Apple Cider - homemade

[signseeker]

Anyone can homemade apple cider? I'd like a recipe. Or apple juice would be alright, too. What's the diff, anyway? Cider is like, thicker... and makes you go WHOO! sometimes... Anyway, I'm going to have lots of apples, I think. I have 7 qts. of apple pie filling in the canner right now. :l0 (58):

[prairiemom]

Anyway, I'm going to have lots of apples, I think. I have 7 qts. of apple pie filling in the canner right now

Very cool! I think apples are the most versatile fruit and therefore should be a staple.

We used to make cider every year. It's made from chopping the apple to bits and pressing the juice out, so it's pulpier than juice. Juice is heat extracted--heat up the apples, only use the juice or water that's left over. I don't think juice is as nutritious. I have a juicer (like the one Jack LaLane sells) and juice my apples that way. It's pulpier than juice but not as pulpy as cider.

To can it, bring it to a boil, put it into jars, put lids on and process 10 min. Piece of cake.

Hint: you'll get a sweeter, mellower juice if you use a variety of apples. I use at least 3, sometimes 4-5 varieties. If you only have one variety, perhaps someone will trade you a 5-gal bucket of your apples for theirs?

[signseeker]

Two of my jars didn't seal. :blink: But hey! That means two pies in two weeks! :thumbup:

Okay, so the cider... do you heat up the apples or not at all? Do you peel them? Give me the whole run-down. DH is into cider. Hard cider. Okay, just kidding. How do you control the hardness, anyway? Not that I really care, of course... cuz it's against my religion...

[prairiemom]

No need to peel or core, just chop them up and press out the juice, either using an electric juicer or a cider press. You should let the juice stand one day (in the fridge) and then strain the juice through a fine sieve or cheesecloth. Then bring to a boil and process.

The hardness is part of the fermentation process, just don't let it ferment.

[signseeker]

How do I not let it ferment?

I don't have a cider press but I have a steamer-Juicer. I guess that would give me apple juice...?

[prairiemom]

Just refrigerate it if you can't can it right away.

See, I don't like the steamer juicers--they destroy so much of the nutrition and flavor. For soft fruits I prefer to just puree them in the blender and add to other juice (like apple juice. :l0 (61):) For all other juices I use my juicer. I don't know how well apples would do in a steamer, since they're such a hard fruit. I would just wash and quarter the apples and steam them.

[GAMom]

I Guess this would also work on Pears using the same process ???

[prairiemom]

Yeah, I think that would work.

[Highlandsunrise]

Apple cider is wonderful. The cheapest cider press I see is $159. I have bottled the extra apple juice left over from blanching apples for pie filling. It is good but tastes quite different from cider.

[signseeker]

Whoa, wait. You blanch your apples for pie filling?? :blink: I just made 8 more qts. this morning and I haven't blanched any of them. I process for 30 min..

I'm doing pears in the steamer-juicer right now. I'll let you know how they turn out... although a lot of these pears were not the greatest - that's why I'm not just canning them with syrup. They're small and hard-ish. Going to steam-juice apples after this.

[Earthling]

If anyone wants to buy a steam juicer - let me know. I seem to have inherited several.

[signseeker]

I got mine a couple weeks ago at the DI for $6. :thumbup: The apples are juicing right now. The pears sucked before and I got one quart of sucky juice out of them. (These were the pears that fell early and probably should've been pruned out anyway... We're keeping some bigger ones to ripen, but we probably won't juice those...)