Making applesauce without peeling the apples?

[blueridgewoman]

Has anyone here ever tried this? I have access to about 50lbs of apples for $10, but I need to figure out if there is a way that I can avoid peeling them. Frankly, I know myself well enough to know that peeling 50lbs of apples is just not going to happen.

I do have a food mill- the heavy duty type that you screw on to the counter and crank, with a chute and all of that. Could I chop the apples, cook them, put them through the mill and then return to the pot to be seasoned and all that? I was going to can the applesauce after that.

I've heard anecdotally that apples cooked with peel can be bitter, so I just thought I would ask here before I invested. Yes, that's right, a ten dollar investment.

[catnip]

I've made both applesauce and apple butter with unpeeled apples.

[blueridgewoman]

Thank you! Do you sweeten your applesauce at all? I typically use a lot of cinnamon but don't like to use sugar so I wasn't sure if that would play any sort of role.

[lotus.blossom]

Sure! I think that you'd have to push the sauce through a seive to separate the skins out. I've heard that doing it with the skins can make the sauce pink, depending on what kind of apples you use.

[mumkimum]

Last year I made roasted apple applesauce - they were cut into chunks and cooked with the skins in the oven (with some sugar and minimal spicing, if any) and then put through a food mill.

[catnip]

I add 2 cups of brown sugar to 10 pounds of apples to cook down for apple butter. I usually don't sweeten apple sauce, but I freeze applesauce, I don't can it.

[mamadelbosque]

Sure its how I do it;P I just cut them in quarters throw in a pot w/ a water, and cook till mushy, then I put them through my food mill and pour into hot canning jars and process... If I want applebutter I put them back in the pot after going through the foodmill add sugar/spices and cook down till its as thick as I want it, then process!!

ETA: Oh and I don't sweeten it till we're eating it - that way you can sweeten or not to your tastes and use it in other things... plus if I run out of apple butter, I can always just open a couple quarts of applesauce add sugar & spices and cook

[damona]

i would jump on that deal in one hot second.

i've made crockpot applesauce with the skins on. i usually quarter the apples and core them, then put them in the crockpot with a bit of water and some lemon juice. after it's all cooked down, i put it through my food mill. you could just press it through a sieve, too.

my friend and i canned a bunch of applesauce last year, but i don't think we'll bother this year. it's just as easy to make a batch at a time when it's wanted, or to make it and freeze it.

we're planning to take the kids apple picking next month and spend a day making apple butter, apple maple jam, and canned apple slices in cinnamon syrup (oh those were so good...).

[blueridgewoman]

Oh wow, tell me about the apple slices in cinnamon syrup! Yum!

Yep, it is easy to make a batch every week or so.... Alas, the $10 for fifty pounds thing is only available in fifty pound increments. The fantastic part is that they're very low spray, heritage apples, so that makes me doubly happy. The food mill should, I imagine, take care of the peels... Good to know, guys, thank you so much!

[damona]

i believe my friend got the recipe from her Ball Canning Cookbook. it was just a simple syrup of sugar and water with about a half tablespoon of cinnamon added. you have to peel the apples and slice them fairly thin, then simmer them in the syrup til they're soft but not mushy. we canned them in quart jars.

i love to make pancakes or french toast and serve with the apples and their syrup on top. you can also use this as apple pie filling if you thicken it a bit, or for apple crumble or cake or just about anything that calls for apples.

[mnnice]

I have done it several times and have noticed no bitterness. My food mill extracts the seeds and peels out one end pushes the rest of the apple. You're sounds like it it the same.

I call it the "tomato squisher" because my mom had a similar one when we were kids and she canned about 100 quarts of tomato sauce/juice with it every year.

[zinemama]

I've always made it with peels on. I don't sweeten it, either; there's usually no need. It does come out kind of an unappealing color, I have to say. Which gets worse when frozen. I've heard that adding lemon juice can fix that, and I keep meaning to try it. But it always tastes great.

[Aubergine68]

Originally Posted by mumkimum

Last year I made roasted apple applesauce - they were cut into chunks and cooked with the skins in the oven (with some sugar and minimal spicing, if any) and then put through a food mill.

This is what I do - no sugar. To make apple butter, put them through a food mill or blender after a couple hours and then return to pan to cook down to apple butter. I add caramels (the cubed candy) to make caramel apple butter for gifts, but otherwise don't sweeten it.

I make apple sauce just by coring the apples and cutting them into chunks. I can them like this, with a little lemon juice or ascorbic acid to preserve the color, and then run the jar through the blender when I open it. It looks and tastes just like applesauce bought from the store, then, -- yeah, it can be pinkish if the peels are redder.

We have totally organic backyard apples, so I don't worry about peeling them.

[SophieAnn]

I've never peeled apples for sauce.

This is how I do it - I quarter the apples (without peeling or coring) and throw them in a big stock pot with a little water (no sugar) and maybe some cinnamon. Cook it down for awhile until mushy.

Then I push it through a food strainer. It's metal, and cone-shaped with a wooden piece that you use to push the food through (very similar to the one pictured here: http://www.ehow.com/how_5383710_use-food-strainer.html). The skins get caught in the strainer and the result is nice smooth applesauce. I like to jar about half the applesauce then use the other half to cook down into apple butter.

Leaving the skins on gives the sauce a pretty pink colour and I've heard that natural pectins in the skin are good for the final product too.

[academama]

I don't peel them and I don't use anything to take them out, either. As long as I cook the sauce long enough (I generally use the crockpot), it's fine and my family doesn't seem to care!

My applesauce recipe/process is: Cut up apples to remove cores. Put in crockpot. Turn on low. Forget for 12 hours. Add cinnamon. Voila!

[ErinBird]

I usually core them and cut them in quarters. I put the cut apples into a large stock pot and add a few cups of water. The water will steam the apples inside the covered pot. I then run the mushy apples through the food mill to get the skin off. Then the mashed apples go pack onto the stove until thicker.

[Chamomile Girl]

Just as aside, I'm no sure how safe it is to cook the apples with the seeds in the pot. As much as I'd like to be immune to arsenic and all....

[SophieAnn]

Originally Posted by Chamomile Girl

Just as aside, I'm no sure how safe it is to cook the apples with the seeds in the pot. As much as I'd like to be immune to arsenic and all....

Say..... whaaaaat???

I usually set aside the apple seeds to eat raw. They're delicious!

[meandk0610]

Originally Posted by academama

I don't peel them and I don't use anything to take them out, either. As long as I cook the sauce long enough (I generally use the crockpot), it's fine and my family doesn't seem to care!

My applesauce recipe/process is: Cut up apples to remove cores. Put in crockpot. Turn on low. Forget for 12 hours. Add cinnamon. Voila!

sounds great! do you add any water to the crockpot?

[lach]

My mother always made it that way, and I thought it tasted better! It does come out a bright pink color, though. If you saw it in a store, you'd probably think it was completely unnatural and wouldn't buy it