Back To Basics Quick Start Guide © SRS20

Intro To Water Bath Canning– Applesauce

One of the easiest canning projects to start with is apple-sauce. It’s easy to make, and unlike jams or jellies very little can go wrong with the recipe itself. It’s also real food and not a condiment. So you get a sense of “putting food up” and real accomplishment when you can it. You can easily replace an apple with a serv-ing of applesauce. That might not work so well if you tried to replace blueberries with blueberry jam. Some people will, of course, argue that the jam would be better all around, but you get my point.

Before You Begin

Determine What Kind of Jars And Lids To Use

Wide Mouth or Regular MouthYou’ll need to determine which kind of mouth your jar needs for your canning project. Remember, we talked about the different size Mason jar mouths?

y Wide Mouth–Wide mouth jars are used for bulky food like large chunks of fruit and vegetables. They are more expensive than the regular mouth jars so you might want to consider if they are truly necessary for your canning project.

y Regular Mouth–Regular mouth jars have a narrower opening than wide mouth jars, and as a general rule of thumb I use them for everything that is in liquid when I’m filling my jars, like jams, jellies, salsas and applesauce. We will be using regular mouth jars for canning applesauce.

Determine The Size Jar To Use

Back To Basics Quick Start Guide © SRS21

The most popular size jar to can applesauce in is a quart sized jar. We will be going into further detail later in this course about jar size. For our applesauce project we’re going to keep it simple and use quart sized jars.

Check Your JarsBefore you begin any canning project be sure to check all of your jars for damage. Ex-amine all of your jars looking for cracks, nicks, or chips. You especially want to look for damage around the rim of your jars because you don’t want anything to interfere with the lid sealing. Simply run your finger around the rim of jar to make sure the glass is smooth and free from damage. If your Mason jar has any damage do not can with it. If it has a small chip it might be good to use for storing other things besides canned goods but do not use it to can with.

To Sterilize Or Not?It is not necessary to sterilize your canning jars if you are going to process your jars for over 10 minutes, according to the National Center for Home Preservation. If your recipe calls for a processing time under 10 minutes then you will need to sterilize your jars. There are several different meth-ods you can use to sterilize your jars:

y Dishwasher–If your dishwasher has a sanitize cycle you can use your dish-washer to sterilize your jars.

y Boiling Water–Simply place your jars in your water bath canner and boil for 10 minutes for elevations lower than 1,000 ft. Add an extra minute per 1,000 ft of elevation. (See charts sec-tion below for elevation information. Find your elevation here or here)

y Oven Method–Place your jars on a cookie sheet and place in the oven at 250°F for 10 minutes, then turn the oven down to 200°F (or 150°F if your oven goes that low) until you are ready to use your jars.

Even though it’s not required for every canning project, sterilizing your jars is really not a bad habit to get into because it heats up your jars. You never want to put cold jars into boiling hot water. That dramatic temperature difference can cause the jars to crack or break. So if you sanitize your jars then you have hot jars waiting to be filled. The same goes when filling your jars. You never want to put cold food in hot jars or place cold food in room temperature jars and then place them in boiling hot water. Huge temperature changes cause bad things to happen to glass jars. So if you’re already in the habit of sterilizing your jars I’d advise you to keep that habit because it helps prevent your jars from breaking.

A Word About Lid PrepIn recent years there has been a lot of talk about Ball taking the BPA out of their lids.

Back To Basics Quick Start Guide © SRS22

I think this a good thing, but it really never bothered me too much that the lids had BPA because the lids don’t touch your food. Don’t get me wrong, if I were given the choice I would prefer the non-BPA lids, but I would not discard unused lids just be-cause they have BPA in them.

Since the new BPA free lids have come out there has been a lot of talk about not hav-ing to simmer your lids anymore or that it’s dangerous to simmer the lids because the non BPA lids were somehow weaker. After doing some research on this subject (which included a conversation with the people at Ball Canning) I was able to determine that the non-simmering recommendation is not because of the BPA issue. The people at Ball simply tested both methods–the simmering method and the non-simmering meth-od–and determined that the lids did not seal any better after they were simmered. So it’s not necessary to simmer your lids before you can. It’s not “wrong” to practice this method as I know a lot of people have been taught to can using this method. So if you do simmer your lids just be sure not to boil them.

Making Applesauce

The first thing you should consider when making applesauce is sourcing your apples. Organic honeycrisp or gala apples are my favorite apples for making applesauce. You can use a variety of apples if you like, but try to stay away from green apples as they may make your applesauce more tart than you’d like. You’ll hear a lot of different conversions as to how many apples to start with to make a certain number of quarts of applesauce. In my experience I get about 12-14 quarts from 40lb of apples. I’ve heard of people getting as many as 20 quarts from around 40lbs. I’d like to know what kind of apples they are using!

In any case the truth is that you’re not going to know exactly how many quarts you’re going to get from a particular harvest until you start canning. Fruit (and vegetables for that matter) all have different amounts of water and once your take away the skin and cores you may not have as much applesauce if you’re using smaller apples as someone who is using bigger apples. It also depends on how much you cook your applesauce down. The longer you cook it, the thicker it will be so this will affect your yield as well.

If you buy or harvest a good amount of apples start by preparing 7 quart jars for your canner. If you don’t use them all it’s fine.

If you are using a knife to core your ap-ples or a peeler then take off the skin and remove the core before you cook your apples. If you are using a strainer like the

Back To Basics Quick Start Guide © SRS23

Victorio Strainer I used in the video, then all you need to do is quarter your apples and place them in a pot without removing the skin or cores.

I used my canner to actually cook the apples. Cover the apples with water and cook until apples are soft. In other words, they can be easily mushed into applesauce with a fork. Drain the water. (Note: If you’d like to keep this water you can use it to flavor your tea. It’s not a true juice, but it does have a strong apple flavor and would help dress up plain water or iced tea.)

If you skinned and cored your apples before you cooked them, use an immersion blender or potato masher to mash your apples into applesauce. If you have a strainer let your apples cool down to room temperature (you don’t have to let your apples cool if you use a potato masher or immersion blender) then load your stainer up and run your apples through. You’ll have applesauce in no time.

I love my Victorio strainer because it’s a great off-grid option, and you can process a ton of apples at once. If applesauce is something you plan on making in bulk year after year it’s a must-have tool.

Now, that you have applesauce and it’s ready to be canned, you have two options–refrigerate it and can the next day or can it right away. Your decision depends on how many apples you are processing, how much help you have, and how long your kitchen is available for canning. I know I’ll need my stove for dinner so having to stop canning to fix dinner can be annoying. It just depends on how you run your kitchen, but I want you to understand you have options when it comes to the process.

To Can Applesauce

Heat your applesauce. You can cook it down if your sauce is too thin for your liking, but if you like the con-sistency then all you need to do is heat it thoroughly by bringing it up to a boil. Remember we don’t want cold food going into hot jars.

Prepare your canner. Fill it ¾ of the way with water. Place it over high heat (it’s a big pot with a lot of water so you want to raise the temperature as fast as possible) until the water is almost boiling. Then turn it down to simmer until after you have placed your jars inside.

In the meantime wash your jars, lids and rings. I use the

Back To Basics Quick Start Guide © SRS24

oven method to sanitize my jars and keep them hot, so I place my jars on a cookie sheet and place them in the oven at 250°F for 20 minutes and then down to 200°F until I’m ready to use them.

Stir your applesauce constantly. You don’t want it to scorch on the bottom.

Once your jars, applesauce and canner are ready (everything is heated) you are ready to load your jars.

Place your rack in your canner. If you’re not using a rack you should have your dishtowel already in your pot.

Spoon your applesauce into your jars. For applesauce you need to leave ½ inch head-space. Headspace is the distance between the jar and the lids. Remember the food will ex-pand when heated so giving food the proper amount of headspace is important.

Remove the air bubbles from the jars. If you don’t have an air bubble remover you can use a plastic or wooden spoon. Do not use any-thing metal to pop air bubbles because the metal might scratch the glass jar and cause the jar to break.

Wipe off the rims of the jars with a clean tow-el so that you can get a good seal.

Place lids on jars.

Place the rings on the jars and tighten “finger tight.” Finger tight means not too tight and not too loose. Just tighten them as far as they will go without forcing them.

Place the jars in the canner. Make sure there is 1 to 1 ½ inch of water on top of your jars. You might need to add a little water for this. I keep a kettle of simmering water on the stove for this purpose. Place the lid on the canner, and bring the

Back To Basics Quick Start Guide © SRS25

water to a boil then start your timer. Applesauce should be processed (boiled) for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. (You can find adjustments for altitude by checking the charts below. To look up your altitude go here or here.) At my altitude applesauce is processed for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the jars sit in the canner for about 5 minutes.

Then remove the jars from the canner. The jars will be hot!

Let your jars sit and cool for at least eight hours. Remove the rings. If the rings stay on and the lid fails (becomes unsealed), the lid may become stuck or “resealed”. How-ever, bacteria has already invaded the jar and the food should not be eaten, with the ring left on there is no way you will know about the resealing. If the rings are off the lid has no pressure to reseal itself. So if the lid seal fails then you’ll know and you can throw that jar out.

Label and put away. We will talk more about labeling your home canned food later in this course. For now take a permanent marker and write applesauce on the lid and the date you canned it.

A Note About Using Lemon Juice, Ascorbic Acid, And SugarThe Ball Complete Book of Home Canning has added lemon juice in their applesauce recipe recently. This is because some newer varieties of apples don’t have as much acid in them as the older ones do. Also many people use windfall apples for their applesauce, and windfall apples have more bacteria in them to start with. It is a safer practice to add lemon juice. However, The National Center For Home Preservation only recommend adding ascorbic acid to maintain color. If you’re adding ascorbic acid use ¼ teaspoon per quart and if you’re using lemon juice use 1 tablespoon per quart.

I don’t like applesauce with sugar and when I add lemon juice I feel like I have to add sugar to counteract the sour taste. So I do not add sugar or acid to my applesauce. If you decide to add sugar to your applesauce, add it to taste.

You’ll have to decide for yourself which recipe you want to follow.

Disclaimer: You are responsible for using safe canning methods. You are responsible for the safety of your home canned food. Please see our terms of use for further ex-planation of our liabilities.

Back To Basics Quick Start Guide © SRS20

©Copyright 2018 by Self Reliant School–All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, copied, or distrubted in any form electronic or mechanical, including photocopied, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system with out written permission from the author.

Charts

This chart is for applesauce only.

Applesauce Processing Times For Water Bath Canning

Process Time At Altitudes Of

Style of Pack Jar Size 0-1,000 ft 1,001-3,000 ft 3,001-6,000 ft Above 6,000 ft

HotPints 15 min 20 20 25

Quarts 20 25 30 35

This chart shows altitude adjustments that can be applied to any water bath canning recipe.

Time Adjustments For Water Bath Canning

Altitude In Feet Increase Processing Time

0-1,000 Time In Recipe

1,001-3,000 Add 5 Minutes

3,001-6,001 Add 5 Minutes

6,001-8,000 Add 5 Minutes

8,001-10,000 Add 5 Minutes