Despite the abundance of packaged fruit juices in shops and supermarkets, many housewives are interested in how to make apple juice at home. Of course, it is much simpler to purchase ready-made juices, but who can guarantee that together with useful natural organic acids, vitamins, minerals and fructose, we will not get preservatives, dyes and chemical sweeteners.
And if there are kids in the house who just love different fruit juices, it's time to learn how to make apple juice yourself.
The season for preparing apple juices is from the end of August until mid-October. Prerequisite: apples should be as fresh as possible, ideally freshly picked. Then the fruits will be quite juicy. It is necessary to select ripe apples, without wormholes. The quality of the juice directly depends on the variety of apples. The most delicious juice is obtained at a normal quantitative ratio in the fruits of sugar and acid.
Apple juice: how to do
Let's consider in more detail how to make apple juice. First, apples are sorted, washed thoroughly and damaged areas are removed. If you are planning on making a small amount of juice, a regular meat grinder is suitable. The apples are cut into pieces and passed through a meat grinder. It is advisable that the meat grinder be made of stainless steel or enameled, otherwise the juice will darken and some of the vitamins will be lost. The resulting pulp is laid out in a prepared canvas bag and placed in a press. If there is no press, you can place the bag in an enameled drushlak and squeeze the juice with a wooden board. True, it will turn out not so effective. It is recommended to filter the resulting juice with a cone cloth filter to remove coarse suspensions from it. But you can completely do without it.
The filtered juice is poured into an enameled (large) pan and heated until boiling. While the juice is boiling, wash the cans and put them in the oven.
Only then turn on the oven to the minimum temperature. Thus, our banks will simultaneously warm up and sterilize. Take the right number of lids for seaming and boil them in water for 3-4 minutes. We take out completely dry cans from the oven and cool them a little. Then carefully pour boiling juice and immediately roll up. Turn the cans upside down (carefully!) And wrap the blanket until it cools completely. This juice has a great taste and is well preserved. If you are thinking how to make apple juice without sterilization, it can be done differently.
Drain the squeezed juice into an enamel pan and heat to a temperature of 80 or 85 degrees. Then pour into steamed jars, cover with carefully boiled lids and pasteurize in a water bath, 1 liter jars for 15 minutes and 3 liter jars for 20 minutes. After pasteurization, all cans are quickly corked and carefully checked to see if the corking quality is good. Turn the cans lids down and expose them to air cooling. Our natural apple juice is ready, and it will be so pleasant to enjoy this magical drink on a winter day. Now you know how to make apple juice at home.