How NOT to Make Homemade Apple Cider

Well, I think I can now write a book on what NOT to do when attempting to make homemade apple cider! At the end of two plus hours of slicing apples, several more hours of trying to run the things through my food mill, giving up, cooking the apples just slightly (to soften them), running them back through the food mill creating applesauce, squeezing the applesauce through a towel (since I couldn't find cheese cloth at Wal-Mart today-thanks Wal-Mart!), throwing out the rancid tasting apple juice, putting the next batch of apple sauce through the sieve without the towel this time, creating apple juice instead of apple cider (which doesn't taste that bad considering I don't really like apple juice), remembering that the kind Mennonite farmer who tried to teach me how to make apple cider told me NOT to cook the apples or we'd have apple juice instead of apple cider, cutting MORE apples, pulverizing them in the food processor, decided that they weren't pulverized enough so I put them in the blender (which did absolutely nothing except frustrate me further), put the pulverized apples into a different sieve (since the other one is still occupied trying to make apple JUICE), squeezed the heck out of it with my kitchen gloves protecting my beautiful nails, I now have (okay, HAD - I drank it already) exactly 1/2 cup of apple cider (which was pretty good, not great), about two cups of apple juice, two large bowls of compost (apple cores & seeds), three large stock pots coated in syrupy apple parts, a sticky blender, a sticky food processor, a sticky food mill, two sieves full of what looks like dehydrated apple sauce, two sticky large slotted spoons, three sticky mixing bowls, two sticky rubber spatulas, sticky sinks and counters...and it's way past my bedtime. I need a magic wand to clean this mess up so I can go to bed. And I'm not sure I can look at another apple for a long, long, long time. Should I try again tomorrow? I still have a LOT of apples!

This is my favorite food mill...which did NOT work for this particular project, but makes great apple sauce, tomato paste, etc.



This food mill is one of the best investments I've ever bought for my kitchen. I love it! Just not for making apple cider. Have you ever tried to make homemade apple cider? What's your opinion? -Julie L. Spencer

I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer