Preserving / pasteurising Apple Juice
Andrew Lea
equator!), somebody off list recently asked if we could put up some
directions for preserving apple juice. Jez will put this on the workshop
website shortly, but in the meantime this is the way I do it:
What you need
- Glass bottles with good caps. Crown cap bottles are very good or
alternatively you can use the screw thread bottles with 28 mm plastic
caps which have been discussed here before. You can re-use the bottles
many times but you need new caps each time, since you need to make a
perfect seal.
- A big tall saucepan ('water bath') which the bottles can sit in and
which you can fill with water to come most of the way (at least
two-thirds) up the outside of the bottles. The water bath needs to be
able to sit safely on a stove top or burner. (You can also buy
specialist electric pasteurisers which hold a dozen or so bottles)
- A digital kitchen thermometer with a probe to reach into the bottles.
- A good pair of thick rubber gloves, ideally with roughened palms.
- Some powdered ascorbic acid (vitamin C). This stops the juice browning
and helps to preserve flavour and the opalescent cloud. It also won't do
you any harm!
Procedure
Press out your apple juice. Strain it coarsely if you want, and add 500
parts per million of ascorbic acid. That is 500 milligrams per litre or
5 grams per 10 litres (i.e. one level teaspoon per 2 gallons, old
money). The maximum amount isn't critical - you can easily add double
with no adverse effect. Don't add much less, though, or it will
actually make the juice browner (no kidding)!! Stir well to dissolve,
and then process as soon as you can (because the juice enzymes are
quietly destroying all that added ascorbic acid while you wait!)
Fill the bottles (uncapped) with the treated juice, to within about two
inches of the top. Place them in the water bath on a stove top (you may
find a camping stove or burner is more convenient than the kitchen
cooker) and pop the thermometer into one of the bottles. Heat rapidly to
bring the temperature of the bottle *contents* (not just the water bath)
up to 75 degrees C, bring them out of the bath with the rubber gloves
and then cap them tightly and promptly before they cool. Lie the bottles
on their sides while cooling, so the hot juice can sterilise the inside
of the cap and the bottle neck. This also creates a partial vacuum
during cooling which should draw the cap ever tighter onto the seal
(like Kilner bottling). All the yeasts inside the bottle are killed by
the heat, and if the seal is good then no more can get in. If you are
familiar with Kilner jars etc you can of course use them instead.
The beauty of this method is that you do all the work up front and
merely have to open a bottle whenever you need it over the next year or
two. The alternative is to freeze the juice but it tends to sediment and
you need to plan ahead to drink it - also you need a good bit of freezer
space. This pasteurisation technique with the added Vitamin C makes
juices like the ones you can buy in top-end shops for anything up to Ł4
a bottle.
Andrew
--
Wittenham Hill Cider Page
http://www.cider.org.uk
Peter Ellis
Andrew Lea wrote:
> Now that the season is fast approaching (for those of us north of the
> equator!), somebody off list recently asked if we could put up some
> directions for preserving apple juice. Jez will put this on the workshop
> website shortly, but in the meantime this is the way I do it:
>
> What you need
>
>
> - A big tall saucepan ('water bath') which the bottles can sit in and
> which you can fill with water to come most of the way (at least
> two-thirds) up the outside of the bottles. The water bath needs to be
> able to sit safely on a stove top or burner. (You can also buy
> specialist electric pasteurisers which hold a dozen or so bottles)
>
>
> Andrew
>
>
Lidl here have been selling an alleged 'jam maker' which isn't really,
as it is more like a wider Baby Burco, for those that remember them.
They are a ISTR 55L electrically heated drum with a drainage tap,
intended for sterilising bottled jam and bottled fruit, so should be
ideal. They are certainly deep enough for bottles.
Given the nature of Lidl, I imagine the UK ones will have had them too.
Cheers
Peter
Melanie Wilson
Brill that you've put up the instructions, always good to hear the way
others do things, not that I differ much.
I've always used a trivet or metal rack so the bottles don't sit directly on
the bottom, I assume you have had no problems with sitting them directly on
the base, I've never tried so can't say !
I do find it difficult to get it to heat rapidly, maybe I should try a
portable stove this year,
My daughters' German Mum is lucky enough to be able to take their apples for
processing to a local "place" I'm unsure if it is a one man band or a
factory it get lost in translation.
Mel
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Andrew Lea
>
> I've always used a trivet or metal rack so the bottles don't sit directly on
> the bottom, I assume you have had no problems with sitting them directly on
> the base, I've never tried so can't say !
Yes I agree a trivet or some kind of false bottom is ideal to stop the
bottles bumping and I should probably have mentioned it. I actually now
use a large catering pan which has a perforated steel one which is
purpose designed. I have also used a folded cloth or tea towel which is
a fair substitute.
Rose Grant
It has made me feel like having another go at 'on cooker'
pasteurisarion. When I tried it before, the results were
disappointing. A scum developed in the top of the bottles and the
juice had a cooked apple flavour. I think I may have heated it for too
long. Perhaps your method of pulling the bottles out as soon as the
juice reaches 75 C avoids this problem. All other methods I've seen,
advocate a given time at temperature, which probably gives rise to a
tendency of overcooking.
Good lateral thinking concerning the Kilner jars! I have a lot of
these that I am always too busy to fill with fruit during the autumn.
What a good idea it will be to fill them with Discovery Juice, before
the main pressing season gets underway! Any remaining can then be
filled with late ripening Ashmead's Kernel, (another delicious juice)
at the tail end of the season.
Thanks again,
Rose
Andrew Lea
> A scum developed in the top of the bottles and the
> juice had a cooked apple flavour. I think I may have heated it for too
> long. Perhaps your method of pulling the bottles out as soon as the
> juice reaches 75 C avoids this problem. All other methods I've seen,
> advocate a given time at temperature, which probably gives rise to a
> tendency of overcooking.
Yes that's why i believe it's best to measure the actual temperature
inside the bottles rather than rely on some 'formula'. No point in
overkill. Also the addition of the ascorbic acid does wonders in
preventing the formation of much of the cooked flavour. And the quicker
you can get to temperature, the better. The scum is somewhat inevitable
no matter what, I have found.
>
> Good lateral thinking concerning the Kilner jars! I have a lot of
> these that I am always too busy to fill with fruit during the autumn.
> What a good idea it will be to fill them with Discovery Juice, before
> the main pressing season gets underway! Any remaining can then be
> filled with late ripening Ashmead's Kernel, (another delicious juice)
> at the tail end of the season.
Slightly off topic, but I have found it's difficult to get good quality
replacement rubber seals for true Kilner jars if that's the type you
use. I bought some off the internet last year but they are rather rigid
and do not form a good vacuum seal which is very disappointing. The more
modern type with the lacquered metal discs and integral seal are far
more successful and fortunately seem to be of a standard pattern
identical with many continental preserving jars so there is no shortage
of supplies. Indeed I note that Lakeland are now stocking 'true?' Kilner
jars with that type of seal for this season.
Nat West
Andrew Lea
> Thank you very much for this, Andrew. I'm wondering if I need to use
> crown caps on my champagne bottles or if I can use my plastic reusable
> stoppers. They make a tight enough seal on my fizzy cider (with a bail),
> so I assume they would work on the reversed pressure.
I'm not entirely sure Nat. Never tried them for juice. You could do a
test with water to see if they stand the temperature of hot juice and
don't leak when inverted, in which case I'd imagine they'd make a
reasonable seal. I would think the proper oversize crown caps would be
preferable if you can get them.
John W. List
> equator!), somebody off list recently asked if we could put up some
> directions for preserving apple juice. Jez will put this on the workshop
> website shortly, but in the meantime this is the way I do it:
Yesterday I had my first go at this, I pressed a load of Beauty of
Baths and White Transparents, battling with drunken wasps while
picking and a cloud of inquisitive wasps while pressing.
I have only two observations to make, first my juice took ages to
reach 75 degrees so I don't think I managed rapid heating. I was doing
it in a big pan on a gas stove and I am guessing it just didn't have
the same power as an Aga. Next time I may put less bottles in the bath
at once so their energy drain on it is less. My thermometer is a
traditional glass type, to suspend it in the bottle I used a bundle of
GPO elastic bands which sat nicely on top of the neck of a crown cap
bottle.
I've not tasted the result yet so I don't know whether the longer
heating has created apple sauce flavours.
JWL
Andrew Lea
>
> I have only two observations to make, first my juice took ages to
> reach 75 degrees so I don't think I managed rapid heating. I was doing
> it in a big pan on a gas stove and I am guessing it just didn't have
> the same power as an Aga. Next time I may put less bottles in the bath
> at once so their energy drain on it is less.
I guess I didn't say what I meant by 'rapid' - but you need to use the
maximum power at your disposal! I am lucky enough to have an oil-fired
Stanley stove (poor man's Aga!), which belts out a fair bit of heat and
I can get 18 bottles up to temperature in about 20 minutes. I understand
that the large Vigo electric units (which hold 96 bottles and are
powered by a total 9 kW via immersion heaters I think) take the best
part of an hour to get to temperature.
> My thermometer is a traditional glass type, to suspend it in the bottle I used a bundle of
> GPO elastic bands which sat nicely on top of the neck of a crown cap
> bottle.
Well not all areas of the country have gone digital yet ;-) [What we
used to do in the 'old days' pre-digital was to suspend the glass
thermometer in a bored cork resting gently on top of the bottle. The
rubber bands sound good and at least it's a way of re-using them!]
> I've not tasted the result yet so I don't know whether the longer
> heating has created apple sauce flavours.
If you use the ascorbic acid as advised it will mitigate most of the
cooked flavour. If you don't, the juice will taste of baked apple (and
also be very brown)!
Melanie Wilson
maximum power at your disposal!
I'm so glad you mentioned this lol, I've been racking my brains as to how I
might increase my heating speed.
Is it feasible, do you think, to start with a slightly elevated water temp,
say 30-40 C the speed to 75 would be quicker then and should not cause
problems with heating the glass too quickly.
Andrew Lea
>
> Is it feasible, do you think, to start with a slightly elevated water temp,
> say 30-40 C the speed to 75 would be quicker then and should not cause
> problems with heating the glass too quickly.
Yes. When I do a 'second batch' I normally bring the water bath temp
down to just below 50C with added cold water and put in the next batch
of bottles and none have cracked yet.
BTW an observation on heating speed - nearly all the 'farmgate' juice
producers use the Vigo-built pasteuriser (or some home-made equivalent).
As I said I believe it takes the best part of an hour to get that up to
temp and the bottles are then held for around 20 minutes before cooling.
As far as I know people don't complain that these juices are in any way
'cooked'. Like I said, it's the ascorbic acid which makes all the
difference. Speed may not be that important when sufficient ascorbate
is used - except that the longer you heat it, the more ascorbate is
oxidised away and eventually it will cease to have any protective effect
and the juice will go even browner.
This batch scale process with added ascorbate was devised by Pederson at
the New York State Experimental Agriculture Station in the late 1940's.
It is Fred Beech and Len Burroughs at Long Ashton whom we have to thank
for its introduction into the UK in the 70's. They tirelessly promoted
it to fruit growers who were looking to diversify; and it worked.
Copella started their juice business on-farm in that way, for example.
So did hundreds of others who have remained much smaller. [The kit we
had at LARS, by the way, was a large SS tank with a false bottom under
which lay a 'heat exchanger' served by our own-site steam generator.]
John W. List
> maximum power at your disposal! I am lucky enough to have an oil-fired
> Stanley stove (poor man's Aga!), which belts out a fair bit of heat and
> I can get 18 bottles up to temperature in about 20 minutes. I understand
> that the large Vigo electric units (which hold 96 bottles and are
> powered by a total 9 kW via immersion heaters I think) take the best
> part of an hour to get to temperature.
minutes which seemed like a hell of a long time watching a thermometer
but obviously wasn't.
> If you use the ascorbic acid as advised it will mitigate most of the
> cooked flavour. If you don't, the juice will taste of baked apple (and
> also be very brown)!
resulting juice has a nice yellow-orange colour and no adverse flavour
at all.
In fact, when I cracked open the first bottle yesterday lunchtime at
my parents house, they were so impressed that they started talking
about the relatively meagre size of my basket press and what could be
done about it. I have been making cider and they have been drinking it
on and off for over two decades, all it took was one bottle of juice
for them to consider financing my endeavours! :)
JWL
katchoo63
David
Дмитрий Тихомиров
is there any advantages in use of Pectinase enzyme to destroy pectins in apple juice?
Regards Dmitry
Andrew Lea
>
> is there any advantages in use of Pectinase enzyme to destroy pectins in apple juice?
matter of product style. Do you want your juice clear or cloudy?
Here in the UK, if you are a craft producer, it is normal to sell
opalescent (cloudy) pasteurised apple juice which is stabilised with
ascorbic acid (aka Vitamin C). This stays light in colour and doesn't
sediment so much and doesn't taste 'cooked' but has a flavour more like
the fresh fruit and may show 'varietal character'. It also distinguishes
a higher quality domestic product from the cheap brown apple juice made
from rediluted imported concentrate.
In other cultures, clear brown pectinase-treated and filtered juice may
be preferred. It usually has a slightly cooked flavour and no varietal
character.
In North America, cloudy brown fresh farmgate juice (without ascorbic
acid addition) is sold in season as 'apple cider'. This is not usually
preserved or pasteurised and so must be kept in a refrigerator and has a
short shelf life.
Your choice, really.
Andrew
--
near Oxford, UK
Wittenham Hill Cider Portal
www.cider.org.uk