Life Down Under

Apple Butter

Some words, when spoken or thought, immediately trigger memories and emotions, often having nothing to do with the actual meaning of the word itself; but in the heart of the individual, the emotion is so closely tied to the word, the two might as well be inseparable.

And so it is for me whenever the words "Apple Butter" are mentioned. I have very vivid memories of my mother's homemade apple butter. I only remember her making it once ~ maybe twice ~ when I was quite young, but I can still taste it, richly slathered on a thick slice of homemade bread. It was a big family project when we made it ~ who knows how many jars of the stuff we canned that year ~ but it was "all hands on deck" all day in the kitchen as we peeled, cored, chopped, and cooked the apples we previously picked together. I can still feel the chilly fall New England air, see the frosty condensation of the kitchen windows, and smell the aroma of cinnamon and allspice through the house. And so to me, "apple butter" means warmth and family, affection and longing, returning to my roots, and most of all, memories of my mother and of my childhood.

I guess it goes without saying that whenever fall rolls around, I usually start to crave it. Several years back, the craving was particularily intense, so I set off to see if I could find her recipe somewhere, but to no avail. My apple butter craving was left unsatisfied....until a couple years ago, when somehow Dad found the original recipe buried deep in the recesses of some box hidden away somewhere. Miracle! The only problem is that Dad didn't just find a recipe. He found recipes: an old newspaper article with various recipes on it, a couple pages of mom's hand-written notes, and an index card upon which mom had written a recipe ~ of course, every single one of them being different. And of course I don't have a clue which one is the "right" one. I've only made it a couple times since discovering the gold mine of the original recipes, and unfortunately I haven't been able to reproduce that which I remember. I've gotten close, but not exactly close enough. (Which, I must confess, probably has something to do with the few shortcuts I took to cut back on time, and also my lack of all the necessary equipment needed to make proper apple sauce and apple butter).

So, in response to the requests for my apple butter recipe, when I dig them out of my recipe box in the next couple of days, I'll try to make enough sense of it all so that I can post a recipe that won't be too confusing ~ and more importantly, one that will yield apple butter worthy of the memory which inspired the project (and this post!) in the first place.