Pressing Business

After the winds at the weekend, we went out on Monday to collect windfalls from the apples, of which there were a couple of carrier bags. Small apples are a pain for using in chutney or cooking, as you lose so much of them in peeling and coring. However, they're fine for juicing (although they do have low sugar levels). I ran 3.8kg of the small fruits through the food processor's chipper/chopper, and packed them into the apple press, which has languished in a corner of the kitchen for eighteen months (no apples last year).

The apple press (© Ian 2012–13)

The press only came with a limited number of spacers, which I still need to properly augment: this time I used some four-inch blocks of wood from dismantled pallets to pack out the pressing plate, which was enough. A good bit of handle turning later, and a long pause to let the last bit drip through, and we're in proud possession of 1.8l of juice, which I've pasteurized at 70°C, and bottled.

It's delicious, if a little acid, because the windfalls don't really have enough sugar to counter the malic acid.