Before the apple season comes to an end and the holiday season kicks in, I wanted to share the floor with Chef Dad.He 
always tells me stories about his grandma and how she spent a lot of her time farming and canning. One of his fondest memories of Grandma seems to be her applesauce. So I thought it
would be fitting to go ahead and let Chef Dad take you into his vault filled of memories …
Howdy! Chef Dad here, sorta filling in for Chef Kayleigh for this edition of “In the Kitchen With Kayleigh.” She’s still going to write the recipe; I’m just here to reminisce. Because today we’re talking applesauce. And I come from a family of applesauce fanatics.
My paternal grandmother, Rowena Winifred Heacock, was born in Applegate, Michigan. That should be a big clue right there. Her father, Lonson, was a farmer in this small town in Sanilac County. She was descended from Heacock Quakers who emigrated to the New World with William Penn. How they got to Applegate is a whole ‘nother story, and a good one, but I digress. Fast forward to Clifton, New Jersey in the ‘50s, and that’s where I come in.
My Granma, (that’s what we called her, and that’s what she answered to), had a couple of building lots in town. Along with the quarter-acre of corn and vegetables, and the chicken coop with 15 hens and Joe the rooster, she had planted a small orchard of apple trees back when they moved there in the ‘30s, and every fall it was apple collectin’ time. My sisters and I weren’t big enough to reach up into these tall trees, but we could gather up baskets full of apples that had fallen, and which might not be great for eating out of hand, but were just right for the applesauce pot. We would have to fight off the chickens for the best ones, but that was part of the adventure. And I remember this huge black speckled ceramic pot on two burners of the stove, always steaming and always being stirred.
Sometimes the apples got peeled, sometimes they went in with the skins on. “Eeyew Granma, they still got the skins on!” we would say. She would say that that was where all the flavor was. Those babies would simmer for days, it seemed… She didn’t even have to run them through a sieve, they just needed a little mashing. They were slow-cooked to perfection, with just a little sugar and some lemon. And, boy, how I remember the smell! It was a glorious smell — it made your mouth water. I’m getting hungry for some just writing about it. Then came canning time. Yep, Granma canned everything, from strawberries to tomatoes to green beans. (When my father moved out of his house in Riverhead a few years back, I think we found some of her Mason jars on a shelf down in the cellar!)
So, the canning would begin. Mason jars of every size, and those big gallon jugs, she filled those too. When my family moved to Riverhead in 1967, we would wait for the delivery of our gallon jugs of Granma’s applesauce from Clifton, every year. Granma’s been gone a while now, but when I had kids, I made them homemade apple sauce. I would cook them down and run the pulp through a chinois that my mother gave me, just for applesauce.
Sometimes when fall arrives, I think about going to the farm stand and buying a case of apples and canning my own. Then I think about that big pot simmering and Granma talking about growing up in Applegate, and I just smile.
Kayleigh’s Classic Applesauce
Yields: About 2 quarts
Ingredients:
5 lbs. apples, mixed variety works best, such as Gala, Cortland and McIntosh
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup water
sugar, if necessary
• Remove the core and the stems from the apples and cut into wedges leaving the skin on. Put apples in a large pot with the lemon juice and water. Turn heat to medium and cover. Let simmer for about 30 minutes.
• Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Rune everything through a food mill. Taste. If sweetener is necessary add a teaspoon at a time of sugar. Serve immediately, go straight to canning or allow to cool completely before storing in a basic container in the fridge. Enjoy topped with cinnamon or serve with a savory roast at meal time.
*If you do not own a food mill peel the apples before hand and mash with a masher afterwards.
