Preserving Apples

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How would you do it? I have too many, and though the basement is cool, I don't think it's cold enough to store them very successfully. Drying, canning, freezing, making applesauce? Or we could just eat lots and lots and lots of apples for a month or two. Can apples be frozen?

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 02:01 (twenty years ago)

If they're Granny Smiths, they will last for a while. I don't know if apples can be frozen. You rarely see bags of apples frozen for sale.

If you are feeling ambitious, you can use your abundance of apples to make an apple starter for bread. See Joe Ortiz's "The Village Baker" for details. Warning: Requires great amounts of ambition.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 02:42 (twenty years ago)

10 lbs of Granny Smiths and oh....maybe 30 lbs of nice tart Golden Delicious - they are some kind of eastern Washington mutant Golden Delicious which are not huge and mushy and flavorless. These are the ones I'm most worried about going bad.

Apple starter, hmmm. The library wants the Elizabeth David bread book back, maybe they will trade for Ortiz. Though the small amount of ambition I do have is being channelled to write 50 or so words a day for the NaNoWriMo.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 02:52 (twenty years ago)

If you write 50 words a day it will only take you three years!

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 03:04 (twenty years ago)

My mother has frozen big crops of apples before, Jaq, though not recently. This would probably be a handy time to have a vacuum sealer.

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

William, I've been thinking about one (but also about an awesome smoker). This is my year of food preserving - air-dried ham, sauerkraut (which seems to be having lack of juice issues), a plethora of squashes, onions, and garlic, many pints of home-rendered lard, tomato paste (which I realized last week I forgot to strain when I bit down on a whole peppercorn). RJM is convinced I'm stocking up for when we are quarantined with the bird flu.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 05:22 (twenty years ago)

If the kraut is lacking juice at this point, add brine.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 07:14 (twenty years ago)

My Mum freezes stewed apples or apples and blackberries mixed together and uses them up in crumbles or with custard on Sundays.

You can also make apple rings and dry them by leaving them in the oven overnight on the absolute lowest heat. If you can find skewers or metals sticks the right length, you can thread the apple rings onto them and hang them between the grooves in the walls of the oven where the shelves usually sit.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

I like the idea of freezing stewed apples, maybe a mix with cranberries for winter desserts. I may try drying some, just to do it. There might be some way to suspend stings of them from the racks.

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

I just checked with my mom. Peeled and sliced or quartered, dipped in a dilute salt-acid solution, drained and into the freezer bags. (1 tsp salt and 1 tsp vinegar per gallon of water.)

― I do feel guilty for getting any perverse amusement out of it (Rock Hardy), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 19:56 (twenty years ago)

Thanks for checking with her! I'm going to try them all - Apple Preservation Death Match!

(....and - I'm bailing on the NaNoWriMo thing. What was I thinking? I don't write fer shit and I'd rather read and cook in my leisure time.)

― Jaq (Jaq), Tuesday, 8 November 2005 20:31 (twenty years ago)

if'n ya know anybody with a grape press you could make cider

― jdchurchill (jdchurchill), Friday, 11 November 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

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