Old Fashioned Food Grinding Mill ~ Making Applesauce and Choke Cherry Jelly
By Peggy W
Memories
An old fashioned cone shaped food mill / grinding mill strainer with stand and a wooden pestle given to me by my grandmother when my husband and I moved to Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin from Houston, Texas in the 1970's was put to good use! I made many a pint jar of home canned choke cherry jelly and quart jars were filled after making applesauce and preserving that also by water bath canning methods.
My grandmother had given us her old canning equipment and plenty of old but still useful mason jars that were in her basement.
Another type of vintage food mill was also in my possession ( also a hand-me-down ) but with the stand on this Wearever old fashioned aluminum food mill which nicely placed the cone strainer over bowls which would easily capture the pressed juice and ground pulp of the fruit, this became my favorite choice to use.
Old cone shaped food mill with wooden pestle
food mills
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Apple Sauce Recipe
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin
Already featured in a previous hub was the backyard organic gardening experienced while my husband and I lived in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin many years ago.
That garden was terrific and produced so much nutritious and tasty food not only for the two of us but it was shared with many other people as well.
One of our good neighbors who had several acres of land and their own large garden invited me to split the purchase of several bushels of different types of apples one year. She regularly made applesauce for her family of five and it made me remember the days of my childhood when I grew up eating homemade applesauce.
Those wonderful days of opening the mason jars filled with pink hued and delicious applesauce made from the efforts of my mother came to mind.
Since I had already learned the water bath canning method of preserving home grown tomatoes ( after planting 43 tomato plants that first year in our garden! ) I decided to start making my own applesauce as well.
Homemade applesauce is so much better than the canned or jarred varieties that one typically purchases in grocery stores.
One can adjust the sweetness and any flavorings to one's taste.
Thus my making of homemade applesauce was launched thanks to my neighbor, Char, and also with gratitude to my grandma who had given us her canning and food mill equipment that she no longer intended to use.
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- Homemade Applesauce: Step by Step Guide with Photos
How to make easy, delicious homemade applesauce.
slow cookers
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Homemade applesauce recipe
Making homemade applesauce is so very easy!
My neighbor and I used a combination of apples. The same types that are good for pie recipes also make for great use in applesauce.
The video above shows making applesauce in a slow cooker with no water added. The links to the right share several recipes with water added and the apples and other ingredients being cooked in kettles. That is the method I used.
The only caveat I would suggest is to taste the applesauce first before automatically adding sugar and add any sugar gradually because it all depends upon the sweetness of the apples one is using as to how much sugar is needed to make it palatable.
For diabetics, sugar substitutes could be utilized...and again...do this "to taste."
Water bath canning method
This video below explains how to accomplish this beautifully!
Tips for Water-Bath Canning for Dummies
For those who wish to see another person make and preserve applesauce from start to finish, the video below is for you...
Making and Canning Applesauce
Picking choke cherries
How to Make Jelly and Jam
Chokecherries
On our half acre lot in Wisconsin Rapids were a couple of choke cherry trees in our front yard and one in the backyard.
Those ripened chokecherries that turned from red to black as they matured attracted many birds who happily fed on them.
They also made some great tasting jelly!
Once I learned that the chokecherries were edible and also high in antioxidants, I put my grandmother's grinding mill to further use.
For those who may not be familiar with the choke cherry, it is related to regular cherries that grow much larger but the taste is somewhere between a concord grape and black cherry flavor if I were to describe it once made into jelly.
The large seed in the center takes up most of the room with the flesh of the chokecherry being minimal in comparison. The pea sized chokecherries grow in clusters.
After picking the berries, washing them and cooking them in a kettle of water, they were put through my grandmother's old fashioned cone shaped food mill.
A huge amount of seeds and skins were collected in the food mill grinder as that rich dark juice was gathered in the bowl under the mill grinder.
Chokecherries are less tart when fully ripened, but they do take quite a bit of sugar to make a good jelly out of them.
Several links are provided for exact recipes if you are fortunate enough to be able to pick your own wild chokecherries and wish to make jelly.
We actually moved several jars of my homemade chokecherry jelly back to Houston when my husband took on a new job assignment and were able to share them with our family members in Texas.
Making Choke Cherry Jelly Part 1
How to Can Jam and Jelly
For those who do not have access to chokecherries or do not wish to make jelly and jam...here are some that can be purchased!
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Old fashioned food grinding mill
For those who have already read about my husband's and my home in Wisconsin Rapids and our backyard organic gardening adventures, this hub about the old fashioned grinding mill given to me from my grandmother and my learning how to make my own homemade applesauce and choke cherry jelly simply rounds out some of our delights about living in the country and reaping the goodness coming from Mother Earth. Hope you enjoyed this look back in time. We cherish those memories!
Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin - Have you ever made homemade applesauce or choke cherry jelly?
See results without votingOld fashioned food mill and wooden pestle
Other hubs by Peggy W...
- Gettin' Hitched - Story of a Wedding Journey in 1918
An amusing tale...
- Wisconsin Attraction ~ Photos of Scenic Wisconsin Dells
The scenic stage set by the Wisconsin River winding through beautiful sandstone cliffs and peppered with Indian lore was the original reason to visit the Dells. Expansion now makes this a family centered vacation wonderland for all seasons. - I have Rocks in My Head, OOPS!, I mean Bed!
This hub shows the grandmother who gave me that old fashioned food grinding mill among other things...like rocks!
More Wisconsin hubs...
- Little Norway - A Unique Norwegian Treasure in Wisconsin
- Historic Old World Wisconsin ~ Pictures ~ Stepping Back in Time
- Wisconsin - Airline - Airplane Memories - Champagne Flight on Midstate
- Pictures of Unique Wisconsin Attraction ~ Dickeyville Grotto
- Ice Fishing for Walleye ~ Portable Ice Fishing Shelter ~ Ice Fishing Videos
- Our Wisconsin Rapids Home and Backyard Organic Gardening
- Mitchell Park Garden Domes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- My Mother's Studebaker Car...Tillie was her Name
Comments
Hi Peggy
Anyone can contact me at keenone60@hotmail.com. I live in Edmonton AB Canada.
Thanks for the advice. I just did a search and Lehmans.com have this same food mill made out of stainless steel (mine is aluminum). Given what we now know about aluminum, I am thinking it may be a wise investment in my health to get a stainless steel one. These cone shaped mills are excellent for making jams and jellies. I have never tried to make chokecherry jam but I just might this year.
Love your hub page. So helpful.
Hi Jo,
My suggestion would be to put in a search and check places like Ebay, garage sales and thrift shops every so often to see if one becomes available for sale. Spread the word and ask your friends/family to also keep it in mind if they are looking in similar places. Good luck and hope that you find that wooden pestle. Homemade jams and jellies always taste better! :)
If there is someway to reach you, you might wish to leave contact information in case anyone reading this can point you in the right direction as to locating what you are seeking.
I was so excited when I came across your hub page and saw a picture of your old fashioned food mill with the wooden pestle. I have the exact same one that I got from my mother, however, somewhere along the line of various moves I have lost the wooden pestle. Does anyone know where I might be able to find a replacement? I have been making my own jams and jellies for many years and yes, they are a lot more work but the superiority of the taste cannot be matched!
Hello tlpoague,
We were able to move several pints of the chokecherry jelly back to Houston with us when we were transferred from Wisconsin and the taste is now a long ago memory. Like you, we do not have any chokecherry trees down here. The jelly had a wonderful rich color as well as flavor. Thanks for your comment.
I haven't made chokecherry jelly in ages. It is delicious though. When I was first taught how to make the jelly. We were told to make sure and remove every leaf and stick from the mix before boiling the cherries. This was common sense, but I found out later on that the leaves of a chokecherry are poisonous. Where I live now, we don't have any, but I will never forget that year we made chokecherry apple jam. Thanks for sharing this wonderful hub! It brings back memories!
Hello yogiwan,
I agree with you. It makes me think of my grandmother and the days of long ago each time I see and handle this old food mill that belonged to her. Like you, I have other old kitchen tools that my mother used for years and each time I see or touch them it makes for good memories. Glad that you liked this and thanks for your comment.
Nothing really beats old-fashioned. I still have some of my folks' kitchen tools and each time I use any of them, it simply brings me back to a long ago setting. Great hub!
Hi KoffeeKlatch Gals,
I agree with you and have kept some old cooking equipment dating back to my grandmother's days. Hope you get to taste choke cherry jelly someday. Thanks for your complementary comment. :-)
Peggy, I love the way you entertwine memories and cooking. It's a very powerful combination. I find the old, hand me down kitchen tools are often much better than the new ones. I hve never had choke cherry jam but hope to someday.
Hello Specialk3749,
This type of old fashioned grinding mill does work great for a number of things. You are lucky if you live where there are choke cherries. It makes a delicious jelly! Thanks for the comment.
I have one of these old fashion mills and it works great with concord grapes. It gets out all the seeds and skins so that you can make jelly and juice.
Thanks for the recipes! I am definately going to try the chokecherrie!
Hi Gus,
Yes, the applesauce is definitely pink in color when using an old fashioned grinding mill such as my grandmothers because, as you say, the skins, seeds and such are left behind in the cone...but there is more nutrition coming from using the skins. I've often wondered why the applesauce one buys commercially is yellow. Obviously the skins are eliminated prior to processing.
Also, as you mentioned, sugar is only utilized if needed. Glad you liked this hub and that it brought back memories for you..."toenails" and all. Haha!
Howdy Peggy - Way back in the early 1950s I had the experience of "making" applesauce using one of those "old-fashioned" grinding mills with its wooden pestle. We cooked the hunks of apples, skin, seeds, "toenails" and all, in a waterless cooking pot. Then the whole mess was dumped into the mill and the pestle went around and around. Left behind in the mill were the seeds, the "toenails" and some of the skins, but the rest went through the mill. Did not use any sugar, for the stuff was plenty sweet enough - and it was sort of pink color from the red in the skins. Had not seen one of these for years. Thanks, Peggy.
Gus :-)))
Hello Sally's Trove,
I also had one of those old Foley food mills. Love hummus!
Since we have not had a large garden ever since leaving Wisconsin Rapids, I have not had the occasion to do any canning. Now we simply use our freezer to preserve foods made in large amounts like homemade soups, etc. Thanks for the comment.
Hi Hello, hello,
Guess we both appreciate old fashioned things. I too can just look in the mirror! Haha! Thanks for commenting on this hub about my grandmother's old food grinding mill and making applesauce and choke cherry jelly. Are you familiar with chokecherries where you live?
Hi Micky,
Yes, there is something about these old fashioned kitchen tools like this grinding mill of my grandmothers that resurrect memories of past days and the people who would have used them. That old wooden pestle is stained with years of use...applesauce, choke cherries and who knows what else? Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Hello Eiddwen,
Glad that you liked this hub about using my grandmother's old fashioned grinding mill when I used to make my choke cherry jelly and homemade applesauce. Thanks for the comment.
Hello gr82bme,
Using up the homemade applesauce never seemed to be a problem! :-) Thanks for the comment.
I haven't canned in a long time, so this was a great "refresher" for me.
I love the old tools, too, and my favorite is an old Foley food mill, which I just used the other day to make hummus.
Thanks, Peggy!
I love all old things - including myself lol - and therefore I enjoyed this hub so much. Thank you for the pleasure
Very beautiful hub as always Peggy. I love the old tools, especially kitchen tools. Thank you for putting this together. God bless you dear.
Hi Peggy,
Great hub and thanks for sharing.
Take care,
Eiddwen.
Home made apple sauce is great, but you have to use it right up when you open it. It will go bad fast. Home made does not seem to last as long in the fridge after opening it as the store bought.
Great hub
Hey Cheryl,
I'm not THAT old! Haha! I still have the old fashioned ginding mill from my grandmother. Can't make choke cherry jelly anymore since there are no choke cherry trees available down here but I could still make applesauce. If made in small amounts...no need to can or preserve it...just eat and enjoy! Thanks for the comment. :-)
WOW. This is a very rare piece of history. A very fascinating hub and video on the preparation of choke cherry jelly and applesauce. I would love to taste the applesauce and jelly. Great photos of the old fashioned grinding mill.
Hi Tony,
Glad that you found this hub about old fashioned grinding mills and making things like applesauce and choke cherry jelly fun to read. Thanks for the comment.
Hi dahoglund,
If your parents or grandparents ever made their own applesauce or jelly they probably had one or more old fashioned food mills. I also had the cranking style of one.
It would seem that your son has lived both the country and city life such as we have. While we still have a lawn, at least we do not have to worry about snow removal! :)))
Thanks for your comment.
Hi Billy,
Actually one would still need some type of a grinding mill to separate the skin and seeds from apples, chokecherries or other types of fruit instead of just using a Cuisinart. Old fashioned or new...food mills still have their place. Thanks for the first comment.
I love this Hub - thank you! The stories and the cooking are woven so neatly together and are such fun to read.
Love and peace
Tony
I'm sure that somewhere along the line we have had food mills without ever knowing what they are.I like jellie but have to go easy on them because of diabetes.
Interesting sidelight on country living.My son had an old house converted into a duplex which he bought from his cousin when he was 18. Property values in that area of Minneapolis rose and he sold it at a health profit about twelve years later.
He wanted to start his own business and moved to a neighborhood by Lake Dubay and they started a store selling top line second hand clothes while he was trying to start a computer business. The house was on a large lot, had 5 bedrooms(they have 4Kids)and has a lot of Norwegian Pines.Well the economy tanked and he got hsi old job back in the Twin cities and moved to Hudson in a rented townhouse.
The point is that he went from urban living, to country living and is now a suburbanite and glad to be away from the expenses and chores of snow removal, lawn upkeep etc.
very interesting read on grinding mills - makes you appreciate the Cuisinart - that applesauce recipe looks ideal for pork chops right now :)
Peggy W 8 months ago
Hi again Jo,
Like yours, the food mill from my grandmother is also aluminum. That one you located at Lehmans.com looks good. It would take a while to get the wooden pestle seasoned with years of use and lots of jam and jelly making...but it would happen over time.
The chokecherries are practically all seed and skin (as you probably know) but they really do make a great flavored jelly. Let me know how you like it if you decide to make some. I did not blend mine with apple or other fruit, so it was the pure sweetened flavor. It also has a beautiful rich color.
Thanks again for your comment. Who knows...maybe someone will contact you and you will have that already seasoned pestle! :))