I’m making applesauce today from the Pristine apples we recently harvested at the Gurney’s farm. Introduced by Purdue University in the 1990’s, Pristine is still one of the highest-quality, early apples on the market.
Typically ripening in July (we were a little late this year due to a cooler-than-normal start to the summer), Pristine exhibits pretty, pale to bright yellow skin, sometimes with a slight blush and creamy flesh. It’s a good fresh-eating apple if picked at its peak. It is crisp and juicy with a mild, sweet-tart flavor and far exceeds the eating quality of other early apples such as Yellow Transparent. Its only drawback is that is in not a great storage apple. It only holds 2-4 weeks without losing quality. So you’re often left with a large crop of apples (far more than I could ever eat fresh in a couple of weeks) that will need to be preserved in some way.
While you can use Pristine for drying or baking, it is truly a great sauce apple. Its tender texture cooks up fast, and its skin is so thin and tender you don’t need to peel the apples prior to saucing. Here’s how I make my Pristine applesauce:
Clean the apples
Because I don’t peel my apples for sauce, I make sure to wash them quite well. I like to put a few drops of Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap in my sink and let the apples soak for a while, then scrub and rinse. White vinegar in water also works well for a fruit bath.
Chop the apples
Since I don’t peel, all I have to do is quarter, remove the core and seeds and roughly chop my apples before throwing them in a large cooking pot.
Cook & Blend
I add a little water just to keep the apples from sticking to the bottom of the pan, cook on low for about 30 minutes and then smoosh up all my cooked apples. I’ve used a stick blender, thrown the cooked apples in a blender or used the apple screen for the Food Strainer and Sauce Maker, all with great success. If you like your applesauce extra chunky you can even just mash it up with a spoon and be done with it. Just be very careful if you’re trying to blend up your boiling hot apples. I still have a nickel-sized scar on my hand from when hot applesauce splashed out of the pot and landed on me!
Can, Freeze & Enjoy
Applesauce is one of the first things I learned to can and is quite easy to process. If I’m really in hurry I’ve also found that it works quite well just to ladle it into freezer bags and throw in the deep freeze. Most of my family loves applesauce with a sprinkle of cinnamon, but I have what is probably the only 3 year old who does not like it. I use a lot of applesauce blended with other fruit to make delicious homemade fruit leathers as a treat. It also works wonders in bread, cookie and muffin recipes. However you use your applesauce, I’m sure it will be delicious.
