won’t happen unless I can convince my wife of the need for another refrigerator; one that holds beer in the summer and curing sausages in fall. I’m not going to hold my breath though.

I’ll give you the recipe for the Chorizo in an upcoming post, so that leaves the Italian sausage for today. Sausage making is not difficult, although people seem to think that it is. The only hard part is stuffing the casings, but that is always optional. You can easily make sausage and leave as bulk pack, ready to be turned into sausage patties, meat balls, pizza topping, or crumbled up and used loose. At its most basic, sausage is nothing more than seasoned meat, most often pork although just about any meat can be turned into sausage, that has been run through a meat grinder, or finely chopped. That’s it…nothing more.

Of course, we can refine that a bit to get a better end product. Sausage relies heavily on its fat content. This not only brings moisture and and flavor to the sausage, but also helps to bind the sausage and adds to its mouth feel. Most sausages work on a ratio of 2 parts meat to 1 part fat. This is a rough estimation and your sausage won’t suffer if this ratio is not dead on, as long as it is in the ball park. Now you could get really anal about this and weigh out your lean meat and fat, making sure you have the exact right proportions or you can do it the easy way and just buy an untrimmed pork butt. This cut of meat naturally comes with just about the right proportions.

At one time sausage making was a way to preserve meat for a longer period of time, before the advent of refrigeration. Hogs were butchered in the fall not only because they were at their fattest then, but because the cool weather helped keep the meat longer. Salting and curing meats also helped stave off decay, allowing for longer storage. Today’s fresh sausages don’t really require so much salt as modern refrigeration takes over the role of preservation, but as with bacon, we have come to enjoy the saltiness of a good sausage so salt still plays a major role in flavoring. Beyond salt, flavoring options are virtually endless. Almost all herbs and spices are used in sausage making somewhere in the world, although garlic seems to play a prominent role in the vast majority of them.

One final word about sausage making. If you plan on stuffing sausages, please buy real casings. Some people might cringe at the thought of working with natural casings, but they really do provide the best texture and mouth feel. They are a little less forgiving than artifical casings but, in the end they aren’t that hard to work with.

Spicy Italian Sausage
makes approximately 16 4oz links

4 pounds Pork butt (or pork trim if you are doing your own butchering or cutting) about 70% lean and 30% fat
4 cloves garlic
4 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 Tbs. black pepper, coarse ground
2 tsp. red pepper flakes
1 tsp. sugar
2 Tbs. fennel seed
1 cup red wine

Lightly crack the fennel seeds, using either a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Don’t grind it into a powder, but just slightly crack the fennel. Combine the fennel with the sugar, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt. Set aside. Cut the pork into 1 inch pieces, removing any heavy connective tissue or silverskin. Also as you are cutting through the large veins of fat look for, and remove, any glands. You can tell its a gland because it will be a dark tan color surrounded by the white of the fat. It also will have a slightly gelatinous look and texture to it. Remove any that you find as they can lend an off flavor to your sausage. Finely mince the garlic then mash it into a coarse paste with the side of your knife blade. Place pork in a large, nonreactive bowl then add the spices and the red wine. Mix well to evenly distribute the seasonings.

Cover with plastic wrap and all to marinate for, at least 2 hours, or overnight. About 1 hour before you are ready to grind your sausage, place all your grinding attachments into the freezer to chill. At this time you will also want to soak about 12-15 feet of natural casings. They usually come salt cured so we need to remove the salt and rehydrate them. Rinse the casings in fresh cold water for about 5 minutes then allow to sit, in fresh cold water, for about 30 minutes. Finally, just before using, open up one end of the casings, place over the faucet and run cold water through them. They are now ready to use. Set up your grinder using the coarse die. Oftentimes sausage is ground twice, once through a coarse die and then again through a smaller die. For this sausage which I like a little more rustic I only grind it once through the coarse die. Working with a handful of pork at a time, push the meat through the grinder, letting it fall into a bowl below.

Once the sausage has been ground gently mix it by hand to ensure that everything is evenly distributed. The sausage is now done and can be used as is, or you can continue on to stuffing.

Set up your stuffer, per the manufacturer’s directions. While I would love to have a stand alone stuffer, that’s not going to happen anytime soon so I use my Kitchenaid and the sausage stuffer attachments. Lightly oil the stuffer tube then slip the casing over the tube, feeding it on until only about 2 inches are hanging off. Many recipes will then tell you to tie a knot in the end, but I find I get a large air bubble so I leave it open for now. With one hand, feed the sausage into the hopper. With the other hand gently guide the sausage as it is being extruded into the casing.

This process can be a little tricky so it may help to have a second person; one to feed the hopper and the other to guide the casing. Eventually, it becomes easier and I usually do it by myself. As the sausage is extruded and starts fill the casings, you want to guide the casing off of the stuffer. The sausage should fill out the casing, but not tightly. If you stuff the sausage too tightly you won’t have room to twist the links and the casings will explode. You also want to avoid any large air bubbles. Continue stuffing the casings until you have used up all of the sausage. Once that it done, tie a knot in one end of the casing, tight against the meat. Measure out about 5 inches of sausage then gently pinch and twist, making 2 rotations towards you. Measure another 4-5 inches and repeat, this time twisting away from you. Continue doing this, alternating between twisting towards and away from you. Once you get to the end, tie another knot again tight against the meat. Don’t worry, if you rupture the casing as you are making your links. Just remove some meat, cut the casing and tie it off at the point, starting again where you left off. I have made a good amount of sausage and still, rupture a casing now and then.

Put the sausage into the fridge, uncovered for about 2-3 hours to dry out the casings slightly, then package and either freeze for future use or use up in the next 4-5 days.

Makin’ Bacon

Peter — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:52:14 +0000

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve been this excited about a project, but my recent endeavors at making bacon really got me pumped up. I mean, what’s not to love about bacon. It’s sweet, it’s salty, it’s smoky, and it’s got lots of crispy, chewy pork fat, Add to that, the fact that this bacon was made completely at home, from pork that a good friend raised, and you can’t go wrong. I have to admit though, I was also rather nervous. The last thing I wanted to do was to destroy the pork belly I had received with the half pig we had purchased. I’m not one to get overly philosophical about my food (though sometimes it seems like I do), but the last thing I wanted to do is ruin a good piece of meat that some animal died to provide me with. It might sound kind of “corny” but that thought went through my head a number of times during the bacon making process.

Making bacon isn’t all that difficult, but it does take considerable time, at least a week or more to do it right. In fact, about the hardest part of the whole process can often be finding a butcher willing to provide you with pork belly. Chances are, you will need to special order it unless you have a local butcher who makes his/her own bacon.

In the days before refrigeration curing bacon was a way to preserve the meat for long term storage. The bacon of yesteryear was heavily salted and smoked and didn’t much resemble the bacon of today. Today, modern refrigeration makes bacon a luxury, not a necessity. As such, we have been able to swap preservation with flavor. Today’s bacon doesn’t require numerous soakings in water to draw out salt to make it more palatable, and while still heavily smoked, it is not smoked to the point of almost being jerky-like.

Besides salt and sugar used in the curing of bacon, the cure also often contains sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate. These salts act as preservatives, helping to keep the meat pink and free from botulism. These chemical salts can be difficult to obtain and usually need to be ordered online or through the mail unless you are friendly with a butcher. Unfortunately, these salts can also be dangerous if used in higher amounts than needed. While I sometimes use these salts personally, I find it often easier, and less dangerous, to use Morton’s Tender Quick. It is a curing salt mix that can be found in many grocery stores and already has the nitrite and nitrate mixed into regular salt, removing the danger from the hands of novices. I developed this recipe using Morton’s Tender Quick and am quite happy with the results. I think you will be also.

As for the pork belly, you can either leave the rind on or remove it. You will hear proponents of both ways. I don’t think it makes a difference and I prefer to remove the rind (skin) before making my bacon. It saves a step later on. Also for easy of storing, during the curing process, I cut my pork belly into 1-2 pound chunks. I just find it easier to handle this way and it takes up less room in the fridge.

Maple Cured Bacon

1 whole pork belly (8-10 pounds) cut into 1-2 pound chunks

Curing Mix (per pound of meat)
1 Tbsp. Morton’s Tender Quick
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
1/4 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 tsp. cracked black pepper

Weigh out each piece of pork belly and make up a batch of Curing Mix using the ratios above per 1 pound of meat. Rub the belly with the cure making sure to evenly distribute it over the entire surface of the belly and place in a zip lock bag. Remove as much air as possible and seal.

Repeat with remaining belly pieces. Place in the fridge and allow to cure for a minimum of 7 days per inch thickness of belly. Flip the bags once every day and massage the meat to ensure even distribution of the cure. At the end of 7 days test to see if belly is cured. The pork is done curing when the flesh no longer feels “mushy” and feels tight, like a well done steak. If not fully cured give another 24 hours and check again. Continue until pork is fully cured. Once done, remove from bags and give a good rinse in cold water, washing off all the excess salt and cure. Place on cooling racks set over cookie trays, place in fridge, uncovered, and allow to dry for 24 hours. The following day prepare your smoker or kettle grill and cold smoke bacon for 3 hours. Increase heat to medium and continue to smoke until you get an internal temperature of 150°F. In all, it should take 6-8 hours to fully smoke your bacon.

Chill the bacon overnight then slice to desired thickness, package and refrigerate and/or freeze.

When cooking this bacon, cook over medium heat or just a little higher. You don’t want to cook at too high of a heat due to the high sugar content of this bacon. Cooking over too high a heat will cause the bacon to burn before it is rendered crisp.

Apple Butter

Peter — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 03:34:19 +0000

Not too long ago I made my last trip of the season to The Little Farmer. For those of you who read this blog regularly, you know this is one of my favorite places in all of Wisconsin. Well, they will be closing up for the season here in the next week or two. I had to stop by though and pick up a couple gallons of cider, one for drinking now and one to freeze to use for hot spiced cider over the Christmas holidays. I also wanted to pick up some apples to make apple butter.

Apple butter is one of those foods that seem so daunting to those not in the know, but really apple butter is very easy to make. Nor does it take a lot of “special” ingredients. I’ve even made passable apple butter using store bought applesauce as the base, though starting from fresh apples will give you a much better product.

While apple butter is time consuming to make-it cooks for a couple of hours over low heat and needs to be stirred regularly or else it will burn-it also is very easy. So easy, in fact, that you don’t even need to peel or core the apples. Both peels and cores provide a good amount of pectin, which helps your apple butter to set up.

When making apple butter, I usually like to use a variety of apples to round out the flavor. At the very least, I like to use 1 tart variety of apple and one sweeter variety of apple. Often though, I will use 3-4 varieties. While their subtle nuances will be lost in the long cooking process, their more general attributes provide a great complexity of flavor.

You should get 10-14 1/2 pint jars of apple butter. More than enough to last throughout the year, with plenty left to use as gifts for the holidays.

Apple Butter
8 pounds apples (try to use at least 2 varieties)
2 cups water
4-5 cups granulated sugar (more or less depending on your yield)
1/2 cup cider vinegar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground clove
1/2 tsp. ground allspice

Cut apples into medium sized chunks, core and all. Place in a large, nonreactive stock pot along with water and cook over medium high heat until the apples turn to mush.

Place cooked apples in a food mill and force through, discarding peels, cores and seeds.

Measure apple puree and add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar to every cup of puree. Place apple and sugar mixture back into nonreactive stock pot, along with vinegar and spices. Reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring often, until done (about 2 1/2-3 1/2 hours). To tell if apple butter is done place a small plate in the freezer to chill. Test the apple butter by placing a dime sized mound of apple butter on the frozen plate and return to the freezer for 4 minutes. Apple butter is done if the mound holds its shape and no water separates from the apple butter forming a thin ring around the mound. At this point apple butter might not be completely smooth. I prefer it smooth so I then blend the mixture with a wand blender, cooking for another 10 minutes after blending to force out any air I might have added to the mix through the blending process.

While apple butter is cooking sterilize 12-14 1/2 pint canning jars, lids and rings. When apple butter is done, ladle into canning jars, leaving 1/2″ head space. Add lids and secure with rings. Process in boiling water for 10 minutes. Remove to a rack and allow to cool. It any lids don’t seal after 2-3 hours place the unsealed jars in the fridge and use up within a week.

Apple butter has many uses, from glazing carrots and winter squash, to becoming the base of a wintertime BBQ sauce, to accompanying a cheese course or as a filling for a tart, but my favorite way to enjoy apple butter is just to spread it on a hot biscuit that has first been smeared with butter. There’s nothing better!!!