22 Facts About Apple butter

Apple butter is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce produced by long, slow cooking of apples with cider or water to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, turning the apple butter a deep brown.

The production of the butter was a perfect way to conserve part of the fruit production of the monasteries in that region, at a time when almost every village had its own apple-butter producers.

The production of apple butter was a popular way of using apples in colonial America, well into the 19th century.

Product contains no actual dairy butter; the term butter refers only to the butter-like thick, soft consistency, and apple butter's use as a spread for breads.

Sometimes seasoned with cinnamon, clove, and other spices, apple butter is usually spread on bread, used as a side dish, an ingredient in baked goods, or as a condiment.

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In Europe, an apple butter is traditionally made which is closer to dense syrup, in the Netherlands and in Germany and frequently eaten on bread with thinly sliced cheese and with Sauerbraten.

In Jersey, in the Channel Islands, apple butter is known as black butter or le nier beurre and includes liquorice as an ingredient.

In Japan, apple butter often contains actual butter and is considerably lighter in color, typically a shade of yellow.

Apple butter can be used as a fat substitute in reduced-fat or fat-free cooking, as well as vegan recipes.

Apple butter is typically packaged in the same way whether it is prepared in a factory setting or made at home.

Apple butter is a product created as a means of preserving apples.

Therefore, the apple butter can be placed in hot jars without chances of compromising quality of the product.

Similar to the boiling process, vacuum sealing jars or cans of apple butter can remove remaining oxygen in the jar, forming a tight seal.

Preservation of apple butter involves application of several food science concepts, including controlling the temperature, water activity, and level of acidity in the product.

Thermal processing not only helps produce texture and flavor characteristic to apple butter but is a common way of sterilizing food products.

The addition of sugar to apple butter allows more binding with the free water molecules and thereby decreases the amount of free water to support microbial growth.

Sometimes, commercial brands of apple butter can be found with other ingredients and food additives.

However, apple butter should be discarded if there are clear signs of spoilage, such as when mold is found on the product surface.

Apple butter is more of an accessory food to put on your toast or other foods simply added for its taste.

Apple butter is stored in glass jars, which allow light to enter the container therefore their shelf-life is less than that of food canned in steel cans.

In various locations across the United States, the production of apple butter is associated with a community event, most often occurring in the fall at the end of the apple-harvest season.

At many of these events, apple butter is cooked on-site in the traditional method, using huge copper kettles over open fires that are stirred for hours.