Project Apple Butter: How to...

It's been a while.  I was too tired to blog.  I hate leaving things unfinished so I'm typing up my how to blog tonight while watching MI-5 aka Spooks (BBC).  I didn't take as many pictures of apple butter as I did on PPR (Project Pot Roast) but there are still quite a few.  Here we go

Ingredients  

Cook the apples in apple cider and a little lemon juice.

Lots of apples in lots of pots.

I put the cooked apples through the food mill.

The food mill will remove the skins and mush up the apples to a smooth consistency.

All the apple pulp is in the crock pot with the spices.

I used the spoon to prop the lid open so the excess liquid could evaporate.  The pot was full to the rim  so you can see it worked.  On to the canning.

I ladled the hot apple butter into pre-heated jars and boiled them for about 10 minutes to seal them.  It worked most of the time but I had to re-process a few of them.

Finished apple butter army all properly canned.  No refrigeration needed until after they are opened.

The mess in the kitchen...

spills over into 2 pictures.

Thanks for reading Project Apple Butter.  I encourage you to blog your own Food Project.  If you don't have a blog I'll publish it for you.  Any suggestions for my next project?

Project Apple Butter: Who's who

Just like Project Pot Roast, I'm going to go step by step through the process of making and canning apple butter.  First up, the players aka ingredients.  

Apples

Apple cider

lemon juice

cinnamon

dark brown sugar

allspice

mace

vanilla extract

molasses

whiskey

last minute addition 

Equipment

crock pot

apple corer

strainer

food mill

canning set

I turned the pic so you could read it.  No the Lemon Juice is not flying.

Next up, How To......

Project Apple Butter: In the beginning

In the beginning there were apples.

And they were good.  Larriland Farms is a fun place.  I highly recommend it.  They have great activities for the fall.

Project Pot Roast: The final chapter

This is the final installment of Project Pot Roast  Project Beef Stew.  It is delicious but not at all what I expected when I started out.  The onions and the green peppers totally disintegrated to thicken the broth.  The extra spices that I added worked out very well but next time I'm going to go lighter on the salt.  When the water evaporates, the salt is stronger.  I over salted a little but nothing catastrophic.  Here are my final pictures:

in the bowl

not the best picture.  lol but you get the idea

Thank you for participating in Project Beef Stew.  Next up, Apple Butter.

Project Pot Roast: Should it look like this?

This is the second to last post in the Project Pot Roast series.  It seems that my roast turned into stew.

Resting stew/pot roast.

The haze is steam.

More steam.  This time you can see the stew like consistency.

The chuck roast cooked into a stew.  Maybe I added too much liquid.  I think it needs to have plenty of broth to properly cook in the slow cooker.   When I tested it this morning I added more salt, garlic powder, adobo, red pepper flakes, Dijon mustard and the Jamaican curry powder.  Everything cooked on high all night but I turned it to low about 8am.  Now it's about 3 and I turned it off.  Final tasting in a few hours.

Project Pot Roast: The Process aka Chop Chop Chop

This is what you've all been waiting for...ha ha ha.  Holy pictures Batman!  I hope you enjoy them.  Picture are in order of preparation.  You can chop stuff in any order.  This is mine.  I did a rough chop on the veg since they are going to smush up during the cooking anyway.

You might recognize this motley crew  from the last blog.  Everything gathered together for the before picture.

Onions are first on the block

Celery is next

Tomatoes get peeled and chopped.  I skinned them because I don't like finding the skins in my cooked food.    If they don't bother you, skip the skinning.

Green Pans at the ready.   This things are awesome! 

Beef bouillon cubes ready for the pool.

Beef searing and water boiling for the bouillon cubes.

Mmm the bouillon is boiling.

Look at the beautiful brown sear.  I added a little olive oil to the pan and put it over high heat to get that nice color

Tomato, celery, onion, baby bella mushroom and garlic ready for the  crock pot.

I flipped meat and seasoned it with adobo.  If you look closely, you'll see that I stuffed garlic cloves into the meat.  This was not easy.  I went with vertical stabs after the sear but I would recommend horizontal cuts before you sear.  It also means the garlic won't slip out when you flip the meat.

The beef in the crock pot on top of a layer of celery.

Onions in the frying pan for a little color while the beef broth hangs out on the back burner.

More celery and tomatoes join the party.

Onions browning on the stove.

In ye go fellas.

Mushrooms are frying up before they take the plunge. 

I fried the garlic quickly before deglazing the pan with a little onion soup broth.

 

All liquid and mushrooms in the crock pot.


 

I almost forgot the green peppers.  No escape for you! 

Now we wait.   8+ hours from now dinner will be served.

And now, my sweets, we wait.  I'll post again when everything is cooked.