Our friend Sarah is quite intrepid at putting things by, and in the process of teaching herself how to can a while back, stumbled across a recipe for canned apples with red hots. Well, when she mentioned it to us, we decided that we all simply had to try it. It wasn’t apple season, though, when we started making plans for it, so we had to bide our time for almost a year.
Finally, at long last, it’s fall again, and after a family excursion to pick heaps of apples, Sarah invited us over for the big canning day.
Now, neither Pookie nor I have ever canned anything, so it was very exciting to get to try out this mysterious art for the very first time. The process was pretty simple. Just peel, core and slice a mountain of apples, make a syrup with sugar, water, red hots, cloves, cinnamon, ginger and vinegar (I think that was everything), toss the apples into the syrup, simmer for a few minutes, then pack into prepared jars.
It was a beautiful fall day, and we had a great time in Sarah’s sun-drenched kitchen working on all of those steps. It seems canning isn’t really nearly as scary as it sounds… at least on the front end. Who knows if all of our labors will yield a bunch of pints of botulism.
While Sarah definitely knew her way around a canning set-up, she insisted that she was by no means an expert. And so it was a lovely low-key canning party, at which there wasn’t too much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth when three of our first six cans didn’t seal properly. The recipe book seemed to suggest we shrug it off, return the apples to the pot, and try again.
The only disappointment with this project was that red hots don’t mix well with water. We all visualized, way back when we first heard of the recipe, pretty jars of apple slices with red hots suspended artfully (and brightly red) all around them. Instead, they melted. And even though several red hots in the container Sarah was storing them in had come in contact with some water and melted into big clumps, we still didn’t realize that was going to happen until after the red hots had been stirred into the pot and started turning into syrup. We’re very, very smart that way.
We suppose it’s okay that we didn’t end up with apples studded with solid red hots in the end, because a pretty pink syrup is almost as good. And either way, the product was delicious.
Even with some failed seals and having to re-can half the apples, the whole process was so simple and fun that we decided to make a second variety of canned apples, this time with dried cherries and golden raisins.
With just a little bit of work, we ended up turning 14 pounds of apples into 10 beautiful jars of tasty treats. And, as we always do when we’re at Sarah’s house, we had a fantastic time. She and her husband Paul have such a lovely home, with so many wonderful things to photograph, and far more importantly, they’re such a fun family. What a great day!
17 Comments
October 4, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Thanks for coming over, I had so much fun! Your pictures are beautiful. I highly recommend that everyone have someone be a designated photographer during any cooking event. I’m amused that you photographed our dirty porch lights! And for the record people who don’t know me….I am not actually smoking I’m holding the little magnetic doohickey used for fetching canning lids from the boiling water. I love my Betty Draper picture!
October 4, 2009 at 8:37 pm
A designated photographer is a great idea and made it run very smoothly! (Although it should be noted many of these photos [the best ones] were taken by Schnookie!)
Thanks again for having us over! I highly recommend that every have friends like you and Paul! :D
October 6, 2009 at 9:54 pm
I am insanely jealous! Looks like you guys had a fabulous time and ended up with a bunch of yummy apples to enjoy when the cold winter sets in.
October 6, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I guess living in NYC limits the space for canning and putting food by, doesn’t it? :(
October 7, 2009 at 12:11 pm
Ah, we could make due. We’ve got a lot of storage, but not a lot of time.
October 11, 2009 at 10:00 pm
That is one serious canning recipe. You’ll have to let us know how it tastes!
October 17, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Dudes! I can’t believe I didn’t see this post until today! Your canned apples look amazing. I still need to do mine as well.
Also, the Betty Draper photo is awesome. Best. Apron. Evah.
October 17, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Hi, Love your photos and all the fun you must have shared. Today we just finished 24 pints of Quince Jelly and 15 of quince sauce ~ awesome with lamb and pork. The jelly is so Yummy and great on apple or cheese slices :-)
Question? Would like to try your Apple slices with raisins and dried cherries. Would you e-mail me the recipe Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :-) I am looking at about 10 lbs of apples and have not canned them before as slices! Thank-you and have a Brilliant Weekend,
Mary
October 20, 2009 at 3:07 pm
I too am a first time canner of fruit. I canned vevgetables but jam and apples are my first at 65 am enjoying it that is why I want to try canning apples for the future
October 20, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Hey carolbrowne, I have to jump in here and say thanks for the apron comment, as I made it! I wear it all the time and love it. The pattern was “Fruit Tart” from the book A is for Apron.
October 25, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Have you folks retired your garden, yet, for the winter, or are things still growing? We had a frost that knocked our what (very little) remained of our tomato crop this week. But the swiss chard is struggling on bravely, as are the collard greena and (less bravely), the kale. I would have harvested the beets this weekend, but the ground was too wet.
October 29, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Schnookie gleaned the last of the soup beans today, so our garden is ready for the final steps of the year which will happen on Sunday — planting garlic and covering the beds with straw. It’s been raining so much and we’ve been lazy, so the bean harvest was smaller than it probably should have been. It’s been that kind of year, eh? We’re all due awesome garden seasons next year, I think!
October 29, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Oh, and I meant to add, you were still getting tomatoes?!? Wowza!
October 31, 2009 at 12:33 pm
We were still getting a few grape tomatoes, which for some reason, unlike the other tomato plants, had escaped the blight. We had hoped to put down the winter rye today (that’s how we winterize our garden). But it’s raining again. Geez, what a year.
October 31, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I’d love to put winter rye in our garden for the winter, but I worry about how to remove it since we can’t exactly mow raised beds. And yeah, any old time it wants to start raining is fine with me!
October 31, 2009 at 1:09 pm
For our part, we don’t mow winter rye. Come spring, just before we plant, we turn the winter rye over (by hand, with a shovel) and let it decompose in the ground.
November 1, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Hmmm, innnnteresting. Maybe one of these years we’ll try it out! I’m sure it’s better for the the soil than just covering it with straw. Although, one year we tried covered them with shredded leaves, and those didn’t decompose at all.