In the kitchen with Sharon

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In the Kitchen with Sharon this week is Tim Collivier with his homemade apple butter. Tim even brought in homemade biscuits to go with it. It was delicious. Thank you Tim for sharing this great recipe.

Anyone have a great apple crisp recipe? If you do, send it in and I will put it in my column. I am looking forward to hearing from you. I also want to thank my good friend Eleanor Cumberland for the recipe book she left me. Thank you so much Eleanor. You are the best.

Please send your favorite recipes to [email protected] and include a little story and picture. I would love to hear from you.

Apple butter made the easy way

By Tim Colliver

[email protected]

The footballs are flying and the apples are falling this time of the year, and the only thing that will satisfy my fall fever isn’t more cowbell, but a big, juicy caramel apple covered with nuts. The apple really is a go-to this time of the year, whether for snacking, cooking or baking.

One thing that really sets off a fall morning, or any morning for that matter, is a fresh from the oven batch of homemade biscuits, made with “the secret ingredient” — LARD!

Now add a few spoonfuls of apple butter to that steaming little round hunk ‘o bread and you’ve got a taste tantalizing treat that can’t be beat, as one of my radio commercials for the old Buckeye Log Cabin restaurant used to read.

I had never heard of apple butter until one day in the fall of 1968 when I was in the sixth grade at the old New Market School. When going through the lunch line, a cute brunette in wire framed glasses behind the counter asked if I wanted some of the dark brown stuff she had in a soup ladle. And from that point on, I was hooked — on the apple butter, too.

Here’s a pre-World War II recipe that is easy to make and will reward you with about 10 pints of creamy apple butter, and you won’t spend endless hours in the kitchen either.

You’ll need:

Enough apples (McIntosh, Jonathan, Yellow Delicious or Rome) to make 24 cups of applesauce

12 cups of dark brown sugar (I’ve done the math for you — each two-pound bag equals 4 ½ cups)

5 tsp. cinnamon (add more to taste, I’ve been known to spoon in seven or eight teaspoons)

1 ½ tsp. cloves

2 tsp. allspice

1 tsp. nutmeg (be careful with this guy since he can be pretty overpowering in any recipe)

Dash (1/8 tsp.) salt.

Peel and core the apples and puree in a blender, pouring your applesauce into a turkey roasting pan. Mix in the brown sugar and then stir in the spices until well blended. Place the roasting pan uncovered into a preheated 300-degree oven and let cook for a total of 2 ½ hours, stirring it thoroughly at the one and two hour marks in the cooking process.

Leave in an additional one-half hour while you prepare 10 pint jars with lids and bands (if you prefer to use jelly jars, this will make about 18). Place jars, bands and lids in very hot water until ready to use.

After 2 ½ hours, remove the pan from the oven and use a canning jar funnel and a Pyrex-style 8-ounce measuring cup to pour your very hot apple butter into the jars. Be careful. This stuff is somewhere between ouch and the melting temperature of lead. After you have filled the jar, use a paper towel and wipe off the glass rim, then place one of the hot lids on it and hand tighten the band. Invert the jars and the turn them right side up after about 10 minutes, covering them with a dish towel so they’ll cool evenly. You’ll hear them “pop” as they each cool down and seal.

These make great gifts or you can save them for that next batch of biscuits. And the best thing is you made it with no high fructose corn syrup and in your own kitchen.

Sharon Hughes Staff columnist
https://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2019/09/web1_KItchen-tease-3.jpgSharon Hughes Staff columnist

This is a picture of Tim Collivers homemade biscuits created with lard.
https://www.timesgazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2019/09/web1_KItchen-pic.jpegThis is a picture of Tim Collivers homemade biscuits created with lard. Tim Colliver | The Times-Gazette

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