Fruit butter (appliance routes)

A spread cooked down from fruit

Fruit butter is a smooth spread made by cooking fruit pulp until most of its water has gone. Oregon State's extension bulletin calls it an old-fashioned spread with less sugar than jams and jellies, and its basic method is to cook fruit until tender, press it through a food mill, cone strainer or sieve, and then cook the pulp with sugar and spices.

The bulletin also says butters should be cooked in small batches. A thin pan scorches, and microwave batches boil over in small containers, so the routes below stir often and keep to the printed quantities.

Three appliance routes

Route A is a slow cooker. The N.C. Cooperative Extension recipe in Lenoir County cooks apples, brown sugar, honey, cider and spices on low for ten hours with the lid on, purées the result with an immersion blender, and then cooks it uncovered on high for about an hour and a half. The printed batch makes 4 cups, and the extension says the butter can be covered and chilled for up to a week. Oregon State gives a separate slow-cooker method for pulp: low for eight to ten hours with the lid ajar so moisture can evaporate, stirred occasionally.

Route B is a microwave. The Oregon State recipe cooks 8 quartered apples with a cup of cider, covered, for 8 to 10 minutes on high, presses the soft apples through a food mill or sieve, and then microwaves the purée with sugar and spices, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring often. The bulletin advises reducing power by half in high-wattage ovens and covering the dish with a paper towel to limit spatter. Times vary between microwaves, so the stated times are the starting point.

Route C is an electric pressure multicooker. The Instant Pot recipe pressure-cooks diced Gala apples with brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, salt and water for 20 minutes at High, releases the pressure, and then uses the Sauté setting for 20 minutes with the venting valve open, stirring every 5 minutes. The recipe gives a printed yield of 80 servings. It is a manufacturer's recipe and carries no process-validation claim.

Knowing when it is done

No source gives a food temperature for any appliance route, so the end point is a test rather than a reading. Oregon State's doneness tests are the spoon test, in which the butter rounds slightly and has a sheen; the steam test, in which a spoonful held out of the steam for two minutes stays mounded; and the chilled-plate test, in which a spoonful holds its shape with no rim of liquid around it. The N.C. Cooperative Extension recipe uses the same logic when it says the butter keeps thickening as it cools.

The slow-cooker routes take most of a working day. The Crock-Pot booklet cited for Route A says to fill the slow cooker half to three-quarters full and to cook with the lid on. An uncovered stage on a slow cooker is therefore an instruction beyond the manual's own cooking mode, and the cook should check the manual before running it.

Storage and what the appliances cannot do

The appliance butters are stored in the refrigerator or the freezer. The N.C. Cooperative Extension says the chilled butter keeps for up to a week. Oregon State says butters can be frozen or kept for short periods in the refrigerator, and that butters of Asian pears, figs, pumpkin, melons or mangos have no research-based canning recipe and must be refrigerated for up to four weeks or frozen.

A multicooker is not a canner. The National Center for Home Food Preservation does not support USDA canning processes in electric multicookers, and no process is given for the Instant Pot recipe, which uses the phrase 'can safely'. Shelf-stable jars need the tested stovetop apple butter formulation and its boiling-water canner schedule, which are kept in a separate recipe. The appliance routes here are not canned, and the canning times do not transfer to them.