The Applesauce Experiment...

I've been making applesauce for a long time, but I'm far from a pro. I can never remember what combination of apples makes the best tasting and prettiest sauce!  I don't like to add sugar, so I need to start out with apples that aren't too tart and have plenty of flavor.

Yesterday I went to a local fruit farm that has bargain bin apples in lots of different varieties. I filled three bags with different combinations of apples, and today I experimented.

Here we go.  Batch number one.

Smokehouse and Crimson Crisp...

This combination was tasty, but I prefer a pink looking sauce!  (it's the lighting...this sauce truly was very light in color and not at all pink!) Nit picky, I know...but hey, it's important!

Batch number two was a mixture of Rome and Jonamac.  By the looks of the skins, I would expect a pinker looking sauce...

It might be kind of hard to tell on these pictures...once again, it's the lighting in the pictures...but the sauce from this second batch was definitely much more pink!  But...not as tasty.

The third batch was what I call a medley...

That's what you call it when you can't remember what kind of apples you put in your bag!  

It's especially a bummer when this batch was the most tasty!

Do you have a certain variety of apples that you think makes tasty sauce?

It's An Applesauce Kind of Day...

Today was what I call and applesauce kind of day...rainy and chilly.

Last year I tried two kinds of sauce...a combination of Cortland /Macintosh, and a combination of Ida Red / Crispin.  Both kinds were sweet enough for our taste buds that I added very little or no sugar to the sauce.  The consensus here was that the Ida Red / Crispin combo was the best.

Both of these varieties ripen in late September or early October, which is great for my schedule.  I can wait until after the fair is over, and the kitchen is much cooler this time of year.  So, yesterday I headed to the fruit farm and picked up four bags of apples.

I cut them into small chunks, mixing both varieties in my kettles.  No need to peel or core them, because I use a handy Victorio strainer.  These are the Ida Red, with white flesh and dark red skins.  They make a pretty pink colored sauce...

The Crispin were gigantic this year.   Each apple was at least twice the size of the Ida Red...

Cooked, and in the Victorio strainer...

Applesauce!

I got a total of twenty four quart jars from these four bags of apples...

Last year, I must have had a higher ratio of Ida Red to Crispin, because the sauce was much more pink, but it tastes good all the same.  No extra sugar added.

Now I think I can officially put away my canning supplies until next year!

What kind of apples do you use for sauce?