Help with Apple Butter, please

As I've mentioned elsewhere, we're working out way through a couple of boxes of apples (which are massively cheap here at the moment). Today I cooked up all the remaining Granny Smith Apples to make pectin. This involves cooking up all the apples, cores and all, then straining the whole lot through a teatowel lined sieve, and then boiling up the resultant liquid. The last time we did this (which was also the first time), we just threw away the leftover apple pulp. Today I found this recipe, and decided to try my hand at converting the pulp into apple butter.

My question is this - does it look right? Is it meant to be browner? I've never had (or even heard of) apple butter before, but I believe from a Google search that it's a traditional American recipe? How do you use it? Does anyone else make it, or know the history of it? I'd love to know more. Some of the recipes I've found have instructions like "stir for 14 hours, with a penny thrown in to stop burning.."

Here's the picture, and I have to say, it's absolutely delicious, and I'm especially thrilled at having so little wastage from my box of apples!

apple butter.jpg

Cheers, Celia

My mother used to make apple butter. I may have her recipe in a box at home (I'm at work now). I'll look for it when I get a chance tonight.

I made apple butter once. Very tasty, but I thought it was way too much trouble to do it again, because it does take hours of stirring.

Celia-
NJ makes apple butter and FWIW, it is darker than what you have in the pic. But as long as it tastes good, appearance is secondary. I showed NJ your recipe and she said: "PFFFFT, Too Much Work".

She makes Apple Butter in a crockpot (Oh, the horrors!!!) and it is pretty easy.

10-15 Apples (depending upon size) peeled, sliced, and cored
3 C. light brown sugar
1 T. Vietnamese Cinnamon
1/4 t. each of ground cloves, nutmeg, allspice, salt

Toss ingredients in crockpot and mix well.
Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 hour
Reduce heat and cook on LOW for 9-11 hours, stirring occasionally. Stir more frequently as it thickens to prevent sticking.
You can stir with a whisk as final step to make smooth, but NJ omits this step.

Makes about 8 cups and we freeze most of it in smaller containers for use throughout the year.

She uses it as a spread on toast and bread, a spoonful in her yogurt, as a side with pork, as a toppoing for oatmeal.

Thank you !

Bill, I used white sugar, perhaps that made a difference. This recipe actually was very easy and quick - only took us about half an hour of stirring, but the apples had been completely boiled down beforehand. AND they were using up the byproduct of our pectin production. I'll try NJ's recipe next time though - I've just recovered my crock pot from storage! Thanks...

So apple butter is used as both a sandwich spread AND an accompaniment to roast meats? I have to say it's pretty sweet, but very delicious. Next time I'll try and let it darken more.