Zucchini sauce; mock apple sauce

Okay, so having determined that zucchini makes a sauce with a texture like applesauce, which actually looks like applesauce, and having determined that it would be a versatile ingredient to have on hand, I decided to sauce a bunch of large zucchini. We pressure canned over 20 quarts of it, and we've probably got that much again to can. Yes, it looks just like apple sauce (except maybe a bit greener).

I decided to try something like the ingredients they use to make mock apple pie taste like apple pie to see if I could get it to taste like applesauce. These ingredients for me included brown sugar, citric acid, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Before adding ingredients, the zucchini tested had been in the refrigerator and wasn't in the best condition; it tasted fishy and bitter. I tasted it again after I added each ingredient. It didn't taste much like applesauce until I added the final ingredient (nutmeg). Then, suddenly, it tasted just like applesauce does when you put cinnamon in it. The bitterness and fishiness was gone. Instead of brown sugar, I think people usually just use sugar. Instead of citric acid, what I've read that people use is lemon juice or vinegar—but I figured citric acid would work, and I was right. Malic acid is what apples actually have in abundance, though (you can buy that at nuts.com, too). Anyway, after this, I was so impressed with nutmeg that I wanted to stockpile it, and I started envisioning new ways to use it. [Unfortunately, my first experiment thereafter didn't turn out how I had hoped. I wanted to make a carob beverage that wasn't bitter, without using milk. So, I mixed up the mock apple pie ingredients into a carob drink. It did actually remove the bitterness. However, it tasted something like Theraflu with carob in it. Maybe I should try it without citric acid next time. I prefer carob with milk in it, but I guess the lemony taste of Theraflu is palatable, if not a taste I would crave on a regular basis.]

Anyway, to sauce zucchini, here's what you do:

• Get super huge, super old zucchini with thick skins. Younger zucchini don't work so well, since the skins are harder to get off after they're cooked, and if you peel them first, the baking will still form a sort of skin that you'll have to deal with (which may or may not taste like the inner part when done).

• Bake the whole, unadulterated, zucchini (skin and all) in the oven on 450 for 50 minutes to an hour. You can do several at a time. The more you add, the longer you'll want to bake them.

• Let the zucchini cool a bit (but not too much).

• Cut the zucchini open.

• Take out all the seeds with a spoon (this is pretty easy when they're baked).

• Remove what of the skin you can, and spoon out the zucchini (and its juice, if you can—there will be juice) into a blender.

• Blend up the zucchini. If you didn't let it cool too long, it should be moderately easy (or at least achievable without adding more water). If you let it cool too long, you may have to add water.

Then it's done! Hooray.

Now, you may be wondering what to do with zucchini sauce. Here are some ideas:

• Make mock apple sauce

• Zucchini bread (if you've canned it, you'll take up less freezer space; saucing zucchini is a whole lot easier than shredding it up)

• Curry

• Zucchini takes on other flavors pretty well. You can use it to thicken stuff up and add substance. If your pizza sauce is too watery, add some zucchini sauce to thicken it up.

• Salsa. I hear zucchini (I hadn't heard about sauce specifically) works well for salsa, but I don't know how people usually make it. I'm sure the sauce would work well with my squash ketchup/salsa recipe, though, which is understandably different from what most people do, I imagine.

• Mock applesauce crisp (I guess applesauce crisp is a thing—so you could do mock applesauce crisp, too)

• Use as a substitute for oil (apparently, some people use applesauce like that and zucchini sauce is supposed to work just as well—although I guess not everyone thinks applesauce works for this purpose)

• Soup

• You could probably make a good chowder with it.

Here's my squash ketchup/salsa recipe ingredient list:

• baked squash (a sweet non-bitter winter squash, like Blue Doll F1 or Long Island Cheese Pumpkin is ideal for this recipe)

• plenty of peppers (they can be chile peppers if you want)

• white mushrooms

• onions (no garlic; I love garlic, but no; if you must add garlic because you think everything savory must taste better with garlic, as I once used to think—until I tried it with pumpkin and had an unpleasant experience—cook it separately and mingle it in afterward; do not cook garlic and squash together! You will not be cooking my recipe, and it will taste completely different. Please don't attribute it to me in any way shape or form if you cook the garlic and squash together, although I prefer not to use garlic at all with squash.)

• oregano (I imagine summer savory would be even better, since it goes well with squash and gourds; I haven't tried it in this recipe, yet, though)

• a little vinegar, to a little bit more vinegar

• plenty of salt

• pepper (I think I used pepper, anyway)

• water (if the squash absorbs too much of it, which it probably will—not sure about zucchini sauce there, though)

• cheese (add when it's pretty much done, and melt it in thoroughly)

Despite the fact that melted cheese is an ingredient, the condiment can (and should) certainly be refrigerated and used cold (although you can use it warm, too). It's great with corn chips, spread on already cooked pizza (yes, cold squash ketchup on warm pizza is good), burritos (I've only tried it with those packaged baked frozen burritos you can buy), and such.

So, I can't guarantee what the zucchini sauce will taste like with this recipe, but it's squash. It'll probably work, even if it tastes different.

Here are pictures of the zucchini that I sauced, and the last picture is of the ones we still need to sauce. Well, the sink picture may have a few that haven't been sauced, too. Each picture has unique zucchini (no repeats). They're supposed to be Fordhook zucchini. Some of them in the pictures are not ideal for sauce, due to being too young, but I sauced them anyway. Some are broken due to travel damage (I didn't grow them).