Well Butter My Biscuit!

As cool weather approaches, we crave certain foods and drinks; hot chocolate, cider, chili, and anything pumpkin. For me fall means it’s apple butter making time. Some years I’m lucky enough to have apples given to me. This year I purchased a variety called Cortland; large, sweet, and juicy with red and green mottled skin.

I have an apple peeler/corer/slicer which makes quick work of prepping the apples. The skins are cooked and strained to make juice which will become apple jelly. The juice this year was a beautiful pink color because of the variety used.

I’ve made apple butter in the oven and on the stovetop, but my preferred method is in the crockpot since it eliminates the constant stirring. Each batch starts out with four crockpots and I cook the apples down until there’s two crockpots of apples left. Then brown sugar, white sugar, spices, and vanilla are added. The taste has been called “heaven in a mason jar”.

In the old days apple butter was made outside over an open fire in a huge copper pot. A half dozen pennies were placed in the bottom of the pot to keep the apples from sticking and burning. The apples were all peeled and cored by hand. The butter was constantly stirred with a large wooden paddle for hours, sometimes days, so it generally was a family or community event.

The event was called a “frolic”. Frolics were very social and were a chance for people to tell stories, gossip, and enjoy fellowship. The stirring technique people were advised to follow was this poem;

“Twice around the side

And once down the middle

That’s the way to stir

The apple-butter kittle”

Courting couples were given special attention, usually the job of stirring. At some frolics if the couple stirring bumped the pot and splashed the butter, they had to kiss.

The history of apple butter can be traced to medieval times where monks created it to preserve part of the orchard’s harvest. It originated in Belgium and Germany and was brought to Appalachia by the Pennsylvania Dutch.

Apple butter festivals are a popular fall event today with demonstrations of apple butter making, crafts, food, and apple butter for sale. One such festival is held at Kimmswick, Mo. each year on the last weekend in October and is celebrating its 45th year.