More Liz U-Pick adventures. This time, for apples.
Haunted by childhood memories of picking up rotten wasp-covered apples, Liz has adamantly resisted “branching” our gardening interests into orchards. So instead, we visit commercial operations for fruit. Fine, I’m game. More character-building for the kid.
She whined appropriately.
But I’m always up for a canning operation myself. Each year Liz makes applesauce, and while tasty, it’s hard to mix with bourbon. I wanted to try my hand at juice. A quick internet search revealed reliable extension-office guidance on safe canning (apple juice is oddly omitted from the usual booklets).
I quickly discovered why small farming operations stick to cider: pulp.
So here’s the method:
- Run apples through juicer.
- Refrigerate resultant slurry overnight.
- Skim off the floating pulp.
- Pass remainder through chinois until nothing else filters out (4-5 passes).
- Bring juice to boil.
- As the juice heats up, more pulp will coagulate and float up. Skim this as it appears with a fine skimmer spoon.
- Once boiling, ladle juice through cheesecloth-lined funnel into jars and process according to current standards (as of the time of this writing, the accepted method is water-bath canning for 10 minutes).
Was this a pain to do? Absolutely. But, the results were a significant step up from grocery store juice. It actually tasted like apple, not sugar water! (Why must every processed good contain so much sweetener?)
I’ll be adding this to our fall canning ritual. Highly recommended.
–Simon
