Extension > Food > Food Safety > Preserving and preparing > Fruits > Canning apple butter
Canning apple butter
Ingredients
- 8 lb. apples (Jonathan, Winesap, Stayman, Golden Delicious, MacIntosh, or other apple varieties)
- 2 cups cider
- 2 cups vinegar
- 2¼ cups white sugar
- 2¼ cups packed brown sugar
- 2 tbsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp. ground cloves
Yield: About 8 to 9 pints
Procedure
- Wash, remove stems, quarter, and core fruit.
- Cook slowly in cider and vinegar until soft.
- Press fruit through a colander, food mill, or strainer.
- Cook fruit pulp with sugar and spices, stirring frequently. To test for doneness, remove a spoonful and hold it away from steam for 2 minutes. It is done if the butter remains mounded on the spoon. Another way to test for doneness is to spoon a small quantity onto a plate. When a rim of liquid does not separate around the edge of the butter, it is ready for canning.
- Fill hot into sterile half-pint or pint jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Quart jars need not be presterilized.
Recommended process:
- Boiling-water bath
- Half-pints or pints–10 minutes
- Quarts–15 minutes
Revised by Deb Botzek-Linn, University of Minnesota Extension educator, 2010.
Contact the Food Safety team: 
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