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Do you know that pickled apples restore intestinal microflora better than yogurt or bifidobacteria? They are also useful with a high content of vitamins, microelements, help the immune system, strengthen teeth and hair, and restore the lost elasticity of the vessels. The list goes on. But what can I say, our ancestors were wise people. Before, in every basement there was a wooden barrel filled with soaked apples, but do all our contemporaries know their taste?
Maybe it's enough to buy rubber fruits in the store in the winter, or juices reconstituted from powder, which do not bring any benefits, are expensive, and, frankly, they do not taste very good? Let's make pickled apples at home, fortunately, there are enough recipes. Owners of private houses will be able to cook them in the old fashioned way, in whole barrels, and city dwellers, for lack of space or suitable containers, in cans.
What is peeing
Before we tell you how to make pickled apples, let's take a look at the process. This old, undeservedly forgotten method of harvesting berries and fruits is based on lactic acid fermentation, like salting vegetables. You can wet apples, pears, plums, cranberries, lingonberries, or even physalis. Unlike vegetables, fruits and berries contain a lot of sugar, which, during fermentation, turns not only into lactic acid. It is converted to other preservatives like alcohol and carbon dioxide.
Homemade soaked fruits are the result of exposure to lactic acid, alcohol and carbon dioxide, retain their nutritional properties, have a refreshing taste, and have a long shelf life.
The main rules for urinating
Soaking apples is not much more difficult than making jam or canning fruits, you just need to consider some important points.
- For the yeast that causes alcoholic fermentation to work successfully, and at the same time to suppress harmful microorganisms, apples must be quite sour.
- The brine with which the soaked fruits are poured should have a temperature not exceeding 30 degrees. Otherwise, the apples will get a very unpleasant aftertaste. It is a violation of technology that explains the disgusting smell emanating from the fruits, sometimes found on the market.
- For peeing, only healthy removable apples of late autumn or winter varieties with dense sour pulp are suitable, for example, Antonovka, Pepin, Anis. Of the early fruits, only white filling or Papirovka are suitable.
- Only apples of the same variety can be soaked in one barrel or jar.
Soaking apples according to the old recipe
In this way, pickled apples at home were made by our great-grandmothers. If you have an oak barrel, then there is nothing complicated in it, believe me, it is much easier to get wheat or rye straw than you might think, if you would like to.
Preparation of raw materials and containers
You cannot cook these soaked apples in 3-liter jars, only oak, beech or lime barrels, large-volume enameled dishes or large glass cylinders with a wide neck will do. Collect the fruits of winter varieties, let them rest for 15-20 days. Go through, discarding the rotten, broken, wormy and sick.
Pre-soak the barrels until the leak stops. Fill new oak trees with water for 2-3 weeks and change it every 2-3 days.This is to remove the tannins before cooking the apples. After soaking, the barrels are filled with boiling soda solution and rolled. On a bucket of boiling water, take 20-25 g of caustic soda or soda ash - 50-60 g.
The solution is left for 15-20 minutes, poured out, washed several times with cold clean water.
Before laying the fruit, scald it with boiling water.
Before cooking soaked apples in a glass or enamel bowl, wash it thoroughly with hot water and baking soda and rinse thoroughly with cold. Immediately before laying the fruits, scald with boiling water.
Grocery list
In order to get 100 kg of pickled fruits, you need:
- fresh apples - 107 kg;
- sugar - 2 kg;
- salt - 1 kg;
- malt - 0.5 kg (or 1 kg of rye flour);
- mustard powder - 150-200 g.
You will also need clean wheat or rye straw for peeing.
Fruit wetting
If you are using malt (sprouted barley), pour it into a saucepan, add 5 liters of cold water and boil for 15 minutes. Instead, you can use rye flour to soak the apples. First, dilute it thoroughly with 1-2 parts of cold water, and then boil it with boiling water. Add salt, sugar and mustard.
Preparing containers for wetting the fruit. Pour boiling water over it, line the bottom with washed and scalded straw. Place cleanly washed apples tightly on top of it. Straw the sides of the barrel as you fill it. When the watering container is full of fruit, place the dry wheat or rye stalks on top.
If you are making pickled fruit in a barrel, seal it and pour the filling through the tongue-and-groove hole. Fill a glass or enamel container through the top.
For the initial fermentation, soak the pickled apples for a week at a temperature of about 20 degrees. Then transfer the container to the basement, cellar or other cold room, top up the filling, plug the tongue hole at the barrel. If pickled apples are cooked in a different container, cover tightly. If necessary, coat the lid along the edge with a thick layer of dough.
After 1.5-2 months, eat tasty, healthy pickled apples.
Additives to improve taste
Shifting each layer of fruit with straw will improve its flavor.
To add a special flavor to soaked apples, you can add:
- currant and cherry leaves;
- sprigs of celery or parsnips.
To make a truly royal dish from soaked apples, you can replace sugar with honey (1.5-2 kg). Of course, this pleasure is not cheap and only beekeepers can afford it painlessly.
White filling soaked in a jar
This recipe for soaked apples at home can be prepared by residents of city apartments, and not necessarily from white filling. Any small fruits that easily pass into the neck of the jar will do.
Of course, if you really find fault, then these apples can only be called soaked with a stretch. But their taste is similar, and you don't have to choose much, you won't drag an oak barrel into a one-room apartment, and even on some floor there.
Grocery list
For a two-liter jar you will need:
- apples - 1 kg;
- salt - 1 tbsp. the spoon;
- sugar - 2 tbsp. spoons;
- vinegar - 3 tbsp. spoons;
- horseradish leaf - 1 pc.;
- cherry leaf - 3-4 pcs.;
- cloves - 2 pcs.
Important! Apples for peeing should only be of the highest quality - whole, without the slightest flaw.
Fruit wetting
Sterilize and dry the jars.
Wash the apples, if the tails are preserved, it is not necessary to pick them off.
Place washed cherry and horseradish leaves and clove buds on the bottom of each urinating bottle.
Spread the fruits so that they lie tightly in the jars, but do not push them by force, otherwise they will be crumpled.
Pour boiling water over to the top, cover and a warm blanket or terry towels, let stand for 5-10 minutes.
Pour the water into a saucepan, boil. Repeat the procedure.
When you drain the water from the jar for the second time, add vinegar, salt, sugar to it while boiling.
Pour, roll up, place upside down and wrap in an old blanket.
This recipe for making soaked apples allows for some liberties. You can add currant leaves or replace sugar with honey.
Conclusion
We have given only two recipes for making soaked apples. We hope you enjoy them. Enjoy your meal!
