Sauce & Butter

Fruit that cooks down smooth and flavorful for applesauce, apple butter, pear butter and plum butter. Everything here scored 6 or higher out of 10 for sauce.

More about fruit for sauce and butter

Gravenstein apple and Montmorency tart cherry share the top sauce score at 9 out of 10. Gravenstein took -45°F in Bozeman without much injury and is rated to zone 2b, but it's a triploid, so plant two other apples near it. For pear butter, Bartlett scored 8, and for plum butter, Italian plum scored 8. Both are partially self-fertile and rated to zone 3b.

Plant a few sauce apples and you can keep the pot going from August into winter. Lodi is ripe by mid August, Wealthy and Gravenstein in early September, and Wolf River, which makes great apple butter, in mid September. Thunderbolt scored 8 for sauce and 9 for winter storage, so it'll wait till you're ready. The ripening maps show the rest.

In the coldest spots, Wealthy and Centennial applecrab scored 8 and are rated to zone 2, Wolf River is rated to zone 2 too, and Lodi to zone 2b. All apples need a pollenizer, so check the pollination maps. If you'd rather skip that, rhubarb, Romeo dwarf cherry and Titania black currant scored 8 and don't need a partner. Romeo is rated to zone 2.

Questions we get

What apple is good for applesauce?

Gravenstein scored 9 out of 10 for sauce and butter, our top apple for it. Lodi, Wealthy, Wolf River, Fred's Mac, Paula Red, Spokane Beauty and Thunderbolt scored 8.

What apples are good for apple butter?

Wolf River grows some of the biggest apples we've seen in Montana and makes great apple butter. It scored 8 for sauce and butter and is rated to zone 2.