Going Old School

One of the daunting aspects of preserving food is the sheer volume of food you are dealing with. I bought every local apple I could get my hands on and "stored" them in the fridge until they could go no longer. It was time to make the applesauce. The time required to peel and core and slice that many apples was just not showing up in my calendar. And then I saw it. The gadget. Yes, a unitasker. But what a beauty. Straight out of 1800s. This handy little thing locks down to the counter and zipped through the apples in ten minutes. No cord required, no batteries. Just pure hand-crank bliss. The applesauce was pretty darn good, too.

Cinnamon-Vanilla Applesauce
12 gala apples, or enough to get 5 cups of peeled, cored slices
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out with the back of a knife
2 Ceylon Cinnamon sticks (or use regular cinnamon sticks)
3/4 cup 100% apple juice or no-sugar added cider
1 tbs. Lemon juice

Put all of this in a pot, especially all the vanilla seeds and the pods. Simmer on medium-low heat for about 30 minutes. Taste, and adjust with sugar if you have to for desired sweetness. I usually don't have to depending on my apples. Remove vanilla pod and cinnamon sticks. Mash with a potato masher to desired consistency. Tastes best cool the next day. Freezes well.

Comments

[Julie]

I like your cranky doohicky. So many kitchen gadgets, so little cupboard space! I have to limit the number of specialized tools I buy. Maybe very small specialized tools are ok. Most recently I bought a corn zipper, which made the job of freezing corn kernels more fun, though not a whole lot faster.

[Emily]

Ooo! looking amazing recipe, generally buy my food from OmahaSteaks, HomeBistro.com, Alazing.com, ChuckeCheese.com, Restaurant.com, Appetizerstogo.com stores at couponalbum.com..

[Christina]

Surfing from one place to the other, I ended up on this post. No reason I shouldn't make my own apple sauce -- I eat it almost every morning on my oat meal. Seems pretty easy although it's a lot of peeling.

Thanks for a great site

[Christina]

Surfing from one place to the other, I ended up on this post. No reason I shouldn't make my own apple sauce -- I eat it almost every morning on my oat meal. Seems pretty easy although it's a lot of peeling.

Thanks for a great site

[Liz]

My gadget of choice for applesauce is a food mill. I don't even peel apples for my sauce -Just cut the apples up into quarters, add a little water so the apples don't stick (until they release their own juice) and simmer for 30 minutes. I usually throw in a cinnamon stick halfway through.

When soft, throw in the food mill (medium sieve; remove the cinnamon stick!) and off you go!.

I use Macs (puree themselves), Golden Delicious for sweetness, and a Granny Smith for tartness. Your farmers' market vendor can recommend others....

Applesauce also freezes well...

Enjoy.

[Riana]

I just processed a ton of apples too, four different ways. Your antique is very cool! I made my husband help me ;)

[expatchef]

It's actually new, but just a remake of a classic. Though an antique would probably be even sturdier. Just made another batch, and a tart as well. Fast. Gotta love that!

[the opoponax]

I think you can maybe also use this to peel potatoes? I've seen street vendors use something similar on oranges and mangoes, too... Not that mangoes are local to many parts of the US, of course. But if you live somewhere in the Northeast, where apples and potatoes are the two staples that seem to last through the winter, it might prove to be more worthwhile than you think.