Super vinegary Apple Butter
My mother in law and I made Apple Butter from an old farm cook book. The recipe called for vinegar not cider. We added extra sugar but the butter still turned out really tart and vinegary.Is there anything we can do to tone it down? I've added so much sugar it's getting to be almost too sweet, but the after taste is reeeeeaaallllyyyy sharp and tart. Thanks!
The only thing you can do is make another batch without the vinegar & sugar & mix them together. Since you added so much sugar to the first batch, taste it after combining them & decide how much more, if any sugar to add. (I know the amount of sugar is important when using pectin for jellies, but I assume your recipe is like most apple butters & is cooked down to thicken rather than relying on the natural pectin to jell it.)
After mixing the 2 batches make sure you bring them to a boil again before putting them into jars. It needs to be hot to get a proper seal & reach the required internal temperature during processing. (Since this is an old cookbook, it may give instructions for open kettle canning, but I strongly suggest you use the hot water bath processing method. If you don't know the difference, read about the dangers of the open kettle method here-
http://www.associatedcontent.com/art..._a_really.html
And learn how to safely process here-
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publication...Home%20Can.pdf
I have seen other recipes that didn't work out using vinegar. One that I remember is soaking your meat in vinegar that you plan to smoke in a smoker, all night. Needless to say, it doesn't work. Vinegar is something you have to use very carefully. Personally, I mainly use it to clean filmy windows. It's a great cleaner.
I stick to the lighter ones like white balsamic. White vinegar is my window cleaner too.
Yeah the addition of vinegar or even apple cider seems odd to me too. My MIL makes apple butter by simmering the prepped fruit in water until tender. Then the liquid is strained, reduced, sweetened & made into jelly. The remaining fruit is sweetened & cooked in a roaster pan in a slow oven, stirring occasionally until it reaches the desired darkness. This avoids the danger of scorching & need for constant stirring on the stovetop. When brown enough it is brought up to temp on the stovetop, stirring constantly. Then jarred & processed.
If the batch is too small to make enough liquid for jelly, the fruit is cooked in the oven with the smallest amount of water possible.
I guess vinegar was probably called for to increase the acidity to a level that was, at the time, considered safe for the open kettle method.
I see too, Jenny, on another thread you note "sweet vinegar" is what was called for in your recipe. I'm not really sure what that is & a web search was unenlightening. I have heard that homemade vinegar was a much higher acidity than the commercial stuff we get now. So perhaps this was vinegar that was not fully converted & was therefor sweeter & less acidic.
If you don't have the time or the apples to make another batch to mix with the 1st one, you can seal & process it (or freeze it) until you do. Then mix it with the new batch & seal & process again. Or perhaps it would make a good BBQ type of sauce, they usually have a lot of vinegar. Sounds pretty yummy for a pork roast. This is a long shot but- green tomato mincemeat has a lot of vinegar. (If you can find green tomatoes of coarse.) Maybe you use your butter for the apples & deduct the amount of vinegar & sugar you used from the amount called for in the mincemeat recipe.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote