Surplus fruits may be preserved by making fruit butters. The only equipment necessary is a good preserving kettle.

Various fruit butters recommended are apple butter with cider, apple butter without cider, apple butter with grape juice, apple butter with lemons, pear butter. peach butter, plum butter, and Garfield butter made with plums and peaches. With the exception at a good preserving kettle very little equipment is needed for the preparation of such butters.

Apple Butter:

There is no better way to use good apples than to make them into butter. The sound portions of windfalls, wormy, and bruised apples may also be used. The better the quality of the apple, the better the butter will be. In apple butter with cider, either fresh sweet cider or commercial cider should be used, after being boiled down to about half of its original quantity.

The peeled and sliced apples may be cooked in the boiled cider, or they may be first made into apple sauce, which is then cooked in cider. It usually takes about equal quantities of sweet cider and sliced apples to make butter of the right consistency.

In other words, 2 gallons of sweet cider should be boiled down to 1 gallon, and 2 gallons of the prepared apples should be added to it, either uncooked or as apple sauce. The two essentials of good apple butter are long, slow cooking - from four to six hours - and frequent stirring. A slow cooker may be put to good use in making apple butter.

If sugar is used, it should be added after the cooking is about two-thirds done. About 1 pound of sugar is the usual proportion for each gallon of apple butter, but more or less may he used according to taste. The butter may be spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, or with any one of the three, the spices being stirred in when the cooking is finished.

While still boiling hot, the butter should be packed in sterilized canning jars and processed in a boiling water bath canner (212°F) for 10 minutes.

Apple Butter Without Cider:

Good apple butter may be made without cider. In this case, enough water is added to make a thin apple sauce. Brown sugar rather than white sugar is ordinarily used for an improved flavor.

If a grape flavor is desired, it may be obtained by the use of grape juice in the proportion of 1 pound to each gallon of the peeled and sliced apple. There should also be added a cup of brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. When the desired thickness is obtained, stir in 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.

Pear Butter:

Pear butter is made like apple butter without the cider.

Peach Butter:

In making peach butter, put the peaches into a wire basket and dip them in boiling water for a few seconds until the skin slips; then dip the peaches into cold water, peel them, and pit them.

Well ripened freestone peaches are best. They should be mashed and cooked in their own juice without adding water. Press through a food mill, process in a food processor or use a hand blender to make a smooth butter.

To each measure of pulp add a half measure of sugar. Peach butter can be made also from dried or canned peaches. Lemon juice in the proportion of 1 lemon to 15 pounds of peaches may be added for a tart flavor.

Plum Butter:

Plum butter is made like peach butter, except that the skins and pits are separated by rubbing the pulp through a wire sieve or food mill after the plums have been cooked. Freestone plums, however, may be treated exactly like peaches.

Submitted by: CM