SC - Apple Butter Update

[Philip & Susan Troy]

upsxdls at okway.okstate.edu wrote:
> 
> Sir,
> 
> I have a question on this. Since it's the sugar that sort of carmelizes
> and creates the "butter", wouldn't using honey affect that?
> 
> ~Maedb
> 
>      When I make apple butter, I simmer the mashed apples until enough liquid is
>      cooked off to make the "butter."  Same technique as making tomato sauce or
>      paste from fresh tomatoes.  A very low flame should be used to keep the
>      sugar from carmelizing. If using honey, logic says a longer cooking time
>      would be necessary, because honey is more liquid than sugar.  I have not
>      tried sweetening with honey - yet! :) Leanna of Sparrowhaven

For what it's worth, apples brown whether you add sugar or not (and so
do pears and quiunces). The apples themselves are oxidizing, and it
shouldn't be caramelizing sugar that gives apple butter its
characteristic brown. There's nothing to prevent the addition of sugar,
of course, caramelized or otherwise, but all the apple butter I've ever
seen came from Lord Ras's neck of the woods, and is made with apples
cooked down in apple cider, sans added sugar.

The reason apple butter is sort of creamy/pasty, rather than jelly-like,
is that the chemical reaction that causes pectin to gell is not
happening. You'd be more likely to get a sort of brown apple jam if
sugar in the proportions for jellies and preserves were added.

Adamantius 
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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