APPLE PIE FILLING

APPLE PIE FILLING--Lynne Snyder

4 cups sugar
1 cup corn starch
1 Tbs. cinnamon*
1 tsp. nutmeg*
1 tsp. salt
10 cups water
3 Tbs. lemon juice

*more if desired

Peel and slice Golden Delicious apples. Put them in cold water with some salt added to keep the apples from browning.

Mix sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt well, then add
water and lemon juice. Cook until thickened. Fill quart jars half
full. Drain apples well. Fill jar with apples, pressing down to cover with syrup. Do not fill them beyond the neck of the jar. Put on lids; process for 50 minutes. Makes 7 quarts.

I have never once made an apple pie with this and I guess I have made hundreds of quarts of this through the years. We heat it and serve as a side dish with pork or any dinner that needs a little some ting extra.

Caution--if using a steam canner. Do NOT keep the temperature on high the whole time like I did with my first couple of batches this year. The pie filling will boil over, especially if you remove the lid as soon as the time is up. The filling with flow out of the bottles like a volcano and then your jars will not seal. I finally--after two disastrous batches--kept the steam escaping the steam holes at about six inches. When the time was up I removed the steamer from the heat and let it cool for at about ten minutes. Then, because I'm not full of faith, I turned the jars upside down. They all sealed this way.

If you have one of these your job will be much easier.