Doris and Jilly Cook » apples

Applesauce vs. Applesauce

dorisandjilly — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:55:57 +0000

Last year, you may recall, I made a lot of applesauce. When I had time, I canned it; when I was lazy, I just stuck it in the freezer. Nine months later, we’ve been eating lots of each. The results?

No contest.

The canned applesacue is sooooo much better than the frozen. It has excellent texture, a great taste, and you don’t have to remember to thaw it. The freezer applesauce is…well…gummy. It’s fine to bake with, but I’d only eat it in a pinch. I suppose it’s possible that all of the gummy apples ended up in the freezer batches, but that seems highly unlikely, no?

If you, too, want to can applesauce, you have some choices. The National Center for Home Food Preservation says 15 minutes for pints and 20 minutes for quarts in a boiling water bath. If you’d rather use a pressure cooker, they recommend 8 minutes for pints, 10 minutes for quarts, both at 5 pounds of pressure. When I’ve done this, I’ve always used 10 pounds of pressure for 0 minutes, which seems to work pretty well, too, but note that you do so at your own risk.

Vinegar Update

dorisgoat — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:50:41 +0000

Loyal readers may recall that one of our earliest posts dealt with making your own vinegar. I have been remiss in posting the promised update. As you can see, the gallon jug on the left contains a slightly opaque substance that used to be apple cider. It’s hard to see in the picture, but there’s a thin layer of bacteria about the thickness of a sheet of plastic wrap floating on top of the liquid. This is the mother: a thin layer of bacteria that eat alcohol and produce acetic acid, or vinegar, as a byproduct. It’s starting to smell a lot like vinegar, but the taste test says that it’s not quite there yet. I must confess that tasting it was a leap of faith, but I am happy to report that it tasted actually tasted pretty good—just like a sip of hard apple cider seasoned with some vinegar. Give it another couple of weeks, and we’ll have vinegar.

Now, the jar on the right is a true experiment, inspired by a recent post on Local Kitchen and another blog that I unfortunately have misplaced (if it’s yours, please speak up!). I’ve been told that you can make vinegar not only from fruit juices, but also from fruit scraps. So, last weekend when I made apple chutney, I saved all the peels and cores and stuck them in a giant jar with about a quart of filtered water. The first stage of fermentation (from fruit juice to alchohol) requires anerobic bacteria, so I’ve sealed the jar. Once it stops bubbling, I’ll assume that the alcohol production is done and will move to a cheesecloth cover, as the vinegar-producing bacteria—unlike the alcohol-producing bacteria—require air. This apparently may take many months, so stay tuned.

When Good Cider Goes Bad

dorisgoat — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:25:50 +0000

What you are looking at is the sludge at the bottom of a gallon of cider I found in the back of my fridge. Tasted great while it lasted, but we weren’t quite quick enough to enjoy it. It turned the corner from fizzy to hard to ornery some time ago. Jilly tells me, however, that I should embrace the disgusting gunk. Apparently it even has a name—it’s a “mother”—and is chock full of good bacteria that will turn my cider into vinegar, if I let it. She advises me to just cover it up with some cheesecloth and wait anywhere between two weeks and two months. When it smells like vinegar, it’s done. Updates next week.

Applesauce

dorisandjilly — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:53:48 +0000

I have a lot of apples. Every week since September, our CSA has given us at least 3 pounds. Then we stick them in the crisper and promptly forget about them. Eventually, I remember, and then I make applesauce. The beauty of applesauce is that it both cans and freezes well, keeps for at least a week once it’s opened, and can double as breakfast OR dessert.

My version’s really easy. You take that giant pile of apples, cut them into quarters (don’t bother peeling or coring), through them into the crockpot with some water and a cinnamon stick, and walk away. It doesn’t seem to matter how long you cook it: 5 hours on high, 8 hours on low, 8 on high, whatever—just cook them until they’re all soft and brown, like the picture on the right.

Then you put it all through a food mill, like so:

I usually process it directly into a big saucepan so I can heat it up if I’m going to can it. But, since I’m out of new canning lids, I just put them in cars instead. Really and truly, I promise we’ll post all about how you do that another time. But tonight, with room in the freezer, I took the easy way out. Just put them in freezer-safe containers, let them cool, and carry them down the basement. And remember to eat them. Delicious on its own or with latkes!