Home-made Apple Juice

Jim Streeton provides practical guidance on how to make your own apple juice

This year, it looks as if there is to be a large crop of apples.  Have you thought of turning some of them into juice?  It is a very easy thing to make a few pints, and not difficult to make a year's supply for a good-sized family.

If juice is to be got out of apples they must first be reduced to pulp. The traditional way was to get a half barrel and a balk of timber, such as a gate post, then smash the apples to bits.  If such implements were to hand that method could be tried but, I think, it is no longer to be recommended.

Most households have a food processor and one of these, via its grating disc will rapidly reduce apples to exactly the consistence required As an aside, I would make a plea for the old-fashioned type of Moulinex machine, not because it makes an especially good job of pulping the apples, but because it is so quick and easy to take apart and put together - an important point, for the bowl has to be emptied many times in the course of pulping half a hundredweight of apples.  I find, that once I have the system set up, I can pulp apples at the rate of  60 lbs an hour.  Old-type Moulinex food-processors frequently appear on e-Bay.

Another way of pulping apples is to cut them into halves or quarters, put them in the freezer, freeze solid, and then allow them to thaw.  After that, even though the apples are still in large pieces, all the internal structure is ruptured and the juice may readily be pressed out.

Now, the pulp must be pressed. If you only want to make a few pints of juice, the pulp may be wrung out by hand. To do this, get a large plastic bottle, put a funnel in the neck, and a piece of net curtain across the funnel. Then, put in a little pulp and squeeze out the juice. Repeat, till the bottle is nearly full. A little room must be left for expansion if the bottle is to be stored in the freezer. Remember, if juice is kept for any length of time at room temperature, it may begin to ferment. To avoid this it may be pasteurised, but pasteurisation is likely to alter the flavour; it may also reduce the vitamin-C level.

Apple press

However, if larger quantities are to be dealt with, some sort of press is required and you may spend £100 or more on one if you wish; or you could make one out of scrap wood and metal for next to nothing - see photos.  The rule leaning against the press is 15 inches, which gives an idea of scale. This press can easily handle 20lbs of pulp. If you want greater capacity, make it a bit taller.

A word of warning, the metal plates MUST be of stainless steel.  Apple juice will dissolve any other metal it comes into contact with and may become poisonous. The metal plates shown are the stainless steel drainers cut off old sink units. They are readily obtainable from recycling centres.

Once the press is set up, find a rectangular plastic box - a five-litre ice-cream container would do very well - line it with some net curtain, fill it with pulp, fold the curtain over the top, then turn it out on to the press.  A second cloth of pulp may be put on top of the first and more on top of that, if the press is tall enough - but do not try that till you have got the hang of using the press. Once the pulp is on the bottom plate of the press, you have only to put on the top plates - stainless steel and wooden - and insert the jack.

With a little pressure juice will absolutely cascade out. Do not apply heavy pressure. The trick is to screw the jack down a bit further each time the flow of juice shows signs of stopping. There is no need to stand and watch it. Just screw it down a bit each time you go past till resistance becomes solid. If, at that stage, it is left overnight, it is surprising how much more juice comes out.

Apples should yield at least half their weight in juice, some - Bramley's Seedling, for instance - considerably more.  Most apple juice is sweeter than the apple from which it comes, so that it is well worthwhile to juice culinary as well as dessert varieties.

Jim Streeton