Pioneer Days:Apple Butter

Kelsey MitsdarfferKelsey Zehr

Standards• 1.1.1 :

• Compare the way individuals in the community lived in the past to the way they live in the present.

• 1.1.2 : • Compare past and present similarities and differences in daily life by using biographies, oral histories, and folklore.

• 1.1.9 :• Use the library and other information resources to find information that answers questions about history.

Pioneers were the first people to settle in the frontiers of North America.  Although many of the pioneers were farmers, others were doctors, shopkeepers, blacksmiths, missionaries, lawyers, and so on.  They came from many places in the United States to start their new lives.  The majority of their ancestors came from European countries such as England, Germany, and Scotland.  Before leaving their homes they either saved money for the trip, sold their land and other possessions, or agreed to work for others on the trip.

Who were the pioneers?

How was Apple Butter Made In Pioneer Days?

• Apple butter, in pioneer days, was made over an open fire in a copper kettle.

• It took more than one open fire to make apple butter, so there had to be at least three fires going at once and a lot of help!

• At one fire they filled the kettle with the cider, and they boiled it down until half of the cider was gone and then they dumped in the quartered apples. Several pennies were sometimes added to help keep the butter from sticking on the bottom of the kettle.

• Quartering the apples was usually the women's job and this meant sitting around big tables, slicing them into halves and then into quarters and sometimes into even smaller pieces.

• At a second fire they would be pre-heating the apple pieces so cold apples were never thrown into the big kettle.

• At yet a third fire they would be boiling down the cider to make sugar.

• In the old days apple butter was never sweetened with anything except the natural flavor of the boiled down cider.  To boil down cider to sugar took many gallons of cider and long, long hours of cooking.

• The butter was cooked to a thick red sauce as apples were added several times during the day. Then they would stir in the sugar made from boiling down cider. Next came the spices. Cinnamon, or cloves, and nutmeg were often used.

• In the old days, there was usually a group standing around the kettle humming, singing, or talking. Stirring the apple butter was an important job and somebody had to be doing it all the time. The old method for doing it was "twice around the outside and through the middle once" with a long paddle.

• When the butter was finally finished cooking, they carried it in big pails to the cellar, and there they poured it into old apple butter crocks.

How Is Apple Butter Most Commonly Made Now?

1. Quarter the apples. Peel the apples first if you prefer them without the skin. Put the chopped apples into the slow cooker, then slowly add the sugar. Stir to coat.

INGREDIENTS4 1/2 lbs. cooking apples, washed and

quartered4 cups of white sugar

1/3 of a cup of apple cider1/2 a teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 a teaspoon of ground nutmeg

2. Pour the apple cider in the slow cooker to prevent the fruit from sticking to the bottom. Add the spices and stir.

3. Cover the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours. Turn down the heat, and cook on low for about 9 hours. Check the apples at the 5 hour mark. They should be very soft and there s be a large amount of juice.

4. Place some of the apples and juices in a blender with a ladle; don't fill more than halfway. Process fruit until smooth, stopping every few seconds to allow steam to escape. Continue blending until all apples have been processed, putting the processed fruit in a bowl as you go.

5. Pour the mixture back into the slow cooker. Cook uncovered on high anywhere from 1 to 4 hours; if you want to add any more spice to the mixture, do it now.

6. Preserve the apple butter by canning or skip the canning procedure and place the hot butter in jars, bottles, or smaller containers to give promptly as gifts.

How Was Apple Butter Used?

• Different ways that pioneers ate apple butter:

• Plain

• On meat

• With nuts

• With fruit

• On bread

What Other Things Did Pioneers Frequently Cook And

Eat? • Common garden crops grown by early pioneers included corn, potatoes, beans, onions, squash, pumpkins, and turnips.

• Fruit trees took time to grow, so it took a few years to have their own apples, but other wild berries and fruits were picked.

• In the forest, there was meat from deer, bear, turkey, squirrel and

wild pigeons. The pioneer farmers also raised chickens, hogs, sheep and cattle.

• Drinks of the pioneers were sassafras tea, buttermilk, apple cider, fruit wines and spirits. The family liked hickory nuts and walnuts. Children gathered nuts each fall.

How Did Apple Butter Originate?

• Apple butter is believed my many, to have been invented by the colonists in eighteenth century New England.

• Cassell’s Dictionary of Cooking, 1870 describes its origin as American. However; German immigrants in America made the concoction so frequently that it became such a valued meal accompaniment on colonist’s tables.

• Pennsylvania Dutch and other German immigrants called the dish, Cider boiled applesauce, but the name was later changed because of its smooth spreading consistency.

What were some tools and utensils the pioneers

used for cooking?

Sausage grinderPots and Pans

Cooking kettle

What is another popular pioneer

recipe?Chuckwagon beans This is a cattle trail recipe from the Midwest. Although this was originally done on the campfire, it might be best if you bow to modern convenience and do the cooking on a stove top.

A 16-ounce package of dry pinto beans9 cups of water Two large onions, peeled and chopped up 2 teaspoons of salt ½ teaspoon of oregano ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, or two cloves of sliced garlic ¼ teaspoon of pepper 1 tablespoon of brown sugar or molasses (add this last, and put in a little more if you like.)

INGREDIENTS

Wash the beans and heat them along with 6 cups of water 'til they boil for five minutes, then turn the stove off. Let them sit for an hour. Add three more cups of water and boil it all again. Now add everything else, stir it up, and cook it for about an hour.

• Cowpokes on the drive west had to settle for foods which were portable. That meant a basic menu of beans and lots of meat. For a treat, there was cornbread, biscuits, or a sweetened rice dish. Pinto beans (which are small and spotted when raw, like a pinto pony) seemed to be the favorite. When cooked, these beans swell up and turn a sort of pinkish white. They were first given to the settlers by the natives on the Mexican border.

Fires were difficult for pioneers to make, because they did not have any wood! They had to get something that would burn quickly, so they started using buffalo chips. They collected the buffalo chips in a basket.  It took 3 whole baskets of buffalo chips to cook a meal.  In order to be safe when they made a fire they dug a trench. The trench was 6 inches wide, 10 inches deep, and 2 feet long.  Then you would put the buffalo chips in the trench, and light it up with gun powder or matches.  When they reached the Rocky Mountains there were no buffalo chips!  It was still hard to find wood so the pioneers burned dead sagebrush branches.  

What was a main component in pioneer

cooking?

Bibliography• http://freepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bradytrilogy/memories/im

ages/bibliography/apple.html

• http://www.museumsofwv.org/kids/pioneers_food.html

• http://library.thinkquest.org/6400/

• http://www.kidskonnect.com/content/view/276/27/

• http://www.oregonpioneers.com/ortrail.htm

• http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodfaq.html