Apple Butter Battle
We spent this past weekend attending a family reunion in Missouri. There were lots of lowlights from the trip including (but not limited to), Ella’s diarrhea, Ella’s vomiting, cockroaches in the bathroom of our cabin, and a verrrrrry cranky and sleep deprived Carson.
Despite the lowlights, though, there were also many highlights. One of these highlights was the acquisition of some homemade apple butter.
I LOVE apple butter! LOVE!
Imagine my disappointment when we got home and discovered that the lid of the jar of my beloved apple butter had “popped.” (You know those home canning jars with the ring and the lid…well, it wasn’t sucked down, it was popped.)
Trying to head off certain botulism poisoning, I sadly decided the apple butter would have to be tossed in the trash.
Tate WHOLEHEARTEDLY disagreed. “NO, no, no, no, no. We are NOT throwing it away. Let’s smell it,” he said, trying to convince me that this not-properly-sealed apple butter was fine for human consumption.
I have NO IDEA if botulism or any other death-inducing food disease even has an odor, so smelling it wasn’t going to change my mind. I stood firmly behind my decision to throw out the apple butter.
Tate STILL disagreed. “See? It tastes fine!” he said after dipping his finger in the diseased apple butter. “I bet it was made just a few days ago, we’re keeping it!”
“Fine, Tate. Keep it. I don’t care if it was made this morning, I won’t eat it! And! I don’t want the kids to eat it either, because it will make them SICK.”
Very often, Tate and I disagree about food safety issues. He has no problem (barely) reheating food that has been in the fridge for DAYS. I won’t touch leftovers after about two or three days. If food has been sitting out for too long, I won’t eat it, but Tate would probably eat potato salad that had been sunbathing for three hours. He regularly gets annoyed by my “overzealous” and “ridiculous” attempts to keep my family free of food-borne diseases.
What do you think? Should we keep the apple butter or throw it away?
(PS, I’m merely curious as to what you think. Unless you have a Ph.D in Food Safety, you probably aren’t going to change my mind.)
















