Applesauce from horse apples

Over the weekend, my sister and I picked horse apples -- a multipurpose apple, very popular in the south, that is good for applesauce, pies, jelly and for drying. I don't know why it is called a horse apple. I always thought it was because people would feed them to their horses.

I can also tell you that deer really, really love these apples. The deer were raiding them on a daily basis. That is one reason we had to pick them this weekend.

These apples are kind of a mix between a Yellow Delicious and a Granny Smith. They are very tart when green, become a little sweeter when ripe and tend to remain firm when other apples fall apart. My mother always used them for her canning and baking, so I am very fond of the flavor.

Horse apples don't have to be peeled, they can be washed, cored and cooked, then pushed through a sieve and the peelings can be separated from the the apple this way. But these seemed pretty knotty and had too many spots so I peeled them and boiled them, drained off all the juice and made applesauce.

It is a little tart and I could add some sugar, but I prefer to leave it unsweetened -- maybe with a little cinnamon. It will go in the refrigerator until I have time to can it. I will then heat it up before putting it into jars for hot water bath canning.

The juice I put aside will be used to make jelly, but I will give more information on that later.