Cider - a drink traditionally southern European. In our country, it was grape rather than fruit wines that enjoyed much more popularity. A product that has appeared in recent years, allegedly fermented according to original recipes, does not hold water. Yes, we are not up to it, we take a couple of buckets of apples, and ...
Homemade apple cider - general technological principles
• Apple cider is a light alcoholic drink that can be prepared at home without even using special equipment. It is enough to have a meat grinder or any other kitchen grinder on hand, a large capacity for preparing wort and several glass bottles with a water seal installed on them. Also used for filtering gauze.
• The technology of making homemade apple cider consists of the following stages:
1. the collection, selection and preparation of suitable for the preparation of the beverage fruit;
2. obtaining juice from the original product;
3. preparation and fermentation of the wort;
4. direct fermentation;
5. removing the precipitate from the semi-finished beverage and filtering it;
6. bottling and infusion of the finished product.
• To make delicious cider, well-ripened fruits should be taken. They should not have signs of rot and wormholes, otherwise the drink will be spoiled. Fruits should not be washed before use, they are wiped with a linen towel, so as not to remove the so-called wild yeast from the fruit, which contributes to faster fermentation.
• You can use almost any apples. Combining different varieties, each time they get a new taste, aroma and color of the prepared beverage. Traditionally it is customary to take one part of sour to two parts of sweet fruits.
• To get the juice, the prepared fruits, unpeeled, are ground and left until the puree is divided into cake and juice, which is decanted.
• Sugar is added to squeezed juice and left for further fermentation. But there are recipes for apple cider at home without necessarily adding sugar. The fermentation process in this case is delayed for several days. Cooked wort is placed on the time under the water seal. After the gas ceases to emit from it, the finished cider is filtered and sent for aging in a cool place, sealed in a clean container. • Often homemade apple cider is made with other fruits, such as pears, spices, lemon zest or honey
The simplest recipe for apple cider at home
This is how a hop, sweetish, honey-colored drink with a strength of up to 12% is prepared. It is also called “bezpokhmelny” because it is drunk easily and in reasonable doses does not remind of itself the next morning.
Ingredients:
• 10 kg of fragrant, necessarily ripe apples;
• sugar - 1.5 kg.
Cooking Method:
1. Tear off the fruit from the fruit and wipe well with a linen cloth, cut into slices and, together with the peel and seeds, twist in a meat grinder. If there is a food processor or blender, it is better to use them.
2. Rinse the glass three-liter jars thoroughly with soda in hot water, scald with boiling water and wipe dry with a towel. Fill the containers with applesauce not less than 2/3 of the volume. The approximate weight of the apple slurry in the bottle is 2.5 kg.
3. Pour sugar in each jar, counting 100-150 grams. on a kilo of fruit puree. Take into account the original sweetness of the product. Cooked wort should be moderately sweet in taste, but not seem cloying and all the more sour.
4. Stir and tie the necks with 4 layers of gauze. Remove for fermentation in the reach of direct rays, but not too cool place for 4 days. Every day, mix well the contents of the cans, trying as best as possible to mix with the apple juice a layer of pulp strayed from above.
5. After 4 days, pour the contents of the cans into a clean container, filtering it through a metal sieve, and squeeze the apple cake here.
6. Install a water seal on the container and remove the cider for 36 days into the room for further fermentation, without access of light. The air temperature in it should not exceed 27 degrees and fall below 18 degrees.
7. When the drink stops bubbling, it will brighten noticeably, and the sediment will settle to the bottom of the container, the apple cider will be ready.
8. Filter it through 4-5 layers of gauze, pour it into clean containers right on the neck and seal the cork tightly. 9. Allow the drink to ripen for three months in a cold room or refrigerator, and only then take the first sample.
How to make cider from apples without sugar (from juice)
This is a classic Western European recipe. According to rumors, just such a drink was served in taverns from the time of the musketeers. It is made without sugar and is considered a pure, natural drink. You will need a juicer for cooking, as the beverage is made from juice.
Ingredients:
• ripe sweet apples
Cooking Method:
1. For fruit, tear off the tails and do not rinse. If you still have to wash, wipe them dry, put one layer in a box and leave to stand for at least three days.
2. Then squeeze the juice out of them. Do not peel or cut the seeds, they are also necessary. Drain all the juice in a large pot and leave for 24 hours at normal room temperature.
3. After that, drain it from the sediment, transfer it to a fermentation tank with a narrow neck and install a water trap. Soak strained juice in a dark place at 20-27 degrees for at least five days, until it ceases to ferment.
4. Through a tube, so as not to capture the sediment settled at the bottom, pour the semi-prepared drink into prepared dry bottles or glass jars and hermetically seal them. Put the containers in a cool place and hold for four months. The optimum temperature of exposure is from 6 to 12 degrees Celsius.
5. Filter the ready-to-drink beverage again and dispense for further storage.
6. The shelf life of cider prepared in this way, when stored in a basement or refrigerator, can last up to three years.
Recipe for apple cider at home, without sugar
This technique is quite labor intensive. The speed of digestion slows down due to the lack of sugar, but if the technology is observed, the result is what is called a candle.
Ingredients:
• sweet flavored apples - 2 kg;
Cooking Method:
1. Cut the apples that have been washed, carefully wiped with linen, into slices, twist in a meat grinder and put into a large stainless steel container. You can use a food processor, but do not use a juicer, as for the preparation of a drink you need juice and all the pulp. If there is no other option, and yet the juicer went into action, do not throw out the cake, but mix it with juice immediately after squeezing. 2. Mix well, close the top of the container with gauze in several layers and fix it well. Soak the apple mass in the heat for at least a week, until a dense cap from the risen oil cake forms on the surface. Then drain everything well on the sieve and squeeze the cake well to extract the remaining juice. It will be a little, but it is needed.
3. Pour out the drained liquid into a clean three-liter jar, place a water seal on the neck and leave it in a warm place without light for up to 2 months.
4. When the fermentation process is completely stopped, filter the apple cider by gently pouring the beverage from the sediment, and pack it in clean bottles or cans. Hermetically cork and clean storage in a cool enough place.
Recipe for apple cider with honey
If you want to treat yourself to an unusual honey cider, then set out to make a sparkling, apple-honey drink. This method is even more troublesome, and you will have to take a lot of additional actions, but the result will be a completely original, incomparable cider with apple-honey aroma.
Ingredients:
• 1.5 kg light honey;
• six liters of spring water or just well purified water;
• 8 kg of selected sweet apples.
Cooking Method:
1. Clean, not washed, towel-covered apples cut into medium-sized slices. Take a cheesecloth, fold it in several layers and sew a suitable-sized bag into which to fold the apple slices. Tie the loose edges of the canvas container tightly and place it in a large enameled, earthenware, or wooden container.
2. At the top, install a wooden circle with drilled 3-centimeter holes and place the load - a 10-liter bucket filled with water.
3. Boil the prepared drinking water and cool it. Then mix the honey well in it and pour the prepared honey syrup into the pan with apples, cover with gauze and remove for 35 days to ferment in a cool place, excluding light. 4. After that, carefully pour the liquid into a clean dish and leave, and the pulp remaining in the bag, pour the same honey syrup, quantitatively equal to the drained liquid and again leave for 35 days.
5. Drain the cider again, but into another clean container, leave it as well. In the pan again, pour the same freshly prepared syrup and soak it for the same time, under the same conditions, drain.
6. Mix freshly decanted cider with a previously, twice-drained drink, mix and set aside. Have patience, you need to keep it cool for at least nine months.
7. Discontinue the homemade apple cider from the sediment and leave it in the cold for another four weeks, tightly sealed in a clean container.
How to make cider from apples and pears with spices
The recipe does not use sugar. In order not to slow down the fermentation of the product, take well-matured sweet pears and sour apples.
Ingredients:
• sweet ripe pears - 5 kg;
• 7 kg of any fragrant, ripe apples;
• coriander seeds;
• elderberry flowers.
Cooking Method:
1. Peel the rind from the fruit, cut them into medium-sized slices and skip through a meat grinder using the finest grate. Put the fruit puree in an enameled, large-volume, pan, cover with gauze and remove in the heat for 2 days. Be sure to mix the fruit puree well every five hours so that the product is fermented evenly. Then place a wooden circle on the fruit mass and place the load on top.
2. Pour out the juice into glass or any other container and measure its quantity. Mix it with the same volume of boiled water and leave to ferment for a week by placing a water seal on the neck of the container.
3. Tie the spices in a gauze bag, dip it in the cider, which has not yet finished fermenting and leave it under the trap until the fermentation stops. Then strain, clog in suitable containers and leave to cool for another month.
A quick recipe for apple cider at home
The accelerated method of obtaining home-made apple cider differs significantly from the established technology, but the drink is no less tasty and can be consumed in a week.
Ingredients:
• 10 liters of filtered water;
• 2 kg of sugar;
• ripe selected small apples - 8 kg;
• two large lemons.
Cooking Method:
1. Spread out the apples, cut the core from the fruit and put them in a suitable container.
2. Fill the halves of the fruit with water, and add lemon zest trimmed with a fine grater. Bind the pan with gauze folded in 4-5 layers and place close to the heat for a week. Do not forget to mix the contents at least once a day.
3. Strain the drink a few times, pour into liter or more bulky bottles and cool. Immediately after this, you can drink cider.
How to make apple cider for a children's party (non-alcoholic)
Ingredients:
• two spoons of honey;
• one large orange;
• cinnamon sticks - 2 pcs .;
• five carnation umbrellas;
• 1.2 kg of ripe, sweet and sour apples.
Cooking Method:
1. From completely washed apples in any way possible, squeeze the juice and pour it into the pan.
2. Add spices and bring to a boil. Then cool slightly, add honey and mix until it is completely dissolved.
3. Put the container back on fire, do not bring to a boil, boil non-alcoholic cider for another 10 minutes. Then cool and strain cold.
4. Serve well chilled, decorate the cups or glasses with orange rings.
Recipe for apple cider at home (from home drying)
Ingredients:
• one kilogram of apple homemade dried fruits;
• 10 liters of clean drinking water;
• a small handful of dark raisins.
Cooking Method:
1. Apple, light, wash, wash with cold water, but do not rinse thoroughly. Transfer to a container of sufficient volume and cover with boiled cold water.
2. Tighten the top of the container with gauze and put it in a cool place for six days until the fermentation process begins. 3. Strain the wort, pour it into a glass container, add raisins, install a water seal and leave in the same room for another month until the wort stops fermenting.
4. Filter the finished drink 3-4 times and only then pour it into a clean container with tight-fitting lids. Store in the refrigerator or basement.
Homemade apple cider - cooking tips and helpful tips
• Making homemade cider according to these recipes involves getting a “quiet” non-carbonated drink. To make the cider aerated, the drink taken off the sediment is poured into clean plastic or glass containers with lids, not filling up to 6 cm neck. Previously, sugar is added to an empty container at the rate of 10 grams. on one liter of volume. Filled containers are sealed tightly and put in a dark place for 12-15 days, be sure to check the gas pressure once a day.
