Talk:Apple butter

Editing

I did some reorganization and in the process I removed the following paragraph:

"Since ancient times, prolonged cooking of fruit to reduce its volume has been used as a practical method of preserving fruit, although the development of inexpensive canning and refrigeration technologies in the nineteenth and twentieth century reduced the importance of the traditional approaches. The term used in ancient Greek was siraion. During the centuries of Roman hegemony, writers such as Pliny the Elder, the writer of Apicius and Columella also described the manufacturing process of the product to which they give various names depending on the degree of reduction from that of the original fresh ingredients, which typically was reduced to between a half and a third."

I had to think long and hard before removing this, as it is clearly well-researched and well-written, but the fact is that it doesn't really address the subject of apple butter directly. Perhaps it could be moved to the Food preservation page? 71.43.254.122 (talk) 20:24, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Myth?

Pennsylvania Dutch 7 sweets and 7 sours is a myth, it does not, and has not existed, except for some in the tourist industry :). Stettlerj 18:28, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Even if it is an invention of the tourism industry as you suggest, the heyday of Pennsylvania Dutch tourism was several decades ago, giving it plenty of time to be cemented as a tradition in American culture. That said, I have not been able to locate a definitive list; it seems to be a traditional phrase stating that a meal should consist of seven sweets and seven sours rather than a particular recipe. In this way it is akin to the wedding tradition "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" in that the individual family will fulfill the tradition according to their own definition. 71.43.254.122 (talk) 20:32, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Requested photo

Regarding the photo request, would the {{cc-by-sa-2.0}} image [1] work? The one in the middle is apple butter, right? If so, it could be cropped to just show that one. --Interiot 02:05, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Florida epicenter?

I find it rather difficult to believe that anywhere in Florida is the epicenter of applebutter. I've rarely seen apple butter outside of the Appalachian Mountains. It also very commonly made around here where I live (southwestern Virginia) at festivals in extremely huge cauldrons large enough to stuff a dozen children into, not that I recommend cauldrons be used as such. Every store here sells it in large quantities. I've never seen it for sale in Florida. My uncles who live in Florida have never even heard of it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.254.189.253 (talk) 13:49, 17 April 2007 (UTC).

My Mom and her relatives in Iowa used to make it, especially out of the windfalls. But that was some time ago, and I don't think it was anywhere near the scale which required such a large kettle. In the Midwest you can find it at stores and markets which sell local-made products, as well as count fairs. 63.87.189.17 (talk) 16:15, 26 October 2010 (UTC)

Since moving to central Florida from Pennsylvania Dutch country, my experience is similar to your uncles' - I have not seen locally made apple butter although commercially made apple butter is available in certain grocery stores. However, I am told by friends who live further south that the citrus orchards and strawberry farms south of Tampa produce apple butter, although one would have to speculate that they purchase the apples from elsewhere as it is not a crop widely grown this far south. 71.43.254.122 (talk) 20:36, 2 July 2013 (UTC)

Photos

Added a couple of photos. More available at Commons:Faîs'sie d'Cidre. Man vyi (talk) 17:54, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Good job! Malinaccier Public (talk) 16:33, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Black butter?

Both image captions mention "black butter", but this is explained nowhere in the text. Are the captions wrong, or is there an omission in the text? Siebrand (talk) 12:33, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Nonsense removed

The remarks regarding Tecoma Washington and California and the rarity of apple butter within the US and world are ridiculous and contradicted by other, sourced references within this very article. They don't belong and until a source beyond the personal opinion of someone who has not likely been outside their hometown is given, should remain absent from the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.227.124.24 (talk) 17:50, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

multiple articles with same topic

I've come accross other articles on English Wikipedia that seem to be decribing the same basic recipe here, although there are of course regional variations. Apple butter (which is very focused on the American version) and Fruit butter (which is very short, and Birnenhonig (which is focused on the Swiss version. I think it would be better to create one article that's well rounded and more than a stub, rather than a bunch of very similar foods that don't get more than a few lines. The same basic technique of cooking the fruit until it is very dark and concentrated would be a more solid page, with all the different variations in cooking and fruit type such as appelstroop and Sirop de Liège on that page. I'm going to bring this to the food wikiproject's attention, to get some feedback on how to proceed. I'd be happy to work on this Nihola (talk) 02:12, 7 August 2010 (UTC)