It is Now the Traditional Homemade Apple Butter Season

Fall always means traditional homemade apple butter, at least for many churches and civic organizations in Northern Virginia. Large apple butter making efforts take place outdoors where bushels of apples are delivered in wooden bins, sliced and diced into apple pulp and boiled in 50-gallon copper kettles over an open fire or by gas burner.

Apple butter is a thick spread that's made by cooking down apples, until they caramelize, and develop a dark brown, paste-like consistency. Various ingredients are added to further flavor the finished product. Apple butter can be used in the same manner as you use jam. Spread it on toast, muffins and biscuits. It is terrific for making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Warm it up and try it as topping on custard ice cream or as syrup on pancakes.

Homemade apple butter is labor intensive, usually taking a team of apple chefs two days, one day for manually removing the core along with all seeds, skin and stems, leaving only the apple pulp to become apple butter. Day two encompasses cooking for twelve hours, involving many chefs to continually stir and in a timely manner add lemon juice, brown or white sugar, apple cider, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon. As the kettle content gurgles and spurts, the pulp slowly turns a russet brown color which gradually becomes a thick, smooth and immensely popular apple flavored spread.

Chefs say apple butter making is a taste-as-you-go process. Chefs know when it is done by judging the apple pulp thickness and russet color. It takes years of experience to know “doneness” and there is no computer algorithm or kitchen gadget employed to determine a finished product. It is all about sweetness, color and consistency.

October is National Apple Month and there is no better way to savor the sweet goodness of tasty homemade apple butter throughout the winter months than by keeping several pint jars in the kitchen cupboard. Consider buying a few pints as Thanksgiving or Christmas gifts for friends and family.

Local Stephens City Shawquon Ruritan apple butter can be purchased for $5 a pint bottle or $60 for a 12-bottle case. For more info, call Harry Newman at 540-535-5528 or email harry.newman@comcast.net