Page 14 - Simply Vegetables Spring 2021

post and then straining the juice through a muslin bag – humble beginnings. I eventually bought a small cage press and a scratter.
I developed an interest in cider and perry and even planted my own cider and perry orchard on the famous St Ann’s Allotment site in Nottingham, these were once pleasure gardens for the well-to-do. I gave demos at our village Apple Day. I eventually invested in a cheese press, so called because the layers of pomace are wrapped in cheese cloths or substitutes. The much bigger old traditional farmyard presses use straw instead of a cheese cloth. This was great for the viewing public as the juicing process was drawn out; the scratter, however was still hard work, especially with the Bramleys which had to
be cut up, even then I needed muscles like Popeye.
I eventually went way up market and bought a stainless-steel mill (food grade shredder) and a bladder press, these two
Juicing Brown’s Apple with the Bladder Press
pieces of equipment really shifted the apples. Last month I made 30 litres of Discovery
and Egremont Russet juice in about fifteen minutes. The juice is naturally cloudy, and
again. The thinking behind this is: the first heating cycle is to heat the water in the boiler, the second heating cycle is to heat the juice and the last heating cycle is the one that pasteurises the juice. I was told that the juice would taste ‘cooked’, but this is not the case. With the Vigo pasteuriser this three x 25 minutes at 75°C works. Instructions for pasteurising B in B are a bit vague; when
the boiler and the ten litre bag have cooled down insert the bag into the cardboard housing. Currently my wife has fruit juice and
dried fruit with her cereal for breakfast, I did suggest growing some oats but she thought a cow would be better, ermm.
Note. Here’s some guidelines for pressing apples for juice, use undamaged picked apples with small eyes, this minimises the risk of the toxin patulin being in the juice, I understand
that pasteurisation is not guaranteed to kill it off. You could go to your computer for this one.
Canning
A friend of mine has an American canning machine, only one problem, he has run out of cans, apparently, they are still available providing you buy several hundred at a time. This is a great pity as the ones he did have were put to good use several years ago canning Beth pears and Bellegarde peaches. I recently found a can of ten-
I don’t bother with the ascorbic acid to prevent oxidisation. The juice requires, either freezing or pasteurising. If you have freezer space and have only a small amount of apples, save the Tetra Packs that fruit juice comes in, cut the top off, place a freezer bag inside and fill with juice, stand upright
in the freezer until frozen and then slide out of the Tetra Pack and stack
or lay down in the freezer. The
alternatives to freezing are
pasteurisation, this is done
either in bottles stood in the
pasteuriser (a device similar to
a Burco boiler), and the freezing
method is quicker and a lot less
trouble. My preferred method
is the Bag in the Box method.
In my case a ten-litre bag in the Box. This
is my method using a Vigo pasteuriser. Half fill the boiler with hot water, place the bag in the water and fill with juice. A ten litre B in B will not readily take ten litres more like nine to nine and a half. Squeeze out the air and push in the stopper (tap). Carry on filling the boiler until the water is one and a half inches from the top; set the timer for 25 minutes and the temperature to 75 degrees. When the timer has completed its cycle reset it and start again. When the timer has completed its cycle, reset and do the whole thing over
The juice requires, either freezing or pasteurising
14 Simply Vegetables