Wait, what?! I know this is what you are thinking! How on Earth, did you get all that for $8?!
Take a seat, and I'll explain.
Equipment needed: (or rather, what I used)
-2 Pecks of Apples. Knowing that I was going to be making applesauce and vinegar, I purchased seconds. Seconds are the slightly less perfect pieces of fruit and veg that are still saleable, but might not be perfectly round, or have a bruise, or some discolor. They are fine! They need to be used and loved! EAT THEM! Because they are seconds, this also makes the CHEAPER.
- Either a veggie peeler, or if you are fortunate enough to have one of those fancy-schmancy Apple-Peeler-Corer-Slicers like I do, well, now is the time to employ it!
-If you are using the veggie peeler, you will also need a knife
-Just like with the fancy-schmancy peeler, if you have a food mill, you'll want to bust that out of the cabinet, if not, then a fine mesh strainer and a spoon will do.
-large pot to boil water in.
-Large GLASS container to make vinegar in. Yes, it HAS to be glass. I'll explain why later.
Ok, those are the large pieces of equipment all accounted for. Let's get on to the process.
First thing you should do, is wash those apples! Even if you get them from a great, local friendly, all organic place like I did, you still want them to be grit free. Dump them into a sink full of water and pour in a sizeable splash of white vinegar, and let 'em soak for a few mins. Swish them around like you are swabbing the deck of your ship!
I'm going to walk you through what I did, if you need to use the veggie peeler/knife combo and the fine mesh strainer/spoon combo, you will do things a little differently. I can make an addendum to this blog post if need be for those whom are going that route.
Break out that peeler-corer! Pop your apples onto the spikes and crank that handle! What is left, is a spiralized apple, the peel, and then the core. Set the apple aside (in some water with lemon juice to prevent discoloring).
Now, that glorious apple peel and core, DO NOT THROW THEM OUT, DO NOT COMPOST THEM (yet!). Take those bad boys and put them into the glass container you plan to make your vinegar in.
Before you move on to the phase of the applesauce'ing, lets finish up the processing of the vinegar.
A note about the glass jar: you will want to use glass, or a ceramic fermenting jar. DO NOT use metal. The fermenting process will leach out the metals from your container and contaminate your food. This is no good! No one wants food that tastes like a car key! (you know you have done it! Admit it! You have put your car keys in your mouth to free your hands up. You KNOW what I'm talking about here!!!)
Ahem. Onward!
Once you have your full jar of peels and cores, you will need to cover the top of the jar. You want to use something that will allow the pot to "breath", but not let in bugs. I used a coffee filter and a rubber band. You can use fabric, or cheesecloth (might need to double or triple the cheesecloth). Whatever you have on hand.
Take that jar and just set it aside for a day or two.You want those apple bits to turn brown. Once they are brown, fill the jar with water, and put your breathable cover back on top. Set it aside again. This is the part where it's not so scientific. You now wait. And wait. And then you wait some more. Each batch I have made has taken a different amount of time. One batch was strong enough in 6 weeks, one batch I left almost 12. I do a sniff test. When it smells strong enough for my liking, I strain the liquid off and bottle the liquid. I take the apple bits and compost them. Because this is the "organic" processing of the vinegar, it will be cloudy just like when you buy the organic unfiltered brands in the store. There's nothing wrong with this!
Here's what my finished vinegar looks like:
Now, back to the 'sauce making!
Get that large pot half full of water, and get it heating up. You'll want it just below a boil at a good simmer.
Drop a few handfuls of the apple meat into the water and let it heat up. You won't need to do this for very long. Use a slotted spoon to scoop out the apple meat and put it into a colander to drain the water off. Start processing the next chunk of apples.
This is where things get a little hectic. You'll be heating up the apples in the pot, while simultaneously straining apples, and running them through your food mill. I know you aren't a Kraken, and don't have 8 arms, it will be ok! I promise!
Take the cooked apples and put them into the hopper of the food mill, and start cranking the handle and pushing them through:
I'm not going to go into the whole process of how to can up the applesauce. That will be a whole other post. But, as I mentioned, I was able to get 7 pints of applesauce out of these two pecks! And that glass jar of vinegar that is batching up, is a 2 1/2 gallon jar!
All for the cost of $8.
Pretty awesome!
Happy Sailing My Fellow Privateers!
