Applesauce (NCHFP)

This is the National Center for Home Food Preservation applesauce process, adapted from USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, AIB 539 (revised 2015), not a house recipe ¹. Fruit identity is Apple. If you change the pack, skip the reheat, or invent a process time, you are no longer on this formula. See Food safety and Canning.

Quantity on that page: an average of 21 pounds per canner load of 7 quarts; 13½ pounds per 9 pints. A bushel (48 pounds) yields 14 to 19 quarts — about 3 pounds per quart ¹. Quality: sweet, juicy, crisp apples; for tart flavor, add 1 to 2 pounds of tart apples to each 3 pounds of sweeter fruit ¹.

1. Wash, peel, and core. If desired, slice into water containing ascorbic acid to prevent browning, as directed on the NCHFP page — do not invent an anti-browning formula ¹.
2. Drain. Put slices in an 8- to 10-quart pot. Add ½ cup water. Heat quickly until tender, stirring so they do not burn (5 to 20 minutes depending on maturity and variety) ¹.
3. Press through a sieve or food mill, or skip pressing for chunk-style sauce. Sauce may be packed without sugar. If desired, add ⅛ cup sugar per quart of sauce; taste and add more if you prefer ¹.
4. Reheat sauce to boiling. Fill jars with hot sauce, leaving ½-inch headspace. Adjust lids and process ¹. Headspace owns the gap.

Process from Table 1, Table 2, or Table 3 on the NCHFP applesauce page (boiling-water, dial-gauge, or weighted-gauge). Hot pack, pints, boiling water, 0–1,000 ft: 15 minutes — and the rest of those tables for quarts and altitude, and for pressure canning. Do not copy the whole altitude table from memory ¹. Elevation is Canning altitude.