Canning Applesauce

Canning applesauce is a fast, simple way to preserve apples.  This water bath canning recipe for homemade applesauce is a good one for beginners.

Who doesn’t love applesauce? Home canned applesauce is a classic. It’s more popular than canning apple cider or apple jam, and definitely more beginner friendly than canning apple pie filling.

In most households, especially those with young kids, applesauce gets used all the time. It can be eaten on its own as well as used as a base for a variety of recipes, both savory and sweet.  Everything from cakes, pies, and muffins to savory potato latkes and beside pork chops.

Making applesauce from scratch each time you want to enjoy it can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive task. Canning a large batch saves time and effort, and you’ll have homemade applesauce on hand for months to come.

We harvest apples by the truckload each autumn, and applesauce is one of the main ways I preserve them in bulk, along with the rest of my apple canning recipes.

Ingredients for Applesauce

The ingredients for canning applesauce are quite simple.  To make a canner batch of seven quarts or nine pints, you’ll need the following:

• Apples
• Apple Cider, juice, or water
• Lemon Juice (optional, for flavor)
• Sugar (optional)
• Spices (optional)

Applesauce yields really depend on your apples.  Some have a lot more water in them than others, and will need to be cooked down a bit before they can form a good sauce.  Others have bigger cores, and smaller apples will have more skin and core (and less saucy inside) compared to larger apples.  You can get a rough idea, though.

According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, on average, you’ll need about 21 pounds of apples to produce a canner load of seven quarts (around 13 ½ lbs to produce 9 pints). A bushel is approximately 48 pounds and will yield 14 to 19 quarts of applesauce, or three pounds per quart.

Sugar is optional but can help with very tart apples.  Most modern varieties are quite sweet and don’t really need sugar, but it’s all according to your tastes.

Similarly, spices are optional, but many people like a little cinnamon or nutmeg in the mix.  Personally, I like to put up plain applesauce so I can use it in more ways later on, and warm spices like cinnamon can occasionally turn bitter during canning.

You’ll need a bit of liquid to start the pot cooking, and though water works fine, I like to add a bit of apple cider to the bottom of the pot for extra flavor.  That’s only needed at the beginning before the apples start to break down and release their juices, and it just keeps the apples from scorching during the first few minutes of cooking.

Many people add lemon juice for tartness and have for generations. The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving (2016) adds bottled lemon juice to its applesauce, but the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s tested applesauce has no added acid, and that’s the version I follow. So the lemon juice is optional here, just for flavor, and fresh or bottled both work.

If you like a little brightness, stir in about 1 Tbsp of lemon juice per quart of sauce, or to taste, before you fill the jars.

Best Apples for Sauce

First things first: when selecting apples for canning, you want to choose sweet, juicy, and crisp apples. Adding one to two pounds of tart apples per every three pounds of sweeter fruit can create a more potent, “tart” flavor, if that’s what you prefer. 

I know it’s popular to make applesauce out of apples that just aren’t good for anything else, those mealy ones that are well past prime, and while they do make sauce, it won’t taste as good.  You can dispose of all those extras in sauce, but just know that the quality of the finished product is directly related to the quality of the ingredients.  Older apples on the edge of spoiling have lost much of their aroma, and you’ll notice it in the finished sauce.

Making Applesauce

Start by washing, peeling, and coring the apples. If you’d like, you can slice the apples into water containing a bit of lemon juice to prevent browning. This is optional and won’t affect the safety or flavor of the finished product.

Peeling is optional, and you can make applesauce with peels, that’s fine, but most people don’t appreciate the texture.

You can also use a food mill to remove the skins after the batch softens.  That saves labor, and you don’t have to hand peel the apples, but it works better with unsprayed apples than conventional ones.  Apples with bright red peels can also color the batch, which some people like and others don’t.  It’s personal preference.

Place the slices into a large 8 to 10 quart pot and add half a cup of water, apple juice or apple cider. Stir occasionally to prevent burning while heating the apples. They’ll quickly release juices and begin to fall apart.  Depending on the maturity and variety of the apples, this process could take anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. 

After that, you can use a sieve or a food mill to create a smooth texture, or you can bypass this step if you prefer chunk-style applesauce.

Applesauce can be packed without sugar, but if you prefer your applesauce to be on the sweeter side, you can add 1/8th cup of sugar per every quart of sauce. 

Taste the sauce and add more sugar if you prefer a sweeter taste. 

At this point, you can store the applesauce in the fridge, and it’ll keep for about a week, or the freezer for up to 6 months.  Personally, I like to can it because then I always have it ready to go on my pantry shelf.  It’s a quick water bath canning project, and it’s worth it to me because it saves on freezer space.

Canning Applesauce

If canning, prepare a water bath canner, jars, lids and rings.  This is a hot pack recipe, so have the canner water at about 180 degrees F.

Then, reheat the sauce to boiling and fill hot sauce into pint or quart jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe the jars clean of any residue, add the lids, and bands. 

Next, you’ll transfer the jars to either a boiling water canner or a pressure canner. For a boiling water canner, process pints for 15 minutes and quarts for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. If you’d prefer to use a pressure canner, process pints for 8 minutes and quarts for 10 minutes at 6 lbs of pressure in a dial-gauge pressure canner.

If you’re using a weighted-gauge canner, process pints for 8 minutes and quarts for 10 minutes at 5 lbs of pressure. 

After your processing time has finished, turn off the heat. In a water bath canner, take the lid off and let the jars sit in the water for 5 minutes before lifting them out, which cuts down on siphoning.

In a pressure canner, let the canner return to zero pressure on its own, then remove the weight or open the petcock, wait 10 minutes, and take off the lid, tilting it away from you, before lifting the jars out. Then place them on a clean dish towel to cool at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours.

Check the seals, label, and store.

Home canned applesauce will be good to eat so long as the jars are sealed, but quality is best within the first 12 to 18 months.  Refrigerate after opening.

Applesauce Canning Altitude Adjustments

These processing times are for water bath canning, and they go up at higher elevations.

• 0 to 1,000 feet: 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts
• 1,001 to 3,000 feet: 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts
• 3,001 to 6,000 feet: 20 minutes for pints and 30 minutes for quarts
• Above 6,000 feet: 25 minutes for pints and 35 minutes for quarts

Some people prefer pressure canning applesauce, even though it’s not required, and a water bath canner works fine.  Pressure canning is a bit quicker, and releases less steam into the room, so it’s a matter of personal preference.

If pressure canning applesauce, the canning times are always the same, but the pressure increases with altitude.  Pressure canning times are always 8 minutes for pints, and 10 minutes for quarts.  Pressures are as follows:

For dial gauge pressure canners:

• 0 to 2,000 feet: 6 lbs pressure
• 2,001 to 4,000 feet: 7 lbs pressure
• 4,001 to 6,000 feet: 8 lbs pressure
• 6,001 to 8,000 feet: 9 lbs pressure

For weighted gauge pressure canners:

• 0 to 1,000 feet: 5 lbs pressure
• Above 1,000 feet: 10 lbs pressure

Applesauce Variations

You can use plain applesauce in almost anything, but you can also add just about any spice you like.  Cinnamon is the most common, but vanilla and brandy are lovely too.

You can also flavor the sauce with any canning-safe acidic fruit.  Blueberry applesauce and cranberry applesauce are two good combinations.

This same process also works for making pear sauce, or a combination pear apple sauce with both fruits.

Making applesauce is the first step to making a slow cooked batch of traditional apple butter, so you can also keep cooking it into a rich spread if you’d like.

Serving Applesauce

Canned applesauce can be enjoyed either cold or warm. You can enjoy it as is or add some additional ingredients to create a custom flavor. For a classic apple pie taste, try adding a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg. If you want to make your applesauce a bit more savory, try adding a pinch of salt or some chopped fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary.  I like to add these at serving.

As for what to serve with applesauce, there are plenty of options. It’s a classic side dish for pork chops or roast pork, but it also pairs well with chicken, turkey, and even fish. You can also use applesauce as a topping for oatmeal or pancakes, stir it into yogurt, or simply enjoy it on its own as a tasty snack.

Apple Canning Recipes

Cranberry Apple Jam

Apple Jam

Canning Apple Cider

Apple Blossom Jelly (Or Cherry, Peach, Pear, etc.)

Autumn Canning Recipes

Keep your canner going this fall with these seasonal canning recipes:

• Pear Butter
• Pear Sauce
• Pickled Green Tomatoes
• Canning Pumpkin
• Canning Sweet Potatoes
• Caramelized Onion Jam
• Butternut Squash Soup Base