How To make Nier Beurre (Channel Islands Fruit Butter)

2 lb Dessert apples
1 lb Cooking apples
Granulated sugar 2 pt Dry cider
1/2 Orange
1/2 Lemon
Ground cinnamon & allspice Fast boil the cider until reduced by half. Peel, core and slice HALF of each sort of apple; add them to the pan, pushing them well down into the liquid. Half-cover the pan and simmer gently until the fruit is soft. Add the remaining apples, prepared in the same way, together with the juice and zest of the citrus fruits. Half-cover the pan and continue simmering until all the fruit is well reduced, pulpy and tender. Stir occasionally and crush the fruit down into the pan with a potato masher as it cooks. Measure the pulp and process it to a puree if it is at all lumpy. Add sugar at the rate of 10 oz for every pint of apple pulp, and stir in about 1 teaspoon ground allspice. Simmer, stirring frequently, until most of the moisture has been driven off. The readiness of a fruit butter is judged by its consistency, not by set or temperature. It is ready when it is nearly dry - a spoon drawn across the mixture should leave its own impression. Pot in small, clean, warm jars and store in a very cold larder or fridge. Once jar is opened, the contents should be eaten up within 3 or 4 days. Makes enough to fill 4 or 5 small jars. Source: Philippa Davenport in "Country Living" (British), March 1989. Typed for you by Karen Mintzias