The apple pie filling fiasco

Just after lunch yesterday, I decided to continue with apples, but I shifted my focus to try canning some apple pie filling.  My mom had left me some jars (quart size) and the recipe, so I thought I’d be able to handle it without too much difficulty.  I was wrong.

First, I wasn’t sure how many apple slices it would take, so I called my mom (we talked for 20-30 minutes…not just about apples, of course!).  Then I mixed up the sugar/water solution and got it heating through while I talked on the phone and sliced more apples.  After the water/sugar solution boils, you are supposed to add corn starch.

I hate corn starch.

I understand that corn starch is a natural and (sometimes) effective thickening agent, but I have nothing but trouble with the stuff.  By the time it was time to add the corn starch, I had hung up with my mom.  This was a problem. I mixed the corn starch with a bit of water so make a slurry and poured it into the sugar water.  I ended up with sheets of gelatin floating in my water, but not much thickening.  So I called my mom back.  It turns out that I needed to stir the slurry into the sugar water as if I was making gravy.  Oops.  So I fished out all the gelatin, and tried to mix up another, smaller batch of slurry.  It turned into a rock hard block of corn starch.  (Now I was getting annoyed.)  I tried again, managed to spill corn starch all down the front of myself, but finally got a decent slurry by adding more water until the rock-hard corn starch turned liquid.  Then I tempered the slurry into a small amount of the sugar water and then used that portion to thicken the whole.  It worked much better. Whew.

Now I had to wash the jars, though, so they would be ready when the thickening sugar water was ready.  I went to get the quart jars from the bag, picked up the first two, and realized that I don’t have lids for that size of jar.  Grrr!  So I grabbed pint jars instead and started to wash them, and I managed to slosh water all down the front of myself.  ARGGGHHH!

So, finally, the jars were ready, the slurry was ready (hot corn starch really smells, BTW), and the apples were ready.  I started filling them, burned my hands slightly on the hot lids, and finally got a canner full of apple slices boiling on the stove.  They all sealed and not one boiled over.  But by the time I was done with one canner full of apple pie filling…I was done.  I cleaned up myself, cleaned up my kitchen and went and did other things for the rest of the day. 

I may never make apple pie filling again…until next year anyway!