October 21, 2012: After a day of apple-picking at Harmony Orchard, we convened at The Pantry to learn from Rebecca Staffel (of Deluxe Jams) a variety of ways to preserve them.
Rebecca Staffel from Deluxe Foods taught the class. Rebecca is a former Amazon cookbook editor and culinary literary agent who decided she wanted to be working with food more directly and become a producer. And so she started Deluxe Foods, a line of preserves created with Washinton produce.
In our class, we were to preserve our apples several ways: apple sauce, apple butter, apple jelly, apple chutney and dried apples. Step one, you guessed it: cut up the apples.
For apple chutney, you peel, core and chop the apples. For sauce and butter, you core and chop roughy (but can leave the skin on). My end of the table got the easiest task: for apple jelly, all you have to do is roughly chop the whole apple. No peeling, no coring. The seeds and peel will contribute pectin to the jelly. If you're making multiple apples dishes at the same time, you can even throw your cores from other projects right in with the rest of the apples for jelly.
The apples then went on the stove to cook and cook and cook. Rebecca said that the joke at Deluxe Kitchen is that you "cook until bored."
With the chutney, you have to be somewhat less blase, as Rebecca noted it can scorch. If it does, stop stirring and scrape out the top layer into another pot.
Rebecca checking the chutney. A chutney check.
Regarding the apple jelly - here's why you can put the peel and seeds in: after it's cooked down, you put it into a jelly bag to drip out the apple juice.
Because the juice needs to drip out all night (you don't want to press it if you want a clear jelly), Rebecca did a swap out with some other juice she'd made.
Equal parts juice and sugar go into the pot and cook until they reach 220 degrees.
Filling the jars with the finished jelly...
We wrapped up the class sampling chutney, apple sauce, and jelly.
The biggest hit for me was the chutney. Even though she said it will taste better after sitting for a month, I felt like a dollop of it on some sharp cheddar and crusty bread was pretty perfect.
We also tried some dehydrated apples - Rebecca gave us a recipe for making without a dehydrator.
And in fact I made a batch of my own that very week. If you want to make your own batch, here's the recipe!
Click here for part one of the class, apple picking at Harmony Orchards in Tieton.
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