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Rotten Apple Recycling
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Rotten Apple Recycling
NOTE: This post was originally published on Friday, March 4, at 3:03 p.m., but was written too late to make the official transition to CP's new site, which went live this past weekend.
By this time of the year, no matter how much you lovelovelove apples, chances are you’re sick of them and have a stash rotting away in the bottom of your crisper drawer. If you leave it closed, perhaps they’ll just go away. But I say no! Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses of Galas, Grannies and Goldens. It’s time to make applesauce.
Applesauce is an easy way to use up bruised, busted or otherwise unappealing apples. With a little bit of prep, it practically makes itself. I use the illustrious Ina Garten’s base recipe of peeled apples (plus a few skins for color), butter and brown sugar, then add in whatever citrus and spices I have on hand. I deployed a dozen or so ugly Fujis to today’s batch, flavoring it with the zests and juices of a Minneola, a blood orange, a Meyer lemon (plus the zest of a kaffir lime; juice is bitter) and cinnamon, allspice, clove, vanilla bean and lavender. If you can get your hands on lard or bacon fat, a spoonful stirred in after the applesauce has cooked is ridiculous. Full recipe follows.
Homestyle Applesauce
Go Get This:
3 lbs. any apples
1 Minneola, juice and zest
1 blood orange, juice and zest
1 Meyer lemon, juice and zest
1 kaffir lime, zest only
1 tsp. clove, toasted and ground
1 tsp. allspice, toasted and ground
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. dried lavender
Half 1 vanilla bean, scraped, plus pod
Half-cup brown sugar
4 tbsp. butter
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tsp. lard
Now Do This:
Preheat the oven to 350.
To a big mixing bowl, add the citrus juices and zests and whisk to combine.
Peel, core and quarter the apples, reserving the peels of two red apples, which will give the applesauce color (Thanks Ina!). Add the sliced apples to the citrus and toss to coat to keep them from oxidizing. Add the cloves, allspice, cinnamon, lavender, brown sugar, cracked black pepper, salt and vanilla beans and scraped pod. Toss to distribute evenly and transfer to a deep-bottomed ovenproof pot. Add the butter, cover and bake for 1.5 hours* until apples are soft.
Remove from oven, cool slightly and stir in lard. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve when cooled to room temperature or pack up and store in the fridge up to two weeks.
*After 1.5 hours, I still had a lot of liquid left over in this batch, so I put the pot on the stove and reduced the liquid by half.
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