Family Favorite: Homemade applesauce

 My sister gave me Edna Lewis's fabulous cookbook, The Taste of Country Cooking, for Christmas a few years back. It's exactly the kind of cookbook I love with tried and true recipes from the author along with stories from her youth. Her applesauce recipe is so simple but it quickly became a family favorite.


Today's cast!


Granny Smith apples are great in applesauce; they are good for cooking and they have a nice tartness taht my family likes.


This is the hardest part of the recipe; peeling, coring and slicing the apples. I cut them into fourths, remove the core, then cut each fourth in half. Then I peel each slice. I find it easier to peel thin slices more efficiently. By the time I was halfway through the batch, I was thinking longingly of the apple corer/peeler that is hopefully packed up with the rest of my kitchen stuff.


The apple slices go into a large saucepan with a lid.


Sugar and a pinch of salt are added, the pan is covered and cooked at medium heat for 10 minutes.


My pot's lid is vented. I think I prefer a non-vented lid because that helps to keep the apples' liquid from evaporating too rapidly.


At the end of 10 minutes the apples were already nice and softened. I gave it a stir to break the slices down a bit and found that it was already pretty dry (it's that vented lid). I took it off the heat at this point. Normally it usually needs a bit of a simmer, uncovered, to cook off more juice but I thought it was ready to go. This stove tends to run hot.


A teaspoon of ground nutmeg finished it off.


And there it is! Our family likes it on the chunkier side so I don't mash it smooth. The applesauce can be eaten right away but I think it tastes better as it cools; yummy when warm and yummy after it's been chilled!

Here is the recipe:

Applesauce
Edna Lewis The Taste of Country Cooking

Ingredients:
1/3 c. sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
3 lbs. apples, peeled, cored and sliced

Instructions:
Put apples into a saucepan along with sugar and salt.
Cover and cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat.
Remove the cover--enough liquid should have developed to further cook the apples. Shake the saucepan to stir.
Leave pan uncovered and continue cooking on low until all the juices have cooked out and sauce is thick.
Remove from heat and sprinkle with nutmeg.












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