Homemade Applesauce

This fall I caught a wild bug and went and bought an entire bushel of apples. That's FOURTY-TWO POUNDS! I think I bought Cortland...use a firm, slightly tart variety in any case.

Besides apple pie, apple dumplings, apple coffee cake and apple butter, I made some really fantastic applesauce.

Pull out your bathroom scale, unless of course you have a "kitchen scale"...really though if you do, you need to "wing it" a bit more. Place a large bowl onto the scale and fill it with apples until you reach about 8-9 pounds.

After you peeled them, cored them, and left them in large chunks (maybe only quarter your apples if they are small - eighths if they are big), place the apples in a large pot with:

-The peel of one lemon (cut about 8 wide strips down the lemon - leaving some of the white on the fruit - a vegetable peeler works good)
-The juice of 2 lemons
-A healthy bit of cinnamon
-1/2 cup dark brown sugar
-1/2 cup white sugar
-2 cup water
-1 teaspoon of salt

Cover the pot and bring mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. You'll know it's ready if the apples are starting to break up. You'll actually want to carefully sample a bit to make sure your sugar is right. Depending on the apples you might want a bit more. Remove from heat and remove the lemon peels. Mash to desired consistency with a potato masher.

This will make about 3 quarts of applesauce. I made two batches, ate a bunch, and ended up with 4 quarts in the freezer. If you have it stored in an actual deep freeze it is supposed to keep up to a year!