Fun with apples

Having acquired a few pounds of apples for just 99 cents, I spent the weekend exploring apples while my husband busily working outside to keep us from being buried under 2 feet of snow. I started out making apple cider vinegar. Then, with the leftover pulp, I made an apple sauce, which added a delightful juicy taste to the veal chop at our dinner table in this cold and chilly day. Here is my outcome of the apple cider vinegar experiment.


Recipe: Apple cider vinegar (make 1 cup)


Ingredients:
- 4 medium fresh apples


Procedure:
Sterilize a blender, a glass jar with lid, a measuring cup, spoons, a strainer and a piece of clean cheese cloth in boiling water for at least 15 minutes. Let cool. Wash and peel apples. Remove any small bruises or brown spots. Cut to very small pieces. Then use the blender to chop and liquify. Pour liquified apple and pulp into the strainer lined with cheese cloth. Strain and squeeze out all juice into the measuring cup. Save juice in the sterilized glass jar, cover jar loosely with lid, but do not tighten. Let sit at room temperature (around 70F) away from light for 1-2 months. Use pulp for apple sauce.

4 months later, the liquid in the jar has developed a distinctive smell of alcohol. I tasted it. It's still very sweet, with just a mild taste of acid.

Observations:
The apple juice is kept at a room temperature of 70-75F, away from sunlight. During the first week, the apple juice shows rapid changes: the fine particles in the juice starts to settle into a thin light-colored layer at the bottom, and the juice acquires a lighter color. In the 2nd and 3rd week, the color of the juice continues to lighten. A layer of gray scum floats to the top, while sediment continues to settle at the bottom. The juice starts to break down into a thick curd suspending in a clear liquid. From the 4th week onward, changes are not noticeable. After the 5th week, the liquid is decanted and the curd is drained. The liquid is mildly acidic and mildly sweet, retaining much of the flavor of apple juice.



Recipe: Unsweetened apple sauce (make 1 cup)


Ingredients:
- pulp from making apple cider vinegar, about 3/4 cup
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon (tp) cinnamon
- 1/4 tp nutmeg


Procedure:
Mix pulp with water, cinnamon and nutmeg in a small sauce pan. Cook on medium heat for about 20 minutes with continuous stirring. When the pulp heats up, it will give out a strongly sour aroma, distinctive of apple. After that has evaporated, a deepen, richer aroma starts to develop that integrates with cinnamon and nutmeg as the pulp steams and bubbles occasionally. Turn heat of when the pulp thickens. Let cool. It will thicken some more. Use within a few days.