Apple sauce!

What has become of Food in our America? Why did we turn her into an industry? An entertainment?
I want a safe stool in a warm kitchen where the simple joy of your company might be rewarded with a bowl to finger lick or roasting pan to scrape with a spoon. Holy, Holy, forever and ever.
Folks, parents and children, generations united singing the song of frying onions and peas in a pod.
I reject the ads that encourage us to gluttony and I condemn the notion that cooking is a competition for make-believe baby shark people.
Dinner parties, picnics, holidays [Holy Day], a kitchen table that hums with delight and the people you love a “pass the salt” away.
It ain’t a summit with a restaurant on top, which, if you made the climb, you would discover unaffordable. It is a soft green valley and all are welcome and the only invitation required is the smell of cinnamon and apples that can lift entranced children and chained souls from the couch of blue glow.
This is not a chore. I made this because I love you. Help me do this and we will sit down together and then Grace can be heard unspoken.
Let’s begin.
Apple sauce. Why apple sauce? Because you can feed apple sauce to a baby when they begin to eat food food. Because my Dad liked apple sauce for dessert. Because apples occupy an enormous place in our collective mythologies, and, as luck would have it, in our groceries.
As I encourage and want you to cook, I need, must and will stop to discuss the hardware. 3 things come to the fore at this juncture; 1- a peeler, 2 - a pot, 3- a Foley mill.
Old fashion metal peelers arranged like a knife with a swiveling blade are fine. Modern ergonomic peelers with fancy handles and a blade mounted perpendicular to the handle are also fine. The way to peel an apple is thus; first you make 2 single circular peels at both ends of the patient - as if you were removing both the north and south poles [ a metaphor to dwell on], then, 8 or 10 vertical passes from pole to pole will finish the job. Have a bowl of cold water on hand to drop your peeled apples into. If just left on the counter they will begin to blacken with exposure to air. Bananas and Avocados for instance do this too. If you like a pink apple sauce, you can skip the peeling, though wash your apples well.
Your pot, for the sake of this conversation, has 3 issues; size, material and the thickness of the bottom. If your pot seems too small and wont fit all the apples on hand, it might be alright since the cooked apple breaks down to a fraction of its raw volume. I don’t like aluminum unless it’s a very expensive [which I also don’t like] treated aluminum. I like stainless steel. Pyrex is good too. I read somewhere that they find aluminum in the autopsied brains of Alzheimer victims. Not good. Stainless and Pyrex are referred to as “non-reactive”, having no chemical exchange with what is being cooked in them. This is a really big deal when making tomato sauce[ another day]. If you are boiling water for pasta then a thin bottom pot is okay but for sauces and or soups, you want a thick bottom. If you ping the bottom with your finger nail and it will make a sound that reveals the thickness of the bottom. If you are hesitant to buy this thing, know that it will last, roughly, the rest of your life, and then some. You will also find that you don’t burn things so easily in a proper thick bottom pot.
There are so many kinds of apples and they all can render excellent apple sauce with the exception of those lil’ Lady apples which would require much too much peeling or, a cadre of elves [with little elf peelers] more suited to the job. You can get those 5 lb. bags of apples at a very good price and they work fine or, buy what’s on sale.
Foley mill, I almost forgot. It is a strainer with an attached circular rotating blade. It’s kind of antique but very useful and you don’t plug it in. I’m sure Robin and Howard at Bowery Kitchen in Chelsea Market have a good 2 candidates.
Let’s cook!
Your apples are peeled ( or not ) and waiting. If you have a Foley mill you can just go straight to the pot because the mill will remove the seeds and cores later. If you don’t have the mill, then you will have to cut away the meat of the apple, away from the cores. The lost bits of apple meat on the core can be accessed with your or some one else’s teeth.
Low flame, really. The apple contains sugar even if you have not added any. When the moisture has evaporated that sugar is going to start to burn and this is what we endeavor to avoid, generally. Apples or pieces in the pot, a cup or so of water [this will ultimately evaporate back out], a shake or 2 of cinnamon, a pinch of salt, a dash of orange juice and an amount of sugar. The amount varies with the application of the sauce. If cooking for a baby, you may want none, or very little, say , a teaspoon for that 5 lb. bag. If your thinking about a condiment for pork chops, a ½ cup might be the ticket. White or brown? The difference is molasses, the processed white having none. The brown sugar will impart it’s flavor however, depending on the amount, it might effect your color. You decide. Tasting is a part of cooking. Know that a hot sweet substance will be sweeter when cooled so temper your mid-cook evaluation. When, after some intermittent stirring, your apples are all broken down and saucy, maybe, a ½ hour or so, that’s it. If you have that mill thing, this is when you would use it to get the seeds and or skins out, subsequently producing a lump-less sauce. Me, I like lumps.
You did it! This is a simple foundational recipe upon which you can elaborate to suit your purpose or taste. There is no right or wrong to speak of.
Once cooled, you can freeze it in divided practical amounts.
No fats, no chemicals. Quiet time and union. Cook like a wish, eat like a prayer.