Apple what?

"What is apple butter?" That's a question I get at food fairs more than any other. And then there's "What is the difference between apple butter and applesauce?"

Apple butter is true American pioneer food, once made all over the Northeast as well as the South and Midwest. Because the cooking down on fresh apples into apple butter is so time intensive, it was often a fine excuse to invite the whole neighborhood to get together for a day of tending the fires under copper kettles from dawn till well after dusk and into the evening.

Apples were chopped up by the hundreds and mixed with ground cinnamon, ground cloves, a pinch of salt, and sugar (although sometimes the sweetness of boiled-down apple cider stood in for the real sugar). Often there were three pots going at once. The first pot used to boiled down the cider, a second pot to pre-heat the apples so they would be added hot to the boiled down cider, and a third to boil down additional cider. Apples and cider were added to the primary pot several times during the day.

You could argue that apple butter is applesauce taken to a higher, dare we say, gourmet level. I doubt that the pioneers thought of it as haute cuisine, but the hours spent reducing apples to a buttery consistency and adding just the right amount of spices and seasonings do justify apple butter's unique stature in the pantry as a treat for the taste buds.