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 concentration of sugar gives apple butter a much longer shelf life as a preserve than applesauce. Apple butter was a popular way of using apples in colonial America, and well into the 19th century. The term "butter" refers to the thick, soft consistency, and apple butter's use as a spread for breads. Typically seasoned with cinnamon, cloves, and other spices, apple butter may be spread on buttered toast, used as a side dish, an ingredient in baked goods, or as a condiment. Apple Butter has also been known to be mixed with vinegar while cooking to provide a small amount of tartness to the usually sweet apple butter. The Pennsylvania Dutch often include apple butter as part of their traditional seven sweets and seven sours dinner table array.

In areas of the American South, the production of apple butter is a family event, due to the large amount of labor necessary to produce apple butter in large quantities. Apple butter is also used on a sandwich to add an interesting flavor, but is not as commonly used as in historical times. Traditionally apple butter was and is prepared in large copper kettles outside. Large paddles are used to stir the apples and family members would take turns stirring.

In Appalachia, apple butter was the only type of fruit preserve normally rendered into fruit leather. image:Beurrée d'nièr beurre black butter on bread.jpg

Apple butter can also refer to a new butter variety that has apple butter swirled in a tub with the margarine to provide a creamy texture and a sweet taste.

External links

• "Stirring Up The Past", WBGU-PBS documentary Grand Rapids (Ohio) Applebutter Festival
• Apple butter preserves recipe
• Apple butter recipe
• A simple Amish apple butter recipe
• Applebutter at the Yankee Peddler