People who live in Apple Houses. . .

are bound to learn every possible way to cook/process/eat/enjoy apples.

A friend on facebook said she could just hear me (ala Forest Gump) apple pic, apple fritter, apple sauce, apple butter, apple soup, pork with apples, apple crisp, apple cider. . .

She isn't far from the mark!  While we didn't get to enjoy the full harvest season here this year, there was still apple sauce, apple butter, and apple crisps made from the fruits of these orchard.

Last, but no where near least, was the small and precious batch of apple cider that I extracted, all without an cider press.

It starts with a bowl full of apples.  This many apples yielded about 1 quart of cider.  Be sure that you have a variety of apples, a cider from only one kind will not be near as pleasing.  Choose at least one tart variety.

Quarter them.

Throw them in your food processor and turn it on.  Your goal is to make apple mush.

Now you need a large bowl and a strainer that will fit inside of it.  Lay a large, fairly wet, but not soaking towel over both of them.

Like this.

Dump your apple mush into the bowl/strainer/towel. 

Wrap it up (like an apple mush present, don't you all wish you were on MY gift giving list!)

Take a picture of your fairly messy kitchen (you can skip this step, but expect that this will make a bit of a mess.)

Now SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEZE.  Squish, push, ring, do what ever it takes to get the juice out of that mush.  It will take a while, about 10-15 minutes.  It's a lot of effort for a small amount of cider, but you have never tasted cider like this before.

 

At the end you will be left with this.  Can you believe that this is all that is left of all those apples? 

THE FINAL PRODUCT

Isn't it a lovely color?  You may want to add a little water to this, as it is very intense.  I imagine this would change from batch to batch, so test it first and then add just a little water at a time.  Chill it or heat it and add mulling spices to it.  It was a very special treat!