# Apples and more apples!



## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

This year our apple trees didn't freeze out after they bloomed, so we got a crop! yay!

Right now I'm working with the first green windfall apples off our three trees, they are pretty green, tart and beat up... but!

1 steam juicer + 8 qts of cut up apples = 3 qts thick cider and 5 pts apple butter. 

I'm happy, I filled the steam juicer again today. This year I intend to use my juice to make "Apple Crap", our name for home made kitchen hard cider. Should be fun, usually I mess it up, but what the heck! I have lots of otherwise useless apples. 

Friday we'll get a fermentation bucket, some white wine yeast and probably a gallon jug or two for the finish fermentation. Wish me luck!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Do you have to add water to the steam juicer? Do you peel and core the apples,so the pulp is ready to make into butter. I also have to figure out what to do with all these apples on our trees. There is just the 2 of us and I have enough pie makens,spicey apples,butter....Good Luck with The Wine!


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## PrincessFerf (Apr 25, 2008)

Our tree gave a MASSIVE amount of apples this year. There were so many blossoms on the tree this spring and we had a bee pollination FESTIVAL goin' on for days. (I even took pictures... it was as if this tree was humming there were so many bees working)

Fast forward to fall, we have so many apples its crazy. I canned 16 quarts of apple sauce, 6 quarts of apple butter and LOTS of pre-made apple pies (I make the entire pie, double wrap them and freeze).

Even our chickens have been eating apples like there's no tomorrow.

Now we're picking buckets of apples and giving them away to friends. Our neighbor rakes up what falls on the ground to use at his deer stands. I've been bringing apples to work everyday and having co-workers take them to make their own pies and sauce. 

I hate so see such a bounty go to waste, so as long as people are using them its all good.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

The steam juicer is a very clever device, it has three main parts. There is a reservoir on the bottom that holds water and boils (almost like a double boiler). There is a middle section that has a drain at the bottom and a raised middle with holes in the top. The top section holds the fruit and is more like a colander that allows the juice to fall into the middle, where it drains out into a tube. The whole thing heats up, when the heat gets to the fruit, it cooks it and releases the juice. The released juice steams into the fruit, releasing more juice. It seems very efficient. 

I don't peel the apples, because the fruit is separate from the juice collection, I do core them, because I'm not sure if the cores would affect the flavor. When I am done getting juice, the pulp looked so good and thick, I ran it through a Foley food mill to get the peels and any other solids out and put it on low in my crockpot with spices and sugar (to taste, each batch of apples is different) until it was heated through. It's already cooked and reduced, so just heating it would have been fine, but its really easy to burn. 

Here's a link about steam juicers (I'd recommend getting a stainless one, not aluminum. I got mine used on Ebay.)

http://blog.eckraus.com/blog/wine-making-tricks-and-tips/how-does-a-steam-juicer-work

For a how-to with the Foley food mill, try this interesting link:

http://fantes.com/manuals/foley-food-mill-75-ways-to-use.pdf

Note you do get cooked juices from the steam juicer, great for wines, canning, syrups and jellies. Sometimes you can use the residue in the juicer for something else, sometimes there isn't much left of value. It does take several hours to fully extract the juice too. It doesn't take a lot of watching, be sure the container catching the juice doesn't overfill and that it is barely boiling and doesn't run out of water (it takes a long time to do that). I do mash the fruit in the top when it gets pretty well cooked and soft. I used it for fruits like currants, or any small fruits with lots of seeds. I hope this is helpful - I learned about this from a forum and am very glad I got it. I have access to a pretty good variety of small fruits from my yard and my neighbor's and friends and this saves a lot of labor in making jellies and syrups.


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## Canning Girl (Jan 13, 2010)

There is an apple orchard near us where we can pick all we want for free. My MIL and I have filled MANY half gallon jars with dried cinnamon sugar apples. The kids love them as a school snack. So if you get tired of juicing and canning, try drying some.


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Thanks Carol, I have an orchard about 27 trees,diffrent fruit and 2 hazelnuts. They are starting to produce and I need to use it all, I hate things going to waste. I've been makeing quite a bit of wine,but passed up a old press last weekend. Maybe a steem juicer would be a better choice.
CG- I should try the cinnamon sugar apples, I've only done plain ones,bet Dh would like your version.


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## Limon (Aug 25, 2010)

I don't have a steam juicer, but I do something pretty similar. I put some water in the bottom of a large pot, fill with apple chunks, and bring it up to a boil with a lid on the pot. Turn the heat back and let it simmer until the apples are tender. I put a colander over another pot, line it and drain the cooked apples in that. Run the cooked apples through the mill for applesauce or butter, and can the juice. I remove the cores, but I don't bother peeling unless it's an apple that looks like it's going to have a lot of little bruises. 

It's probably not as efficient as the steam canner, but it doesn't require any special equipment. Only drawback is if you add too much water to the bottom of the pan, the juice might need a little cooking to evaporate some of it off.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

I've dried cinnamon sugar apple slices, they're really good. When I get riper apples and not just really green windfalls, I'll start doing that too. How do you do them? What spices do you use? How much and how do you apply the sugar and cinnamon? I experimented with that one year, made a sugar/spice solution with a bit of lemon juice in it (to keep nice color), dipped them in that and dried them. It worked pretty well, but I'm open to new ideas! 

I have a dehydrator and it's a pretty good size, but its still limited as to how much fill fit at a time. Does anyone know what temp I'd need in my oven to dry them? 

Also, any tips on hard cider or wine with my juice? I have a book, but always more to learn!


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

My dehydrator drys fruit at 135 degrees. I'm no help with the wine. I just put fruit in a gallon jar add sugar and let it do it's thing. Lately I've been adding some water. Once it ferments and uses up the sugar, I'll add more and do this a couple of times.Somewhere in there I'll remove the fruit and then let it sit until the sediment settles. DH helps me put it in jars by siphoning it into canning jars. I have also taken cider and fermented it-it came out as nice clear wine. I don't drink any of the wine,just test it for sweetness. Everyone say it'll get ya pretty loopy on 2 glasses.


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## GrannyCarol (Mar 23, 2005)

You don't add any yeast, just let the wild yeast work on it? I could wash a few apples and toss them in for wild yeast.... hmmm... What about keeping the oxygen out to keep it from turning into vinegar?


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

No,I don't add yeast, so I guess it's wild. I cover with cloth to keep the flys out.Knock on wood,I don't even know how to make vinagar!


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## Canning Girl (Jan 13, 2010)

For cinnamon sugar dried apples, I make some cinnamon sugar like I would for toast; just mix as much cinnamon as you like with the sugar. Then I peel/core/slice the apples and soak them in fruit fresh water. I dip just one side in the cinnamon sugar, place them sugar side up on the trays and dry at 125 degrees for about 12 hours. It's like eating a dried apple pie.


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