Apple juicing
I’ll add photos just as soon as I find a cable in the depths of the bag of cables under my desk.
So, this weekend I bit the bullet and set about juicing all the fallen apples from our tree. It’s not a complex proceedure, but it is one that has taken us three years to get roughly right, so I throught I would share and maybe save people some time if they are doing the same thing.
Firstly – an equipment list. This is what I used…
- A wire basket, such as found in supermarkets. I have no idea where it came from but being able to wash off apples in it is very handy
- A hose pipe – with one of the gun things attached so you aren’t running back and forth to the tap
- A large juice bucket with a lid – I use a 3 gallon brewing tub. The lid helps the juice to stop going brown and keeps out flies and rain
- A big pan or bucket for catching apple shreddings
- A pair of smaller bowls – to catch juice as it comes out of….
- A fruit press – mine looks a bit like this one – but cheaper
- A garden shredder – the best way to shred the apples is to use a new shredder. MIne looks a bit like this one (but again, much cheaper)
- A pocket full of plastic carrier bags
- A couple of bin bags
- Bleach
- A couple of lemons
Firstly – gather up your apples. I was using all the windfalls, so i discarded all the ones which were slug houses, brown and squishy etc. They don’t have to be pristeen, but they shouldn’t be too crappy. I use plastic carrier bags because one carrier bag full is about as many as will fit in my press.
Next – clean all your kit, especially the end juice reseptical, especially if you are then going on to brewing. I use hotwater, a squirt of bleach, and clean teatowels. I dry everything off in the airing cupboard too.
Now on to the fun. Set up everything in a row – apples, basket, shredder (with big pan under it to catch the pulp), press, (with shallow bowl under the drip point), bin bag for used pulp and finally juice bucket.
The aim of the game is to get the most juice, with it being the least browned by the air. There are a couple of tricks:
- Keep the juice in the apple as long as possible – from the moment you shred the apple, it is browning
- Chuck in a lemon every so often – the citric acid helps to stop the apple browning
- Keep a lid on the bucket – this helps to stop too much air circulating, and hopefully a layer of carbon dioxide will form and help keep your juice clear
- Press small batches quickly, rather than large batches slowly
So, the steps for juicing…
- Pour a carrier bag full of apples into the wire basket, and blast clean with the hose pipe
- Feed them into the shredder a couple at a time. Too quick and it jams, to slow and they jump out. I found 2 or 3 at a time was about right
- Fire a halfed lemon through every so often
- Once you have enough shredded apples to fill your press, push it all in, and start squeezing
- Have a bowl ready to catch the juice, and another to take over when you are full
- As soon as you have any volume of juice, swap the bowls and pour into your bigger and lidded bucket, replace the lid.
- Once juice stops flowing, don’t press too much, unscrew it all and “tump” the pressed apple into the bin bag. This can be hard work – I ended up punching it out by hand.
In an hour I made 15 litres of juice, and that was from 3 full carrier bags of apple juice. Not bad for an hour in the rain and wind. From experience, the key seems to be how you shred the apples. first year we cut them up into chunks and got bugger all. Second year, we MagiMixed them, and it was a bit better. Nothing have beaten the shredder yet – it’s like running them through a rough grater.
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- Jerking it
“Apple juicing”