Making Applesauce Back to the Basics

Making applesauce seems to be something that everyone should have tried. But when I decided to use home made applesauce preserved in beautiful traditional canning jars as a fund raiser for church, many people had never done this at home. They had never seen a sieve as pictured above and had not done any canning. Actually I had never canned applesauce, and usually keep it in the refrigerator or had frozen it in containers. Click here
for the directions to can applesauce.
Grocery stores always seem to have a display of fruit and vegetables that are been packaged for a quick sale, at reduced prices. Look for apples. The best applesauce and apple pies are made by combining apples of different varieties. Beautiful pink applesauce is made by leaving all of the skins on when you cook the apples.
Use both green and red apple varieties and cook the stems, seeds and cores. It is very fast an simple to just cut the apples into small chunks and pop them into a large 12 quart stainless pot with a cover. Start with 2 cups of water so that the pot bottom does not scorch.
Stir the apples with a wooden spoon so that the chunks at the top get to the bottom of the pot and cook well. Allow the apples to cook down and soften.
Transfer the cooked apples from the pot to the sieve. If you have a Foley Mill, that works well, but this old aluminum food mill really works better and is easily cleaned and stored. When you can't squeeze out anymore applesauce, throw the remaining stems, peels, and seeds into your compost pile or simply discard. The applesauce is now ready for a snack,the freezer or for Applesauce, Raisin, Walnut Cake. This applesauce contains nothing but water and apples and is great for people who are watching their sugar intake, and for babies. People were amazed by the wonderful sweet taste, but only eat a half cup or so at a time because it is also a fabulous way to stay regular!

The paper whites bloomed, January 25th!This is a sieve that was made many years ago by the Wear-Ever company, made in the USA. It is a no.8 and the pat.# are 1556275,1505456, 1761067. I went onto their web site, but no luck. I even called them about this sieve. My best advice it to look at antique and thrift shops. I have seen the wooden pestle, and the cone piece sold separately. Maybe you can assemble one. If not, we can flood them with requests to re-release this valuable kitchen tool. There are no moving parts, and it does not require electricity to operate, only, as my mom would say, "elbow grease."