The Red Flannel Rag

feeding the pigs, for drying, and for making apple butter and apple brandy. Green or

yellow apples, depending on their shape, shade, flavor, and texture were good for

applesauce, frying and pies, but never good for apple butter. Although, one can now

find a chart in some cookbooks that delineates the uses of apples by their color, the

people of Hopkins Gap had this knowledge handed down to them.

In spite of the seriousness of the apple butter boiling for survival during the

coming months and the numerous chores involved, the gathering of people had

relatively little to do when it wasn’t their turn to stir, so they told stories, gossiped, sang

and otherwise enjoyed themselves.

Courting couples were identified and called up to do some of the stirring. The

couple, one on each side of the seven or eight-foot long stirrer, was carefully instructed

to stir continuously or the apples would stick to the bottom of the kettle and burn. Even

the slightest burn would damage the taste and flavor of the entire thirty or forty gallons

of apple butter. More important, it would bring down the wrath of Grandma Molly who

was not happy if the apple butter burned. Many times I saw her pick up a broom and

without a word, whack a person stirring too slowly. No one argued with her. She was in

charge; as a consequence, I never knew of a burned batch of apple butter.

The most popular stirring technique was to move the paddle twice around the

sides of the kettle and then once through the middle. An ancient rhyme was recited to

remind the stirrers:

“Twic e around the sides,

And once through the middle.

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