Get Ready for Cider Pressin'!
(Page 5 of 5)
September/October 1976
By Judy White
There are other things to do with cider besides drink it, of course. For instance, you can turn it into vinegar: just [1] replace the lids of one or two jugs with cheesecloth held down by rubber bands, and [2] allow the vessels to sit at room temperature. In a couple of months, you'll have created a year's supply of vinegar to use in salad dressing, cooking, hair rinses, etc.
RELATED CONTENT
If you happen to be driving out in the country on a beautiful fall day, and you pass a roadside sig...
Don't settle for thin, pasteurized, store-bought apple cider. Homemade cider is cheaper and infinit...
Making delicious hard cider is fun and simple, and if you press your own sweet — non-alcoholic — ci...
If you enjoy making jelly but run out of fresh fruit to do so, you can still make homemade jelly by...
Feed Jelly to Your Orioles June/July 2005 Issue # 210 — June/July 2005 In northwest Ohio, spring me...
Apple nectar is also one of nature's best sweeteners. Use it creatively in cooking if you're trying to wean yourself from processed sugar.
Or make cider jelly. It's easy, since the juice extraction step is already done. Follow a standard cookbook recipe for apple jelly, but for cider jelly use a little less cider per box of pectin than the directions call for.
Because natural cider jelly is light in color and very mild in flavor, I often add some elderberry or grape juice to the recipe to give the spread a delightful red hue and a little more "zip". Here's the recipe I use (which has been adjusted for the different amounts of pectin in the two fruits):
Apple Cider-elderberry Jelly
1 box commercial pectin
3 cups apple cider
1 1 /2 cups elderberry juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 pounds sugar
Mix the pectin with the juices in a large pan and heat quickly to a hard boil. Add sugar at once and bring the solution to a full rolling boil. Then boil hard for one minute, remove from heat, skim off foam, pour into glasses, and seal. As with its healthful virtues, apple cider's uses seem almost limitless.
Don't Wait
As I said before, now's the time to prepare for cider pressing. Find a source of apples, locate a mill, and round up some jugs (lids too, if necessary). With a modicum of planning, you should be able — like our family — to put up a year's supply of good-to-the-last-drop apple cider for about 20¢ per gallon ... which is just a little more than a penny per serving.
In these days of sky-high food prices, that's a bargain.
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 | 5 |
