Apple juice: types, preparation and use

Apple juice deservedly enjoys the love of both children and adults.It has a rich taste, and its use does not cause the slightest doubt. It is well absorbed, which is why the drink is recommended for babies as the very first juice in life. What happens to this popular drink, how to prepare it, store and take it correctly, we will tell in this article.

Under the common name hides a large variety of types of this drink. It is prepared from almost all varieties of apples, but brand juice is considered elite, which is made from one variety. Having seen the inscription “vintage” on the package, you can be calm - the taste of the drink will be at its best.

Undoubtedly, the best option for children, and adult food, is fresh juice. This is a natural product that is drunk immediately upon receipt. There are no preservatives, concentrate, sugar. It preserves the entire rich chemical composition of the product, for which he gained universal love and recognition.

There are the following options:

• clarified;
• unclarified;
• with pulp.

They differ in the transparency of the drink. From the clarified juice remove all suspensions, it turns out the most transparent. Unclarified juice contains a certain amount of fiber and suspension, and the name of the drink with pulp speaks for itself.

According to the method of obtaining the product, the drink is also divided into several types:

• straight pressed - made directly from fruit;
• reconstituted - made from concentrate using the reconstitution method (diluted with purified drinking water);
• concentrated - made of fruit, but “dehydrated”, devoid of liquid, thus, the content of nutrients is concentrated in a smaller volume of the product.

Depending on the specific composition of the drink, there are:

• natural - made without sugar;
• with sugar;
• Blended - a drink in which the current GOST implies the presence of 65% apple and 35% of other types of juice, for example, berry or pear.

There are premium-class juices, the price of which is quite high, there are affordable economy drinks for everyone. For children, they produce a separate type of drink - children's juice, which must meet the strict requirements of quality and safety. It is always natural, without sugar or with a tolerable small amount of sugar, in no case blending, most often - clarified, although there are options with pulp recommended for baby food.

To get a tasty and aromatic drink, you should use fruit varieties that have juicy pulp. In the conditions of home cooking, a direct-pressed drink is optimally prepared from apples that have a light sour taste with pronounced notes of sweet, as well as fairly dense pulp. These varieties traditionally include “Antey”, “Astronaut Titov”, “Memory of Kovalenko”. It is from these varieties that the most delicious natural juice is obtained - there is no need to add sugar to it separately, since the apples themselves have a pronounced sweetish hue.

Among the varieties of foreign selection for the drink best suited "Delicious Red" and green variety "Green". From the latter, a juice is obtained, which is almost transparent with a slight golden hue, which also has a pronounced pleasant aroma. Such drinks are best consumed immediately. For prolonged storage, juices with sugar are more suitable, which can be rolled up in cans and drunk all winter. For these purposes, you should pay attention to the more acidic varieties - “Antonovka”, “Nizhegorodku”, “Verbnoye”, “Glory to the Victors”.

Early maturing varieties are not suitable for making a drink.If the apple tree “White filling” grows in your garden, then it is better to use the fruits in the whole form, as a last resort - to make jam, to make jam, but it will not work for juice, like “Pepin saffron”. Of these, it is possible to obtain a small amount of healthy liquid, it tastes almost neutral, and it is unlikely that such a drink will delight you with a wonderful smell.

When choosing apples for juice intended for baby food, pay attention to the fact that the fruits are intact, have no “broken” barrels and no signs of eating by insects or parasites.

If everything is more or less clear with a qualitative question, then a quantitative question does not cease to excite the minds of all culinary specialists and gardeners. How many apples do you need for a liter of finished drink? It all depends on how you will squeeze it, what are the characteristics of your home juicer, what sort of apples are taken for cooking, as well as the shelf life of the fruit itself. If they have been lying for a long time and are waiting for their time, then it is possible that their skin has become a bit lethargic. It is obvious that the drink from such fruits will turn out to be significantly less than from the fruits of fresh, bulk.

According to reviews of experienced gardeners and producers of a kilogram of apples of medium juiciness, usually from 500 to 700 ml of drink is obtained. Thus, for a liter of juice you need about 1.5-1.7 kilograms of fruit. If you plan to make juice with pulp, you need naturally less apples than for the same amount of ready-made drink, but without pulp.

Even if an apple drink does not inspire you in its pure form, it is worth learning how to do it, because it is this type of juice that forms the basis of many other juices from fruits and berries, and therefore knowledge of several simple and accurate recipes does not hurt. If you want to get a clear drink, then at home this task is practically impossible. There is always a certain amount of suspended matter in an apple-cooked apple drink, even if it is not juice with pulp.

Preparation of natural juice without sugar will require only the presence of ripe fruit. If they were gathered in their own garden, it is enough to sort out the apples carefully, remove the “broken”, wormy or other signs of defeat and wash the remaining ones. If you bought apples in a store or on the market and strongly doubt their true origin, as well as storage conditions, wash them well with warm water after rubbing with dry soda.

Pure apples are placed on a towel and allowed to lie down for about half an hour so that the fabric absorbs all the moisture. Then the apples should be peeled, removing the core from each half of the fruit. What to do next depends on what you intend to use. If juicer, check out the requirements of a particular model. According to them, the fruit may have to chop with a knife before squeezing. If there is no juicer, and you need half a glass to treat a child, you can take a plastic (non-metallic) grater, grate an apple and squeeze juice through gauze folded in 2-3 layers.

If you squeeze the drink with the help of a juicer, prepare in advance a non-metallic container, the neck of which will fit snugly to the tip of the juicer so that the final product is less in contact with air and does not oxidize. Fresh juice should not be stored for a long time. For long-term storage of suitable types of drink with sugar. So let's learn how to make juice for winter storage.In matters of preservation of apple juice the main point is the container in which it is supposed to store the divine drink. Prepare the jars and lids beforehand, wash them, sterilize them, make sure that they are absolutely clean.

To save the juice obtained in the manner described above will help to add a small amount of sugar to it. (approximate proportion is as follows: 1 tablespoon per half liter of liquid). You can also make pasteurization. To do this, put the squeezed juice into a clean enameled pan and bring to a temperature of 97 degrees over low heat. It is important not to make the product boil. The resulting juice is poured over the banks, rolled up and covered with a warm blanket or rug, putting the banks with the lids down. After 16 hours, you can turn over the banks and put them in the place where you plan to store “on demand”.

There is water in the pot. That it will boil and heat the juice in the banks. When the first bubbles begin to appear on the drink, you should carefully remove the cans from the boiling water, immediately roll up the lids and place the beds under the blanket upwards for 18 hours.

If there is a need to prepare a natural juice without sugar, make it easier than ever. Do not add sugar. If pasteurization is carried out correctly, and the containers are clean, the banks should not open. You can also make a drink with the help of the juice cooker, but it will be slightly inferior in the amount of useful substances.

It is recommended to drink the juice from the cans that you prepared yourself, slightly diluting the contents with water. Apple drink is rich in organic acids, in their natural form, their amount may be excessive for assimilation, especially in people with gastritis, increased acidity of the stomach, and pancreatitis. It is undesirable to drink juice at night before bedtime. One of the properties of the drink - a diuretic effect, and therefore sleep well will not work. Try to take juice not on an empty stomach, but after a full meal, so as not to increase the acidity of the stomach and not disturb digestion.

It is necessary to give the child the juice after half of the required dilution with water. If we are talking about babies of infancy, then it is better for them to prepare fresh juice at one time and without sugar.

Children are introduced juice gradually, from six months. The initial amount is from a third of a teaspoon. When constipation apple drink is recommended to drink with the pulp. This juice is rich in pectin - a natural natural laxative. Children can be given such a drink from 9-10 months, but better from year to year.

To strengthen the immunity in the cold season, to increase the level of hemoglobin with anemia, juice is best taken without sugar. About 300 ml are recommended for adults every day, and from 50 to 150 ml for children, depending on age. This amount contains enough vitamins and minerals, as well as active organic substances to meet daily needs.

Pasteurized juice cans stored in a dark, dry place. If everything was done correctly, banks will easily stand for the whole winter. Open a jar store in the refrigerator for no more than two days. Store juice has a longer shelf life even after opening the package, but this is solely a merit of preservatives. It is also advisable to keep it in the refrigerator. Fresh juice should not be stored, it should be drunk. The maximum time allowed for storing freshly squeezed product is no more than 12 hours in the refrigerator.

Some try to freeze the juice for the winter - poured into molds and freeze. It should be noted that in the thawed form, the drink greatly loses in use, but does not spoil exactly.Therefore, this method can be used to freeze beautiful and tasty servings of natural fruit ice. And if the child over the glass of the drink still thinks whether to drink it, then the kid will definitely not refuse the icy delicacy.

How to make apple juice in production, see the following video.