Cooking apples - Loads on the trees - how do I store them to make them last.

[Niecie]

We have got a couple of cooking apple trees which have a bumper crop this year. Rather than waiting for them to fall off by themselves and then letting them go rotten on the ground, this year I have tried to pick some (can't reach that many but still have a fair few). However, I now don't know how to store them to make them last as long as possible.

Not sure if this should be in food or gardening - I may try gardening later.

Anybody got any tips though?

Thanks.

sounds lovely - and easy, DasiyMoo, thanks for writing it out.
Any idea how many jars that'll take (cos I'm running out!) and also roughly how long it takes to get to setting point? Chutney recipe coming up....

Apple Chutney (from Good Housekeeping cook book)

3lb cooking apples, peeled (sorry!), cored and diced
3lb onions, skinned and chopped
1lb sultanas or seedless raisins
grated rind and juice 2 lemons
1 1/2 lb demerara sugar
1 pint malt vinegar

Stick all the ingredients in a pan (I don't have a preserving pan, used my pressure cooker without the lid).
Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally for about 3 hours til mixture thick consistency with no excess liquid remaining. Spoon into prepared jars and cover immediately with airtight and vinegar proof tops. (I put waxed discs on mine too).

Makes about 6lb. Best to leave it for at least a month before eating.

Thanks for the recipe, sounds good! I can't remember how many jars the jelly recipe makes - not masses I don't think, maybe 3 pounds or so?

...not masses I think....

great, I've got enough jars for that. Just need to find some muslin or a jelly bag now.

Hi DaisyMoo, just to say the apple jelly was fab. DCs have devoured it and just off to make some more....

I have a dozen trees and the same problem as my cookers always carry as much fruit in weight as the rest put together. If yours are Bramleys, which many are in UK, then one of the best ways to use large quantities is in making wine.

My suggestion, grab yourself a 100 -200 litre brewing barrel from ebay with a tap at the bottom and a large screw lid for easy cleaning. For 100 litre, you'll need 200-300lbs of apples. Pick them if you like, but better if you collect them as windfalls, you can collect them over a fortnight and hide them away from pests and weather. If you dont have enough then go and pick the rest, September is a good time to start. Leave them for another fortnight. Dont worry too much about any brown softening. At this point if you can press them do so, if you can't then throw them in a deep freeze for a couple of days and thaw them. The freezing process makes the water in the apples crystalise and this tends to puncture the cell walls, which is what you want. Then take you much softened apples and throw them in the big barrel, for added flavour and a nice colour a few kilograms of blackberries is good.

Now you have to ferment the pulp, if you used 300 lbs and pressed them you may only have 150lb of juice or about 15 gallons by volume. if you are just using the aged frozen apples dump them into the barrel and let them thaw there, either way top up with water. Now you add sugar in any way you can because the cookers will not be sweet enough to ferment to wine, you may get 3-4% alcohol but it will not keep. If you have other soft fruit spare that can be added, but in the end you really need a sack of sugar to bump that alcohol up and make the stuff keep, 2lbs a gallon or thereabouts. You can now just throw in some wine yeast starter (a gallon of wine yeast in sugar water and nutrient that is fermenting well) and some yeast nutrient.

At this point you really need to read a winemaking book to handle the fermentation, but expect to have to handle the high acidity with some food grade chalk, and learn about keeping spoilage away from your brew with -metabisulphite. If you can find a book by Ken Shales use it.

Looked at this thread cos our apple tree is bursting with apples again - then realised it was one I was on last year! Really must try apple wine, thanks festerbestertester, tho doubt we have 2-300lbs apples.
Now this thread has been resurrected, any other good ideas for what to do with cooking apples?