Apple Butter/Apple Cheese - Testing

Food in England, Dorothy Hartley, p 418
http://lamouffetterustique.blogspot.com/2016/12/apple-butter.html

1 - Jam making is my bugbear! I tried to get it to get even just to the soft ball stage, and it was boiling so hard it kept splashing onto me and for a large area all around. Hot! It may be that I reduced the the apple mash too much by cooking it in the slow cooker. So the resulting mash was very gloppy, more so than if it was just apple sauce. I also reduced the amount of sugar by 1/4, hoping that it would jam enough, but since I wasn't able to get it up to temperature, I can't use this batch to determine if it works or not. Argh.

2 - Ok, I think I've got it. I can use a candy thermometer. For the gelling stage, it's 220F, for the soft ball stage it's 235-245F.

Apples (as many as you have on hand)
1lb sugar x pint of pulp
1 clove x 4 pints of pulp
Step 1

As many apples as you have

1. Wash apples and cut through the middle by laying it on its side to reveal the star inside.
2. Pop the cut apples in a large pot (stock pot or preserving pan) and add a little water or apple cider. Cook over low heat until the apples are a soft mush.
3. Press the mush through a coarse sieve or food mill until all that's left are the skins, the tough bits of the core and pips (it's good if some pips burst and the white insides go into the pulp - it shows that the mush has been cooked enough).
4. Measure the pulp and continue to the next step.

Step 2

For every kg of Apple mush

1 kg 750 gr of sugar 

1 clove per ? (4 pints of pulp)

1. Put the apple mush in a large pot, so that only half the pot is filled.
2. Heat over low heat, and stir in the sugar. Continue stirring until the sugar dissolves and boil until the mixture stiffens and coats the back of a spoon. 
1. For apple butter, cook until, on a candy thermometer it will be the soft ball stage.
2. For apple cheese, on a candy thermometer it will be at the hard ball stage.
3. Pack into sterilized jars and process in a water bath for 20 minutes. The flavour will improve with age.
4. Serving suggestions in the original text, below. 

"In its stiffest form this was sometimes called apple cheese. Then it was almost candied, and turned out as a dessert dish, at Christmas, apple cheese was set at one end of the table, amber golden, and garnished with hazel nuts and whipped cream, and Damson cheese, ruby dark, garnished with white almonds, and with port wine poured over, at the other end of the table. It was made in all country houses at windfall apple time. The best was made of all one type of apple, but mixed apples, of all sorts, with a quince or two, made a delectable apple butter.

"Take all the windfall apples, wash them, but do not peel or core, and cut them across the core so as to cut through the pips - this is important for the flavour. Put into a deep preserving pan, start with a cup of cider or water, and cook slowly, covered closely, till all are a soft mush. Now press it through a coarse sieve; if sufficiently cooked, you will see the small white kernels of the pips going through the sieve with the apple pulp; nothing should be left in the sieve but the peels, and empty cores, and pips. Measure the pulp and add 1lb of sugar for each pint of pulp, and 1 clove to each 4 pints. Stir sugar into the pulp till dissolved, and cook slowly till clear, then boil till the stiff mixture coats the back of the spoon with golden gum.

"Pot into wide-mouthed jars and tie down. It improves with keeping up to a year. It should turn out firmly, with a very slight crystallising on the crust, but mellow, soft amber juice within."