The Red Flannel Rag

That’s how you stir

The apple butter kittle.”

Courting couples often stirred the kettle at the same time, and if they bumped the

kettle and splashed the butter, they had to kiss each other in front of the crowd. So you

might say that apples served to move romances along toward marriages and ultimately

to the arrival of future apple pickers and apple butter eaters.

If a single woman was stirring and splashed, it was believed she would make a

poor housewife. So the boiling was a time for a woman to advertise her future housewife

talents; or, as in my case, to announce that I would make a poor housewife and avoid

marriage. I always made sure I splashed the apple butter once or twice. When the butter

was finished, it was dipped into crocks while it was very hot. Once it cooled, a crock was

turned upside down. If the butter stayed in the container without dumping out or

dripping, it was “quality” apple butter. Another sign that the apple bu tter was cooked

correctly was when, after being stored in open crocks all winter, it had not acquired a

crust of mold on the top.

Mom is teaching some of my students how to stir a 40-gallon kettle of apple butter.

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