Canning Apple Juice
MEMORIES !!
It is a Saturday and Mom is making breakfast, pancakes and bacon, our favorite!! It is cold out, but someone has to run to the cellar we are out of apple juice.
I remember those days as if it was just yesterday. you ran as fast as you could to the cellar door then you paused it was always a little scary opening that door and then descending the steps to the "Other" door. The light faded away with each step, right before you lift the latch and slowly push the door open, you hit the light switch. The door swings open and you smell the damp and the dirt. You go to the shelf grab 2 jars of liquid gold, scamper through the door. drop the latch, hit he switch and bolt up the stairs back into the cold daylight. Photo from Pixabay
LIQUID GOLD !!
Fresh from the jar, cold from the cellar, Oh, it was the best tasting apple juice ever. The process to get the liquid gold is almost as time consuming as panning for the little nuggets in the Alaskan wilderness. Picking buckets and baskets of apples, washing, juicing, STRAINING. The straining, this lasts for hours and hours and hours.
Start with a fine mesh strainer,
pour in the juice, let it filter through and then clean out the strainer, repeat, and repeat, and repeat. Now it is through clean food grade cheese cloth, it goes a little faster, but not much. And the final strain, through a coffee filter. You would think by now that there is nothing left, but about every 6 cups you need a new filter, and it takes about 45 minutes to get through 6 cups.
Photo credit Pixabay WerbeFabrik
IS IT EVEN WORTH IT??
OH YES!! It is so worth it. In the end to have those jars sitting on your pantry shelf. The ways to use them are many, as just ole juice, pored over a pork roast or ham. As a sweetener to hot tea, heated up for mulled apple cider, or heated and reduced for apple syrup. YES IT IS WORTH IT !!
Canning Apple Juice
Procedure:
Refrigerate juice for 24 to 48 hours. Without mixing, carefully pour off clear liquid and discard sediment. Strain clear liquid through a paper coffee filter or double layers of damp cheesecloth.
Heat quickly, stirring occasionally, until juice begins to boil. Fill immediately into sterile pint or quart jars or fill into clean half-gallon jars, leaving ¼-inch head space.
Process Time at Altitudes
Style of Pack Jar Size 0 - 1,000 ft 1,001 - 6,000 ft Above 6,000 ft
Hot Pints or Quarts 5 min 10 min 15 min
Hot Half-Gallons 10 min 15 min 20 min
This document was adapted from the "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA, revised 2009. Reviewed November 2009.
Sterile Jars: If you have a dishwasher you can run them through the sterilize setting if you do not or you have already washed your jars, you need to boil the jars for 10 minutes. Water level needs to be above the jars when doing this.
I boil all my jars before I can. I have to heat the water up any way. I also add 2 tbsp of White vinegar to the water in my canner. Keeps the jars from getting mineral build up on them.
CONFESSION !!
I am very happy to have this on my shelf, but SOOO glad the process is over and done until next fall.
God Bless & Enjoy !!
Tyra