Here’s the best recipe for apple cider. And this is a raw food. In other words, it is chock full of all the good stuff! No pasteurization.
Apple cider is not easy to make. It takes a small army to do this right. One would think there was nothing to it. Ha!
A single ingredient anything (meal, dessert, beverage, etc) is one of those most complicated things to make right because if that one ingredient isn’t outstanding then the labor, effort, and enjoyment is worthless. Don’t believe me? Go ask Alice. I ate at Chez Panisse once and they served me a perfectly sweet peach for dessert – nothing else! And I still remember it.
Recipe: plant apple seeds in good soil, grow apple orchard if you’re planning on making enough juice to supply a county (easy?), nuture the trees and stay away from chemical sprays.
At Echo Valley Farm the apple trees are over one hundred years old and no one knows exactly what variety they are. We do know they are tart sweet and make killer tangy juice.
When the apples are at the hight of ripeness round up everyone in town to shake trees, pick, harvest, stand on ladders and grab. Core apples. Then get two insanely strong farmers to hand press them the old fashioned way.
This is not a job for wimps. This is a two day upper body work-out. (blow-out, might be a more accurate description.)
Strain out the yellow jackets that have dive bombed into the juice who are sugar drunk and a little cranky.
Pour into 200 pint jars. Freeze. Take out jars in the morning before the 200 guests arrive for lunch and let them partially thaw so they are slushy.
Watch men, women, and children bring jars to mouth holding carefully with two hands.
Listen for lip smacking and satisfaction sounds.
Pescadero grown, Echo Valley Farm picked and pressed.
It’s the ‘simple’ things in life that bring so much joy.
(Thank you Lars for capturing the day)
Well, that’s one way to get some strength training in there, and freezing the mason jars takes care of the exploding tops problem from fermentation.
On the assumption that there are some apples left, are you also experimenting with making “hard” cider or cider vinegar?
Yes, the exploding tops was a concern but it didn’t happen probably because the juice was pressed and frozen immediately and not fermented.
How did you know that hard cider was in the works?!?! Not for public consumption of course, just for fun. Although I could get really excited about cidre. That would be awesome. I love that stuff. Especially with Camembert. Oh wait, farmer Kate is making Camembert, okay, I might have to get a grip on this toute suite!
My early experiments with hard cider (years ago) tasted a little more like prison juice. Vinegar would be fun too…
Right now I could use a sip of that hard cidre experimentation, but I suspect that your own experimentation (in cidre or vinegar forms) will have already taken care of it.
Prison juice… you don’t really resemble Sybil Danning all that much.
I will have to try this! sounds yummy
Hummmmy, after reading this, i so want to make some crepes !!!!!!!
In the same time, i remember doing some cider when i was a kid. Where my parents live in Britany, we produce a lot of Cider. The day we do that, it always a big fiesta !!! All the neighbour, the family come to help and at the end of the day, everyone can enjoy around a long table, the crepes which all the grandmothers did during the day (generally all the kids couldn’t wait the end of the day for enjoy the crepes…. lol. Like that, we could enjoy the cider which we did the year before.
Its a lot of of good memories.
Thank you for remain me all that.
Thanks Chef! I actually thought about you while making this because you really introduced me to cidré in Paris. And of course crepes with cidre – that will always bring back memories of Guy Savoy Friday special occasion breakfasts – hummmmy!!!
Hey I attempted to e-mail you about this post that i have a few inquires but cant seem to achieve …