While processing cranberries for juice one day I got to thinking about the cranberry pulp that was left over in the steam juicer. I never like to be wasteful and dumping all that cranberry pulp in the compost pile felt wasteful. I also had some apples to process that day. Cranberry/apple juice is good so I wondered if cranberry/applesauce would be good too.

I got to work making a small batch just to see — it was good! Really good!

To make cranberry applesauce

First, filling the steamer basket in my steam juicer, I juice the apples and cranberries to get a couple of quarts of cranberry/apple juice. I fill the basket with apples that are washed and quartered and have the seeds removed. (I don’t bother to peel them since I’m going to run them through the food mill.) I add a few cups of cranberries to the apples, then turn the heat up on the steam juicer to get things going.

A word of caution here: The juice coming out of the drain on the juicer is hot! It’s very important to keep the littles out of the kitchen while using the steam juicer.

I drain off a couple of quarts of juice, then I use the apple and cranberry pulp left in the steamer to make the sauce. The pulp gets run through the food mill, put into a large heavy-bottomed pot, sugar added to taste, and the sauce is brought to a boil stirring constantly. I fill pint jars with cranberry/applesauce leaving ½ inch headspace. Then lids and rings are added and the jars are placed in a waterbath canner. I process the pints for 20 minutes at a full boil (adjust time as necessary for your altitude).

After the processing time is up, I remove jars from the canner and let them sit until the next day. I check the seals by pushing on the center of the lids. If a lid pops up and down the jar is not sealed. If any jars have not sealed, they are refrigerated and used within a few days.

If you wanted to do a small batch and didn’t want to get out the steam juicer (or if you don’t have one), simply put the cranberries and apples in a large pot, added a little water to keep them from sticking to the bottom and cook them over medium heat until the apples are soft enough to run through the food mill.