Old fashioned applesauce

This is a food mill

This is the season where it's apple everything! Apple crisp, applesauce, apple pie, you name it. A few weeks ago, I went apple picking with my mom and aunt. We bought some cortland, fuji, and MacIntosh apples. It was fun and took quite a while picking 3 half bushels of each! So far, I have made two apple crisps (recipe to come later) and applesauce. I got quite excited because recently my mother-in-law gave me her old food mill. I had never seen anything like it before and when we made applesauce together, I loved the process much better than the other way which includes peeling and coring apples before cooking them. So, this is the process of how to make applesauce using a food mill. The benefit of using a food mill is you get more nutrition out of the apples since you cook the apples with their skins on.

Use about 8-10 apples which yields about 6 cups of applesauce

 Step 1: Take a large pot and fill the bottom with water. Take care to cover just the bottom of the pot with water about 1/4 inch deep. Put the pot over low heat.

Step 2: Meanwhile, quarter 8-10 apples leaving the skins on and the cores inside.

Step 2: quartered apples

 Step 3: Add the quartered apples to the pot and cover. Allow to cook for approximately 15-20 minutes. The water should be boiling at the bottom. You will notice the water amount increasing from the apples. When the majority of the apple has separated from the skins, you are ready to use your food mill.

This pot of apples is ready to start using the food mill

Step 4: Add the apples to the food mill and place over a bowl to catch the applesauce. Crank the handle clockwise. When it seems the apples are sticking and need to get moved, crank counter clockwise. When the only stuff left in the food mill are apple peels and apple seeds, dump them in the garbage and add more cooked apples to the food mill. Continue this process until all of the cooked apples have been turned into applesauce.

Step 4: apples inside the food mill over a bowl

Collecting the apple peels on top of the blade. You can begin to see the applesauce in the bowl at the bottom.

Completed bowl of applesauce: 8-10 apples yield approximately 6 cups of applesauce

Delicious bowl of applesauce topped with cinnamon

You can add some cinnamon to your tasting. I don't think sugar is necessary with the food mill. Some people tend to add some lemon juice to prevent the applesauce from turning an unappetizing flavor, but I don't do this.