Directions for Gardening
A collection of valuable receipts for cookery, the preservation of fruits and other articles of household consumption, and for the cure of diseases.
By P. Thornton 1845
Gardening
Cookery
Domestic Department
Diseases of Beasts
Apple Butter
To make this article according to German custom, the host should, in the autumn, invite his neighbors to make up an apple-butter party. Being assembled, let three bushels of fair sweet apples be pared, quartered, and the cores removed: meanwhile let two barrels of clear new cider be boiled down to one half; when this is done commit the prepared apples to the cider, and henceforth let the boiling go on briskly and systematically. But to accomplish the main design, the party must take turns at stirring the contents without cessation, that they do not become attached to the side to the kettle, and be burned. Let this stirring go on till the liquid becomes concrete: in other words, till the amalgamated cider and apples become as thick as hasty pudding; then throw in seasoning of pulverized allspice, when it may be considered as finished and committed to pots for futurae use. This is apple butter, and will keep sweet for many years.
