‘saving the season’ apple butter recipe, with kevin west
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-based but Southeast-bred Kevin West strikes me at once as a very modern and also a very old-fashioned guy–a great combination to my mind. Quotes from the classical Roman poet Virgil open the chapters in his book, “Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling and Preserving,” which is also loaded with old-fashioned fruits he hopes we haven’t forgotten about.
But the recipes are smart, and the science and food safety is up-to-the-minute 21st century. Kevin joined me on the radio when the book came out, to share his best seasonal tips, and his apple-butter recipe (photo above).
When we caught up, Kevin was between batches of quince paste and fermented West Indian gherkin pickles–and about to head out for a leg of his book tour. The book is loaded with tips and tricks for anyone wanting to put up fruits, from apples to pears to the more unusual types, including the how-to’s of quince paste (a.k.a. membrillo); crabapples (as jelly or poached); damson plum preserves, and other antique-fruit recipes, right through to green-tomato tricks.
Kevin’s apple butter recipe is excerpted below.
kevin west’s apple butter
(yields 2 pints)
Reprinted with permission from “Saving the Season,” by Kevin West; and in his words:
SWEETENED WITH APPLE CIDER—no added sugar!—and very lightly spiced, this apple butter is mahogany-brown and intensely flavored. I use a mixed bag of apples, a third of which are acidic varieties such as ‘Granny Smith,’ to get the proper sweet-tart balance. Unlike the other fruit butters in this book, this one does not have the apples puréed at any point in the cooking.
The texture is better if you begin with sliced, unpeeled apples, and then allow the long cooking and frequent stirring to break them down naturally. Also unlike many apple butter recipes, this one has the spices added in tiny quantities toward the end of cooking. As I say elsewhere, you can always add more spice if you like, but you can’t take any out.
During cooking, the ingredients will reduce to about one-third of their initial volume. Stick a bamboo skewer straight down into the pot at the start of cooking to gauge the depth of the ingredients. Mark the level with a pencil, and keep the skewer handy as a guide. Given the hours-long cooking time, a slow cooker, its cover lifted by two chopsticks laid across the pot, would be convenient for this recipe.
- 5 pounds mixed apple varieties, including 1⁄3 tart
- ½ gallon unfiltered apple cider
- 2 allspice berries
- 20 fresh gratings of cinnamon
- 10 fresh gratings of nutmeg
Quarter and core the apples, then cut them into 5⁄8-inch slices. (Leave the peels on.) Put the slices in a deep ovenproof pot, and cover them with the apple cider. Bring the pot to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer, uncovered, for about 4 hours, stirring every 15 minutes.
At the end of that time, most of the liquid will have evaporated, and the apples will look like chunky applesauce. Grind the allspice in a mortar and add it to the pot. Use a Microplane grater to rasp off the suggested amounts of cinnamon and nutmeg. Transfer the pot to a 300-degree oven to finish reducing. Stir every 10 minutes. The butter is done when it’s stiff, mahogany brown, and reduced to about one-third of its initial volume, after about 90 minutes in the oven. In the cold- saucer test, a teaspoon chilled in the freezer for 1 minute shouldn’t leak liquid at the edges. Taste and adjust the flavor with more spice if you like.
Pack the hot apple butter into four prepared wide- mouth ½-pint jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Run a skewer or other thin implement around the inside edge to release any air pockets. Seal the jars, and process in a boiling- water bath for 10 minutes.
Note: Sealed jars will keep for a year, but because there is no added sugar, apple butter will mold fairly quickly once opened. Refrigerate open jars, and plan to use them within 10 days.
(Excerpted from SAVING THE SEASON by Kevin West. Copyright © 2013 by Kevin West. Excerpted by permission of Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.)
how to enter to win ‘saving the season’
I’VE BOUGHT two extra copies “Saving the Season: A Cook’s Guide to Home Canning, Pickling and Preserving,” by Kevin West, to share with you. All you have to do to enter is answer this question in the comments box below (UPDATE: The giveway is finished, but comments are always welcome):
What’s the most unusual, or old-style, fruit you’ve cooked up this season–and did it find its way into your pantry, freezer or just onto your table?
I’m still applesauce-mad over here–nothing unusual about that–though my fruit comes from the trees in my garden that are over 100 years old, so perhaps it qualifies!
Have no anecdote to share, or feeling shy? That’s fine–just say, “Count me in” or some such in the comments, and I will. Two winners will be chosen at random after entries close at midnight on Monday, October 7. Good luck to all.
(Disclosure: Amazon affiliate book links yield a small commission that I use to purchase books for future giveaways.)
I’ve have bread and butter pickles, salsa, blueberry jam, pear butter, tomato sauce, and ketchup on my shelves now but I think the most unique are my dill green tomatoes. They were an experiment that turned out delicious, especially on a sandwich!
I haven’t put up anything unusual this season. Making apple butter in the kitchen later today, similar to Kevin’s recipe. This Saturday, we’ll be cooking up a batch at the Apple Festival, over an open fire. It’ll take most of the day to cook down but the flavor is amazing!
I picked a bunch of persimmons from where I work. I am trying to figure out what to do with them!
The oldest style fruit I canned this year are pears. . . not just any pears but from a 100+ year old tree in front of Farmers Giusti’s old barn in Half Moon Bay. The anjou pears are small, and marbled and hard. I made a beautiful lavender pear compote (using lavender from my garden) and canned the rest of them. The compote recently went on buckwheat pecan pancakes, and one jar of the pears went to pumpkin pear bread. The best part was I got to use Farmers Giusti’s forklift to capture the pears.
I don’t preserve anything unusual, yet. I did plant a goji berry vine this year so I’m hoping that next year I will have enough to do Something with them.
This apple butter recipe looks amazing. I love the color and that you leave the skins on your apples.
I’ve been collecting preserving books for a couple years, currently my favorite is Put Em Up by Sherri Brooks Vinton I’m making my second batch of tomato pepper jam out of this book today. I’d love to add this one to my collection and maybe get a chance to try some recipes for unusual fruits.
This year was my first experiment with PawPaws. We do have two trees at our house, but they aren’t ready yet, so my wife and I went on two adventures to pick them at parks. Besides eating this delicious native fruits, we gave them to neighbors, made two pies, and ice cream. No jam though, I had been forbidden from making any more jam for the year already.
Count me in :)
I made some bitter orange marmalade for a traditional English tea I put on. That was fun! Looking forward to apple butter season :-)
I’m going to make pesto with pistachios. I had an awful reaction the last time I used pine nuts–all food and drink tasted bitter for more than a week. Just like the alcohol on the school nurse’s thermometer years ago. Yech!
I’ve only really made blueberry syrup this summer. We had a huge batch that were too tart to eat so I thought I’d give it a try!
apples from our own trees, slowly renovating what’s left of an old orchard on our property. They became applesauce and some horridly burnt apple butter. :)
I started the preserving adventure in a small way with jelly from our abundant jalapeños this year. Ready to tackle something else. Count me in.
I made apple and pear sauce, using apples from my CSA and asian pears. so yummy!
I grow scarlet runner beans for the blossoms, with an eye to attracting hummingbirds. The beans are delicious and sweet cooked and eaten in their pods if you catch them young enough, although the pods are hairy. I’m drying the remainder of the beans to replant next year and to cook from dried. They are quite attractive.
I used to make damson plum preserves, as my mother did, with no added pectin, but have missed the season the last few years. Hope to manage it again next year – great Christmas gifts, and sooo much more flavorful than store-bought.
Well not sure if this applies, but I just harvested black walnuts before the squirrels got them.
I heard about a trick of using a cement mixer water and a handful of gravel to de-husk them. So that’s what I’ll be doing this afternoon.
I’m also going to harvest quince! So I was psyched when I heard the pod cast and Kevin talked about making the quince paste! Can’t wait to do it!
This is the first year I managed to pick some mulberries – apple mulberry jelly came out pretty good. I also pulled up a bunch of garlic mustard and made pesto with it. Some I gave away and the rest got frozen in ice cube trays for the dead of winter.
Most unusual thus far is probably garlic scape pesto and pickled garlic scapes. But I really want to venture into preserving things I find wild. Like crabapples and such :)
Nothing too unusual about the fruit, but I’ve been making my applesauce in a slow cooker this year. This has been a great year for apples in my area.
I just made a batch of grape jam from fruit I brought home from the Finger Lakes region. Delicious.
I spent a summer making pickles. The watermelon rind pickles and the pickled crabapples were definitely the more unusual items.
Fresh local nectarine salsa was the best! Chopped, with fresh red peppers, cilantro, salt, and a bit of concentrated orange juice to thin it a and extend it a bit. Flavor with a bit of organic Apple cider vinegar! We use the local delicious Sewalls’ organic vinegar from Lincolnville, Maine.This is probably my favorite homemade salsa!
I’m working on getting over my fear of canning; any help via a great book will be appreciated; count me in!
Perfect timing to showcase Kevin and this book – I just read another fantastic review of it and added it to my wish list. :) I’m not sure if catawba grapes qualify as unusual or old-style (although most people I talk to have never heard of them, so maybe yes!), but my first harvest of 18.4 pounds was shortly turned into several jars of gorgeous, delicious jelly…
Oh, my husband LOVES apple butter, so thank you for this recipe! We live in Michigan where there is a huge bumper crop of apples this year (after almost None last year!).
And, my sister and I picked wild blackberries late this summer, and I made many jars of blackberry jam & blackberry syrup for Sunday pancakes. . . even putting it through a sieve to make it seedless.
But that’s all the canning I have done since last year : – )
Well, this year was a lot of firsts, though no real old style, though I did can for the first time, and used some handed down items, so perhaps that will count. I did diced tomatoes, refrigerator pickles, dried tomatoes (from my garden) and tried kale chips. I love reading all your info.
Have a great autumn!!!