Home-pressed apple juice
An apple holds its own glass of juice. With a press, a big bucket, and one October afternoon, you turn the orchard's basket of fruit into a golden cloudiness that has nothing to do with the stuff on the shelves.
Home-pressed apple juice is one of the simplest and most satisfying drinks of the orchard. As long as you blend several varieties (sweet, tart, aromatic), you get a complex, cloudy juice, far thicker and more flavoursome than the filtered juices sold in shops. The classic ratio is 2.5 kg of apples for 1 litre of juice. No need to seek out beautiful fruit: apples that are spotted, bruised, or fallen at the foot of the tree are perfectly suitable (after removing the rotten parts).
Ingredients
- Apples of several varieties2.5 kg for 1 L of juice
blend sweet/tart/aromatic for a complex juice, do NOT remove the skin or the core (rich in pectin and aromas)
Equipment
- •1 manual or electric fruit press (to buy, to borrow as a group, or to hire from associations such as Croqueurs de Pommes)
- •1 large clean bucket to collect the must
- •1 or more sterilised glass bottles (most glass bottles are dishwasher-safe)
- •1 funnel
- •1 chinois or a muslin cloth for a clearer juice (optional)
Steps
- 1
Sort and prepare the apples
Wipe the apples well (no need for intensive washing). Remove the stalks. Cut out the rotten parts with a knife, but keep all the rest, skin, core, pips. The skin brings the aromas and the wild yeasts; the core brings the pectin that makes the juice rounder.
20 min for 5 kg
- 2
Cut into quarters
Cut the apples into quarters or large pieces depending on the size of your press's opening. The smaller the pieces, the more efficient the pressing; too fine and it clogs the press.
15 min
- 3
Press
Pour the pieces into the press over a large clean bucket. Turn or work it according to the model. The must runs out cloudy and amber. Reckon 2 to 3 minutes per kg with a manual press. Don't press one large quantity all at once: fill the chamber in batches for a better yield.
20 min for 5 kg
- 4
Bottle and drink
Filter quickly through a sieve if you want to remove the coarsest pulp. Put into sterilised bottles. Drink within 3 days, kept cool, fresh juice is not stable and will ferment naturally afterwards. To keep it: pasteurise at 80 °C for 10 min then cap the bottles, OR freeze in plastic bottles (never in glass, which shatters when frozen).
15 min
Storage
3 days in the fridge in an opened bottle. Pasteurised: 6 months minimum. Frozen: 1 year, in plastic bottles (freezing preserves the freshness of the raw juice).
How to use it
As is, fresh, in a large glass. Topped up with sparkling water for a plain soda. As a smoothie base. As a sauce with a little cinnamon to go with black pudding. Important: a juice this thick is more filling than a commercial one, don't drink several litres a day, fructose is still fructose.
Health properties
- Polyphenols and flavonoids of the apple (quercetin, catechins), partly lost to excessive filtering
- Soluble pectins (with the unfiltered pieces)
- Vitamin C partly retained (consume soon after pressing)
- More filling than an industrial juice (thick texture, more fibre)
- No added sugar or preservative, a striking difference from shop-bought juices
These preparations belong to cooking and herbal tradition: they nourish and support, do not “cure” anything and replace no treatment. Ask a doctor or pharmacist before prolonged use, if under treatment, pregnant or breastfeeding, or for a child. Follow the stated storage precautions strictly.
Precautions
Rich in natural fructose (approx. 100 kcal per 250 ml): to dose for diabetics. Best drunk with a meal rather than on an empty stomach (glycaemic impact). If you don't pasteurise it and you notice bubbling or a fermented smell in the bottle = fermentation has started spontaneously; the juice is no longer dangerous but slightly alcoholic (pre-cider). Discard if mouldy on the surface.
Sources & tradition
- · Norman and Breton tradition (pressing in September-October)
- · Croqueurs de Pommes, French association that lends presses and organises pressing days
- · *L'autosuffisance, c'est possible !* (Cherche-Midi)