Fresh Apple Cider

[naturalgirl]

I had a very intresting conversation with two older ladys today. They told me about how they used to make fresh apple cider from apples in the "olden days" I thought I'd pass the golden idea on to you all:

Apple Cider

-apples
-2 pots
-a little water
-cheese cloth
-clothsline

Peel and core apples. Place quarters into a pot and bring to a boil, adding only enough water so that the apples will not scorch. Cook apples until soft and mushy.Put a colender over top pot #2. Line with cheesecloth. Pour apples and liquid into lined colender, then bring up edges of cheesecloth to form a bag. Tie a string around the top of cheesecloth "bag". Take that and the pot out to the clothsline and hang the bag with the ends of string. Let liquid drain into pan until eather you can't stand to wait any longer , or it isn't dripping any more. Warm up liquid and serve, or put desired spices into liquid before warming it up for and extra treat. Eat reserved applesauce, make it into apple butter, or whatever. Yum!

Note: Even though it is winter as I write this, I can imagine that bugs and flys could very possibly be a problem. My sister made "yogurt cheese" a while back by tying a cheesecloth bag full of yogurt to a refriderater shelf and letting it drain. I think the same thing could be achieved with the tasty treat above. An indoor clothsline might work too...

[SC]

You could hang it from a sturdy dowel. When I make cream cheese, I tie the cheesecloth bag to a wooden spoon and lay the spoon crosswise over the large glass jar (gallon) and place a cloth over that. I can imagine that a strategically placed rod in the garage or a closet would work as well. You can secure cheesecloth over the pot/container to protect it from bugs while allowing the dripping juice to go into the pot.

Come to think of it, you could get a big packing box & cut holes at the top to insert a horizontal dowel rod. Place the pot inside. Hang your bag from the dowel over the pot & cover the box. . .

This is looking interesting 

Thanks for the recipe!

[mommyoftwins]

I posted this in the NT thread, but no replies. Has anyone made the apple cider from Nourishing Traditions?

[DawnsEarlyBirds]

Well, I think the original post is not quite accurate.  As far as I know, apple CIDER would not be made from cooked apples - that would be apple JUICE.  We make apple cider by chopping up fresh apples and pressing out the juice.  Heating it would pasturize it and therefore kill the good stuff in it.

I have made the fermented apple drink in the NT book but never liked it, it always quickly turned into apple cider vinegar.  We have tried several times but are not willing to waster any more good cider on trying.  My husband has had excellent "hard cider" that was made by just letting a jug of fresh cider sit a little too long.  I am not sure you really need to add the salt and whey the NT book calls for.  Any others out there???

[wlwest]

I got a juicer for Christmas, and was wondering, running apples thru a juicer, is that apple cider?  OR apple juice?  I want to pick some apples we have this summer, they are so small, so tedious to peel for applesauce, but would like to make cider and maybe juice to freeze.  Just wondering what is the difference between the two?

wendy