Healthy Homemade {Pink} Applesauce
ByFor years, I’ve used this method of making applesauce. The past couple of years, I’ve decided to try something new, in an effort to cut down on preparation time and to make the homemade applesauce a bit healthier. Still, I have to say, this process still takes quite a bit of time and effort. After spending several hours making applesauce yesterday and only yielding five quarts – I felt a little bit discouraged. Several of you have mentioned that a Victorio Food Strainer is a worthwhile investment. After looking into this, I have to say that Matt and I are talking seriously about making the purchase. Check out this pretty tool. Does that not look like a life saver when making applesauce and tomato sauce?
Here is a run-down of yesterday’s applesauce process:
We used a mixture of apples, most of which had very dark red skin (Empire, I think). Cooking the apples with skin on created a lovely pink colored applesauce. To start, we gave the apples a good washing. I looked around for the cutest assistant I could find. Since everyone else was busy with math and vocabulary lessons, Malachi got the job.
While he was washing apples (about 18 pounds), I prepped my huge stock pot. I stirred 2 heaping tablespoons of Vitamin C Powder (ascorbic acid to keep the apples from turning brown) into 5 cups of water.
Then, I began to quarter and cut out all yucky parts. These apples were mostly organic (he had sprayed a little bit early on before the fruit set on), so there were some wormy parts to cut out. As I added apples, I stirred them around so that they would be coated with the ascorbic acid/water to keep them from browning.
I continued this process until my pot was full and until my right hand was cramped permanently into a claw-like position.
I then cooked the apples on the stove for about an hour, stirring occasionally, until they became nice and soft.
Next began the straining. Here’s my (not-so) fancy set-up:
I ran the softened apples through my Foley Food Mill, which removed the skins. This also gave my arms a nice work-out. Bonus.
Then I went through one more step to see if I could squeeze just a little bit more sauce out of those apples. This is a strainer I inherited from my mom, which has a cone shaped wooden “pestle” to complete the task. (Matt had just come in from picking the rest of our garden peppers, so I let him take over this part. Let him? How about I “begged him”. He happily obliged.)
I ended up with smooth, beautiful, delicious applesauce that my family had seconds and thirds of at lunch time.
I then canned four remaining quarts (using this water bath process for 20 minutes) and put them into my pantry.
I’m very pleased with the results, but wow, the process took a long time for what will be consumed by my family in four little meals. This is why we’re considering the purchase of a Victorio Food Strainer. What are your thoughts? What do you use to make applesauce?
I have yet to make apple butter or any of the other tasty apple dishes I talked about earlier this week. I do believe that next I will experiment with my crock pot and apple butter. Which means that I really need to make some whole wheat biscuits. Doesn’t apple butter spread on a hot, fresh biscuit sound wonderful?
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I have a different brand of the victorio which works wonderfully for applesauce and tomato juice. I did 2 bushels in part of a day. The children and my husband all enjoy helping. I agree that the vitamin C is not necessary, neither is sweetener unless you have very sour apples. I run the apple “junk” through again and get more applesauce.
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I did applesauce the same way you do this year and then when we were done doing all of it, I found a NORPRO Sauce Master Food Strainer still in the box sealed in the packaging at Goodwill for $6- it is awesome!!! We used amazon gift cards to buy the pumpkin- which makes mashed potatoes, grape, berry, and salsa attatchment all of them for $25 and you can get an attatchment on it to make it electric! I am very excited about using it tons next year! It works great! I would highly recommend getting something similiar!!
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I made applesauce for many years before using a Victorio and I LOVE it! It far surpasses any of the other methods I have tried. It also utilizes just about all the apple,or whatever fruit you are using. It makes wonderful tomato V-8 type juice, etc! It is well worth the money!
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Mary Reply:
October 20th, 2011 at 7:04 pm
I always quarter and peel my apples before cooking them. As they get soft, I mash them. We love chunky applesauce with a little brown sugar, cinnamon, and cardamom.
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Mary Reply:
October 20th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
OOPs, wrote this under the wrong comment! This head cold has got me down!
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Laura, I just do my applesauce in the crockpot. It is EXTREMELY easy. Just cut (peel or no peel, your choice) in pieces and add some spices. I have a recipe I love and would be glad to share. I like mine a little chunky so I use a potato masher at the end of the process. So easy and we love it.
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JJ Reply:
October 20th, 2011 at 7:54 pm
Ditto! I had the kids peel the apples and cut them off the core by making simply 4 square cuts only (on the “good” apples)around the core. threw them in the crockpot, forget about it, enjoy the csmell and know it’s ready! Yumm – esp with a tablespoon of brown sugar and hint of cinnamonon! Topped on vanilla ice cream! Just as good and easier than making an apple pie!
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Heather Reply:
October 20th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
Do share the crockpot recipe Lisa :) I do mine in my blender after I cook it-saves time-
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Carrie @ My Favorite Finds Reply:
October 24th, 2011 at 10:19 am
Me too! I make Crockpot Pumpkin Applesauce in mine. I just half the apples, peel, and core them.
Then, they cook for a few hours, and I put them in the food processor to make th em
smooth. So easy!
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I think my method might be easier, but I freeze mine. First I use an apple corer to wedge. I have one with a popper thong that pops the wedges out. Then I peel approx half of the wedges. It’s easy, just a swipe of the paring knife. I toss them in the slow cooker as I go. When the slow cooker is full I turn it on and cook the apples until they are soft. Then I hit them with an immersion blender until smooth. Then I freeze in pint or quart jars. No ascorbic acid necessary. Probably woul freeze fine and flat in ziplocks as well.
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I never use anything to keep the apples from getting dark. I’m not sure why you are using this step? I have purchased one of these gadgets this year to do tomato sauce and it is wonderful. I have not used it yet for apples but if it is anything like for tomatoes it is well worth the money.
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I use lemon juice for preserving the color, and I’ve read it’s also good for keeping up the acidity level in canning – but I canned applesauce this week and that’s my first experience canning ever. I just boiled my apples adn then threw them in the blender and food processor. Seems like that might be easier than your strainer?
I’m with you on the wook for the output. I spend the good part of a morning/afternoon and did 40 pounds, got 12 quarts… I have 120 pounds still left in my pantry, and I’m hoping I get back around to it again before they all rot. I did not enjoy the coring part. I need a better corer! Can’t wait to see what else you’re doing with your apples, I need ideas.. fast!
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Crystal Reply:
October 25th, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Try making apple butter and also applechips to use them up!
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My Mom had one and it is was a real time saver. Well worth it I think.
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We used to live near an applesauce factory and would buy 5 gal buckets of beautiful pink applesauce, still warm from cooking, from them to can ourselves! We moved away years ago now and do I ever miss that applesauce! A victorio strainer just went on my Christmas list!
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The Victorio is worth every penny. I consider myself frugal, but would consider this a GREAT investment…you’ll just wish you had bought one years ago! It will help you produce applesauce in no time at all. I usually quarter my apples just so they cook faster…the only thing I cut off is the little black things on the bottom of the apples because I don’t like specks in my sauce. The Victorio will get the skins, seeds and core stems out. The Victorio also works excellent for doing tomatoes…I did your oven method and then ran them through the Victorio to make sauce.
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this year instead of cooking them on the stove, I roasted them in the oven and loved the results. I dont both coring the apples, the food mill should get rid of those. I have never used the victorio but used a better quality food mill and it makes such a huge difference.
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I use my apple slicer/corer on my cleaned but unpeeled apples. Throw them all into the crockpot, full to the brim with a healthy splash of cider (or water) and cinnamon to taste. When they cook down in a few hours, I take the blending stick to the whole pot. Everybody loves it, and it’s easy as can be. Of course, we eat it faster than we can put it up :-)
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Oh, Laura, do buy the Victorio! When I was early married 25 years ago, I saw a similar device in a catalog and mentioned how great it looked. My dear mother-in-law said, “Oh, I think I have one of those in the basement.” (!!!)We had been processing apples by hand like you! I promptly went down and found it, and I’ve never looked back. You can do bushels and bushels of apples in a day, and tomatoes the same. It’s one of my favorite canning aids.
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Absolutely buy the Victorio!! My MIL bought one for me for Christmas when she heard how I was making applesauce (peeling,coring every apple). That was over 12 years ago and I advise everyone who does alot of tomato juice, applesauce, etc to get one. My 8&9 year old quarter the apples and get them cooking on the stove, then ladle the cooked down apples into the top bowl while my 3,4&5 year olds crank away. All while I sit on the couch and read a book (just joking on this last part :) but that does sound nice!) They love to make applesauce. A couple years ago, we also invested in the additional attachments. I used the berry screen to take all the seeds out of our raspberries. I froze the juice in ice cube trays, we throw a couple cubes in a pitcher of lemonade for raspberry lemonade. I have also thickened the juice and made a jel to put on top of a cheesecake – tasty. I will warn you…once you purchase the Victorio, you will probably never use the food mill again :(
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I have previously made my applesauce with a Foley mill, but borrowed a Victorio this year & it was amazing! It really did cut down on time & now it is at the top of my list.I also don’t core anymore. The Foley & Victorio took care of those.
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This year I borrowed a Squeezo Strainer, it is similar to the victorio. It was amazing. I have two apple trees, but they only produce small apples, so for most of the apples, I cut them in half after washing. Then we steamed them in a juice steamer (so we could can the juice as well). They only steam for about 15 minutes. Then we plopped them into the strainer and voila… applesauce. I think we did about 60 pounds of apples in 6 hours and were able to get 19 quarts of sauce and 6 quarts of juice. Yummy!
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I have my mom’s old Squeezo Strainer (very similar, but made of all metal). It is well worth it! I canned 60-something quarts of applesauce last year, and it was so easy! This is one of the best investments a canner can make!
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Do it! You won’t regret it!
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I have both a strainer much like the victorio, and an attachment which goes on my KitchenAid mixer. Both are great; one is hand powered, one is electric driven. I keep the non-electric one in case we ever need to live without electricity. Both work the same way, and are wonderful. They do tomatoes in a fraction of the time of other methods, and applesauce, and other fruit for jams or jellies, etc. These items are worth paying for in time savings!
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Heather here is the recipe I use:
12 c pared, cored and sliced apples
1/2 c sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 c water
1 Tbs lemon juice
Freshly grated nutmeg (optional, but I use)
Put apples in slow cooker. Combine sugar and cinnamon and mix with apples. Stir in water and lemon juice and nutmeg. Cover and cook on low 5-7 hours or high for 2 1/2 – 3 1/2 hours. Stir for chunky sauce.
LOVE IT. The nutmeg makes the difference.
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Oh my, I absolutely agree with the others that say to get a food strainer!! I have a different brand – presto, but it works the same way. A total lifesaver!! I did 6 bushels of apples this year (252lbs.) & was able to finish in 2 days – just the children & I (6, ages 12-2). I can NOT imagine doing it without my food strainer!!! I just quarter my apples, add 1/4-1/2 c. water. Cook & run through my food strainer. I don’t add any spices or sweetener. Yay for applesauce!:-)
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I can’t even imagine putting this much work into making applesauce! I grew up with a Victorio that we made applesauce with. I have fond memories of cranking that puppy until my arm was going to fall off- but watching the applesauce come streaming out the front and the “junk” coming out the side was almost hypnotic.
Last week, we had the opportunity to buy apples for $0.13 a pound, so we jumped on it. My mom, sister and I bought 225 apples all together. When it was time to can, I pulled out the vegetable and fruit strainer kitchenaid attachment I had bought a couple years ago and never got around to using. It was amazing! We canned 49 quarts of applesauce in six hours! We’ve got another 60 pounds or so of apples that we’ll be doing on Monday, but I was really glad we didn’t have to kill our arms to get this done.
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I don’t know anything about the Victorio…sorry! But if you do have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer I have an attachment for that that makes applesauce a breeze…it’s the food and vegetable strainer that works with the food grinder. I just quarter my apples (peel, seeds, everything throw them in the pot with a tiny amt of water just enough to cover the bottom of the pan, let them cook until soft and then run them thru the strainer attachment… it spits all the junk out the end and you get lovely applesauce out of the middle. I did a bushel of apples in 2 or 3 hrs and the size of my pots was what was holding me back! I hope that helps… I am just getting back to your blog after a 2 year hiatus and it has been a HUGE help and encouragement to me!
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I’ve tried making applesauce with the Foley Food Mill and without. I definitely prefer without. For me it’s actually less work and faster.
I dump as many apples as will fit into a sink full of water and vegetable soap for a bath. I next use a Y peeler to skin the apples. I put several peeled apples into a large bowl of very diluted lemon water until I’m ready for a break from peeling and then chunk them with a paring knife. There is no need to core this way. These chunks go into my cooking pot with a few inches of purified water and a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. When the pot is full, the apples cook for a few hours. Every so often I mash it with a potato masher and then it’s ready for canning. The apples get so soft and smooth that there’s nothing else I need to do to adjust for consistency.
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i have a simmilar food strainer to the one you are thinking about (different brand i think). it is a huge life saver!! you dont even need to get rid of the core of the apple, it spits everything out when you ‘process’ it! i highly recomend getting one!! :)
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Victorio for sure!! I did 99 qt. apple sauce this year and would not have wanted to do it with anything else. Because it’s a cool handle you crank my 5 year old went to town on it and helped the whole time. Just have to make sure its attached very firmly to the table you are using. You don’t want it falling on your 5 year old while they are turning the handle. I get tons of help from my 4 boys when doing apple sauce!
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I made applesauce for the first time this year and it was wonderful!! All I did was core and quarter the apples and threw them in a big pot with a little bit of water in the bottom. I boiled them with the lid on until they were tender. Then, I just used my stick blender and blended them, peel and all! I did one batch a little chunky (I love chunks), and the other I pureed pretty well. There are little tiny pieces of skin in it, but my family doesn’t mind, and I figure the skin is good for you! I didn’t add any sugar or spices, and it’s the best applesauce, ever! (as my kids tell me!!)
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I have to say that I have used both the Victorio and the Squeezo. The Squeezo is far superior to the Victorio. The Squeezo has all metal parts, whereas the Victorio is mostly plastic. I found the Victorio took much longer and was harder to use because the auger was plastic and did not push the fruit through as well. I would definitely save up and get the Squeezo instead. My friend has an older model and it still works perfectly, so don’t be afraid to purchase a used one.
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I’ve had a Squeezo for several years now. I LOVE it – and use it mostly for applesauce. It’s a bit more expensive, but I’ve never had to replace parts or had any trouble with it. It also squeezes out every last drop of apple-goodness and what is discarded is the bare minimum.
The kids like using it so much that they argue over who gets to turn the handle. They take turns turning and pushing it down the funnel so I’m free to do other tasks like filling jars and doing hot water baths.
It makes a day of applesauce go a lot faster in more ways than one!
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I just use my apple peeler corer gizmo from amazon for $16 which peels, slices and cores the apple while suctioned to my counter. I throw all the apples in the pot or crock pot and no cutting necessary. They break down b/c it’s sliced already. My 4 kids usually want to take turn peeling so not much work to be done. I recommend it as a cheaper way to go and speed up the process!
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I’ve used a Victorio and a food mill like you did, but neither of them are as nice as the Kitchenaid attachment that I bought last year. We canned about 70 quarts of applesauce with a newborn…no small feat, and it was WAY easier with the Kitchenaid. I think it’s a great invest ment!
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I know cooking is necessary, if you want to can, but if you are just going for a healthy snack, you don’t need to cook them at all. I just core cut them up (skin included), and put 3-4 apples with 1/4 water (double, triple, however much yours will process at one time) and 1-2 tsp cinnamon (optional) in my food processor. In one minute or less, we have apple sauce! It does turn a light shade of brown if kept over night, but you can make more at one time and keep it in the refrigerator for several days – all depending on when you wanted to incorporate it in your menu, of course. Cooking, etc. is only necessary for canning. My children prefer this to canned applesauce!
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So, I got the uberfast method down. Cut apples in 2″ parts, stem and all. Put in a pressure cooker, cook until it gets up to pressure and let go a few minutes. Use the quick method to lower pressure immediately, and repeat with new apples. While the next apples are cooking, run the mush through a food mill to get rid of stems and seeds (I have the hand crank type- I would like to get a stainless steel model someday as I run the apples through hot and worry about leeching). The peel is pretty mush at this time, so much of it goes into the sauce as well.
I like applebutter, so I put my sauce directly into my big crock pot, and let it cook down. Last fall I made about three gallons on apple sauce in about an hour, which turned into twelvish pints of apple butter by the next day. I think I pressure canned them for 5 minutes since it was faster and easier than the hot water bath.
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