PIG SLOP – A Chunky Apple/Pear Concoction with The Skins Left On For Lazy Cooks To Chew On

 

Bowl Of Pig Slop 

“Skins in apple butter is lazy.  Why anyone would leave the skins in is beyond me.  Do you want it creamy, soft and smooth, or … with chewy skins in it?”   

This was the recent response I found in the comments to a video from a chef, to someone who asked him why he left the skins out of his Maple Crabapple Butter recipe.  To clarify, the chef was actually referring to apple butter and not sauce.  However, having just eaten a bowl of my own chunky apple sauce with the chewy skin left in (which I thought was delicious by the way), I was a bit taken back by his response. 

For this amateur bum of a cook who doesn’t have to impress anyone’s finer tastes, and takes being called lazy a compliment – spending valuable leisure time making fancy apple butter without skins is not something you will find me doing any time soon.  I like some skin in my sauce or chunky apple/pear concoction as I like to call my most recent canning batch.  The validity of my reasons for the fondness for skins may be questionable, but they include: increased fiber and nutritional content; utilizing a perfectly good food (fruit skin) instead of throwing it out; reduced time in preparing the fruit concoction for canning; avoiding having to buy another piece of equipment to take the perfectly fine skins out; exercising my jaw by using my teeth that I still have to chew; and avoid having to slurp my food! 

When I shared a condensed version of this reasoning with the chef, his response to my response was - “Hey you want to leave skins in your apple sauce at your house, go for it. Just don’t come to my house with a bowl of that pig slop!” 

So, I took his suggestion to heart and brewed up another batch of the chunky skin-full concoction and this time combined unskinned chopped up pears to the unpeeled apple pot as well. This was followed by adding some water, and maple syrup and cinnamon to taste.  The pot was heated on low, the contents stirred regularly, then sort of mashed, and the contents ladled into canning jars and then put into the canner for 20 minutes.   My initial taste tests of this experimental food for the un-culinarily trained leaves me to believe I shall enjoy eating and chewing the new batch of food as well.  But as for feeding it to the pigs (or the chef for that matter), rest assured there will be no leftovers for that nonsense. 

Some photos of the chewy chunky slop preparation and canning I did are posted below for those foolish enough to want to try to chew fruit skin while they eat the rest of the fruit as well.  I think the process is pretty self-explanatory, but feel free to ask questions in the comments and I will try and respond promptly and appropriately. 

I am quite sure that if my “Pig Slop” were put to the taste test against the chef’s much more refined “Maple Crab Apple Butter”, my product would indeed end up in the hog trough.  But since I have no plans on getting into a cooking competition with chefs anytime soon, I will keep on making and eating what I consider to be a very fine food for bums like me. 

You can read the chef’s recipe and watch his video here.  Note that I did have the pleasure of sampling the chefs fine cooking at an event recently and there is no doubt he is a master at his trade.  I also bought a copy of his book - THE FORAGER CHEFS BOOK OF FLORA , and found some good ideas and potentially tasteful recipes I might try out as well.  But when it comes to chew, or not to chew – fruit skins, I think I will choose to follow my own recipe, for whatever that is worth. 

Find some finely skinned fruit.

Cut into small pieces.

Put in a pot.  Add water, maple syrup, cinnamon. 

Cook on low and mash until you get sick of smashing.

Ladle into canning jars.

Put jars in canner and bring to a boil.

After 20 minutes of boiling take jars out of canner and admire the jars.

For those not afraid of chewing, eat the contents.  For others foolish enough to follow chef's advice, feed perfectly fine food to pigs, who I believe would greatly appreciate it.  

Some P.S.s on the Pig Slop label.  

Note that the name Pig Slop in no way should be taken as a reflection of the quality of the apples and pears used in the making of my concoction.  The finely skinned fruit was graciously gifted to me by Jim and Brenda whose amazing fruit orchard has expanded my pantries contents to almost overflowing.  I have spent quite a bit of time finding ways to utilize and preserve their generosity to be able to continue to enjoy it in the coming months.  

Other products I have made included delicious dehydrated apples, and turning scraps from the "sauce" production into homebrewed vinegar and kombucha, with the final leftovers going to the feeding of my compost piles and the amazing creatures that hang out in that paradise of soil production.  

I also would like to clarify that use of the Pig Slop name is also not meant to reflect a negative outlook towards the amazing and intelligent hog.  I think we foolish humans could learn much from these creatures when it comes to utilizing our food sources in a more respectful and fruitful manner.  I am quite sure you won't find anywhere near the waste of edible food from the swine that you find in our insane industrialized food system.  And these fine animals have no problem using their God-given teeth to produce a shallow-able slurry to keep them going when their slop is not pre-ground and condensed to a  slurp-able soup-straw sucking consistency.   

And anyone who might be interested is free to stop by my home anytime, if you would like to sample a fine bowl of my Pig Slop, and we can compare recipes, while we chew our cud and maybe listen to Pink Floyd's Animals album, and reflect on the meaning of Pigs On The Wing 2!  

The End.