Homemade Applesauce
Album: Hard Groove | The RH Factor
Tasting homemade applesauce was a formative experience for me. It is one of the dishes that showed me how home cooking could truly refine and elevate common foods.
Which apple varieties should I use for applesauce?
The apple variety used to make the sauce is of critical importance in the result. Some apple varieties break down well when heated, while others keep their structure and therefore don’t make great saucing or baking apples. Among common varieties I’m able to find at the grocery store, I have great success using Jonagold, Zestar, Cortland, and McIntosh apples for sauce. I often blend two varieties of apple in a single batch, and I take care to taste apples to ensure they are not mealy when I put them in the pot. Pink Lady can also work well, although it’s on the firmer side. I avoid Honeycrisp and similar ultra-crisp sweet apples for saucing because they do not break down as well and result in chunkier sauce. We try to make several trips to apple orchards in the fall and ask the farmers what varieties are best for saucing, to add new varieties to the mix.
How do I select apples?
Apples with a golden-brown patch surrounding the stem that is rough to the touch will often be sweeter. This is wisdom passed down by my own dad, who says that it’s a result of the amount of sugar produced in the fruit from sun exposure.
How should I eat applesauce?
Applesauce makes for a special fall or winter fruit dish and can be enjoyed warm or cold. It is also a super pancake or waffle topping when warmed. Top with cinnamon sugar for a delightful treat.
How should I store applesauce?
Applesauce will keep in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. In the event you have an especially bountiful apple season and want to make several pots at once, it freezes well.
Album pairing
Hard Groove is one of the essential albums demonstrating the direct link between hip hop and jazz. Legendary trumpeter Roy Hargrove put together a collaboration with rappers Q-Tip and Common, and singers D’Angelo and Erykah Badu, who went on to become some of the most prolific voices in hip hop.
A discussion of applesauce wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Johnny Appleseed, the folk tale about a man who planted countless apple trees. Our partner website, Cookabook, pairs books with recipes and also features our signature, simple applesauce recipe.
Album Pairing: Hard Groove | The RH Factor
🎵 Listen to the album while you cook or eat 🎵
Genuine Dad-approved equipment recommendation: Apple peeler
Hello, dads and dad-adjacents. Here’s a Genuine Dad Equipment Recommendation* for your kitchen. An apple peeler makes applesauce, apple desserts, and apples at snacktime as easy as pie (pun fully intended, but you knew that). Want to keep the skin on the sliced apple? That’s a quick adjustment this peeler can handle. It’s also possible to use the peeler to make spiral-cut or shoestring potatoes, or even pears. Making applesauce or pies with this handy device is a breeze. In our kitchen, we use the Johnny Apple Peeler ($32 as of writing).
With proper supervision, it’s lots of fun for kids to turn the crank, but be aware of the sharp components of this tool. This is a product for which the brand makes a huge difference–for longevity and to avoid rust it’s imperative to have a real cast iron body and stainless steel blades, which this peeler has. It also has a wooden handle which adds to the feeling of quality. There are two versions of this product: a suction base version (I prefer this) or a version with a clamp base to keep the unit in place. To use the suction base, simply get the counter damp and then pull the lever to apply suction.
*Genuine Dad Equipment Recommendations are real, tested recommendations for equipment I’ve used for years in my kitchen. These recommendations are exclusive to Dads Jazz Cookbook. I only recommend products that I have personally found to be durable, high-utility, and nearly essential for my cooking.
Make Homemade Applesauce
Applesauce
Ingredients
- 20 apples selected variety is critical: I suggest 10 of each McIntosh and Cortland which are tart and have great flavor. Other good choices include Jonagold, Fuji, Pink Lady. Apples must not be mealy
- 2 C water
- Granulated sugar to taste
Instructions
- Peel, core, and slice apples thinly. An all-in-one apple peeler-slicer-corer is great for this (I use the Johnny Apple Peeler).
- In a large pot or dutch oven, heat prepared apples and 2 C water over medium-high heat, covered. Once water is simmering, remove lid and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon, breaking up apples as you are able. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue cooking until apples have broken down sufficiently, stirring occasionally.
- Mix in sugar to taste. Typically the amount of sugar needed ranges from none to ½ C. Taste after adding sugar and adjust if needed.
Notes
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