Augustapfelbutter

The Augustapfel, also known as the Klarapfel, is an old European apple variety, made popular in the 18th century, that becomes ripe and ready in late July or early August. These apples are not readily available for purchase in stores or markets because they do not keep long. The texture is too weird for eating “out of the hand”, and they cannot be used for Strudel (or pie) because heat turns them to mush. A sauce apple, in other words, and one that doesn’t care how hot your August is: it requires your immediate attention.

Mr Radish’s mother knows someone whose sister has a farm with “old trees”, and too many of these short-lived apples to use up before they go bad–everyone Iowan knows this with zucchini–and through this chain I received approximately 2.5 pounds of weird cooking apples. Complete with worms.

Selbstverständlich, I put my own dumme Ami spin on it: I wanted apple butter. Fruit butters are relatively unknown here; fruit sauces are either chunky or jellied. At any rate, apple butter is easy.

Because I am lazy efficient, and didn’t want to lose too much fruit, I did not peel the apples. As you can see, this was a mistake, because the peels did not break down from either the simmer or the puree.

So, I finally got to try out this wire mesh doohickey Mr Radish brought home a few weeks ago. I rubbed all the puree through it.

It worked better than I expected!

The yield from 2.5 pounds was three jars plus well-licked bowls and spoons. I froze one jar for the winter, gave one jar to Mr Radish’s parents, and we enjoyed one right away on some walnut bread from our neighborhood bakery.

The apple season runs about another two months. Please bring me your waste apples so I can do this again.

TL;DR: Peel the apples before cooking if you are making apple butter.