Quick & Dirty Hard Cider

It's apple season! And what a year it has been for apples. I'm discovering apple trees I didn't even know existed on the edge of my woods, all bowing gracefully into autumn with their heavy loads of beautiful, imperfect, wild apples. While I have dreams of pressing cider from my own apples, I wasn't able to track down an apple grinder in time for pressing this year. Luckily, there is an orchard two miles from my house to fulfill all of my apple needs.

In the unseasonably hot September afternoon sun, I visited the orchard to stock up on eating apples and a gallon of unpasteurized cider. Turning it into hard cider takes minutes of your time and a few days of benign neglect.

Hands down the easiest way to make hard cider is to open your plastic jug of unpasteurized cider, pour off a glass to drink fresh, put the lid back on and leave it alone until the lid pops of of its own accord. Drink over the next few days as it continues to ferment. Read on for a more in depth look at making hard cider.

First, the apple cider must be unpasteurized. Pasteurized cider often has added preservatives which prevent fermentation, so it will never turn into hard cider. Try it, and you'll just waste the cider.

Second, apple cider expands when it ferments, due to the carbon dioxide that is released by the wild yeasts who are busy turning the apple sugar into sweet, sweet, alcohol, for free. Take some time to thank them when you start your cider. Because the cider will expand while fermenting, there must be room in the top of the container when you start, or you're end up with cider (and flies) all over the counter, and less hard cider to enjoy. 

To this end, Either pour off a glass of fresh cider from the container you buy it in, or transfer your cider into a larger container before letting sit out to ferment. Because most cider is available in plastic containers, I like to transfer one gallon of fresh cider into two half gallon ball jars to ferment. You can either drink the "extra" cider or ferment it in a quart jar.

Pro Tip: If you like to ferment in half gallon jars, put a thick rubber band around the middle of the jar to prevent it slipping out of your hand when you pick it up.

Now that you've given the cider some breathing room, it's time to cover it to keep out the flies. Apple cider contains naturally occurring yeasts that are present on the skin of the apple when it is harvested, so your cider does not need to be open to the air like some other ferments. You're not trying to catch wild yeast here. The cider has all the yeast that it needs.

I covered the cider pictured here with squares of an old t-shirt secured with a jar ring because that's what I had available. You can also cover it loosely with a ball jar lid and ring, making sure the ring is loose enough to allow the gases to escape. DO NOT COVER TIGHTLY. If you cover the jars tightly, the fermentation gas will be trapped and the jar will explode! Don't waste the cider or the time it will take you to visit the ER. If you have an airlock set up for other fermentation projects, you can use that as well to release the air while covering the cider.

Label your jars with the date. I promise that you will forget when you started them.

Apple cider tastes best when it ferments below 70F degrees. For quick counter top cider, it's okay to ferment it at higher temperatures, but the pros keep the cider cool.

Place your cider on the counter, in the pantry, or on the cellar stairs. Ignore it for three days. By then, it will start bubbling and fermenting and turning into alcohol. You can start tasting it after three days, but I usually leave mine out to ferment for a week before drinking it. You will be able to taste the alcohol when it is ready, and the cider should start to clear a little as it ages. There's no right answer for when you should drink the cider. Just try it. 

Alternatively, you could just drink the cider out of the jug, starting when it is fresh, and store it on the counter until it's empty. You'll drink some of it fresh and some of it hard, at varying levels of alcohol content. Hard cider tops out at about 5% alcohol, so you won't get a higher proof if you leave it out for an extended period of time. However, if left out for weeks, it will start turning into apple cider vinegar, but in my experience that can take six months or more to finish fermenting.

I know it can be nerve-wracking to start your own fermentation, but as with other ferments, if the cider smells good, you shouldn't worry about drinking it. Apple cider has lots of sugar and acid, which protect it from spoilage while the naturally occurring yeasts work their magic. As long as you start with unpasteurized cider, this is an easy and safe fermentation to try at home.

In short, leave unpasteurized apple cider out on the counter. Watch it bubble. Drink it down. Just about the cheapest, easiest, and most delicious way to make alcohol at home. My own price comparison (at $6 per gallon for fresh cider) pegs the homemade cider at one-third the price of bottled hard cider. Well worth the time and effort!

Because fresh cider can be hard to find year-round, you can always freeze an extra jug of it to ferment later on. Sealed plastic jugs of cider can be safely frozen without bursting. In fact, if you buy unpasteurized cider in the spring or summer, it was likely frozen by the orchard to preserve it before it was delivered to the store -- a testament to how fast apple cider ferments, and why homemade hard apple cider is such a sure bet.

Cider Bonus: Unfiltered hard apple cider is full of antioxidants and B Vitamins, a byproduct of the fermentation process. When we think about John Adams and early American colonists tucking into a pint of cider over breakfast, they were not only starting their day on a happy note with a beverage safer than the available water, they were imbibing a natural "multivitamin" for energy and health. I'll drink to that!

Dehydrated Pineapple Snacks You Won't Be Able to Resist

As a local food lover, I tend to stick with local fruits — gorging on them in season and preserving the rest for later. I eat bananas and oranges maybe twice per year, but I cannot resist a good pineapple! What a delight they are, bringing tropical breezes and palm trees right to my door. I find that I can’t eat a lot of fresh pineapple at once, so I’ve gotten into the routine of buying a few pineapples when they are on sale and dehydrating slices to snack on later. They are absolutely delicious — a real revelation in the world of dried fruits. One pineapple loosely fills a quart jar, but make extra — they go fast!

How to dehydrate pineapple:

Peel and core the pineapple(s), so you end up with roughy four lengthwise chunks of edible pineapple meat. Then cut each chunk crosswise into thin slices about 1/4-1/8 inch thick. Place the slices onto the trays of your dehydrator with space between the slices for air to circulate.

Dehydrate at 135F degrees for approximately 12 hours, or until the slices are pliable but have no wetness in them if you tear one in half. When you think the slices are fully dry, turn off your dehydrator and let them cool on the racks. They will become less pliable as they cool, so it is easier to gauge your final product when they are cool.

Pineapple retains a nice chewy texture when completely dry. When dry, remove slices from trays and store in an airtight jar. Check the jar after a few days. If there is condensation forming on the inside of the jar, the pineapple is not fully dry and must be returned to the dehydrator to avoid spoilage. If you prefer slices that are thicker and/or not fully dry, you can store them in the refrigerator after dehydrating. 

A note about storing dried fruit:

When choosing your storage jars, it is always better to store dried fruit in multiple small jars instead of all in one big jar. If one piece wasn’t quite dry and spoils, you’ll only have to throw away one jar, not the whole batch. Smaller containers also protect your batch from the moisture in the air that enters the jar each time you open it to take out some of the dried fruit. A larger jar will absorb more moisture over time as you open and close the jar, so smaller is better.

Bet you can't eat just one!!

Miso Soup with Egg Drop: Instant Breakfast on the Go

I'm a bagel and cream cheese kind of gal, always have been, but I'm trying to branch out my breakfast options when I'm on the go and don't have time to make a big breakfast at home. Enter miso soup.

I find miso soup recipes to be somewhat daunting, with quick homemade broths from exotic ingredients being an unreasonable expectation for early morning kithenry. That's why I am so thankful to have found Trader Joe's instant miso packets. They have been a great introduction to miso soup for me, and a way to start a new pattern of eating at breakfast while I learn how to make miso soup on my own. The miso soup alone tastes good, but it doesn't quite feel like a meal, so I've added an egg drop to the recipe for breakfast on the go faster than you can toast a bagel!

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Instant Miso Soup with Egg Drop To Go

1 packet instant miso soup
1 egg
2 cups boiling water

Crack the egg into a pint mason jar and lightly beat it. Add contents of miso soup packet to jar. Fill jar with boiling water, and then swirl the soup with a spoon to mix in the egg.  Let cook/cool for a couple of minutes before drinking, or do what I do and wait to eat it until you're en route. Nutritious and goes down easy!