Editor's Note (09/16/2011) : This time of year, when the air begins to cool down at night and frost begins to threaten early in the day--but afternoon temperatures can still reach into the 70s and even the low 80s--is the time our family loves to head out together to the local orchard to pick a peck of apples, to ride the wagon, sip frozen cider, and select a pumpkin or two for the front porch. But what to do with all those apples? There's apple pie and apple fritters, caramel-covered apples and the like. But for something truly out of the ordinary, we turn again to the old Farm Journal book, How To Do Things and its "household recipes" page! (Just scroll on down to see the myriad "apple products" our ancestors made and sold from the "waste" of the homestead orchard.)

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How to Do Things

Household Recipes     |     Christmas Sweetmeats

Christmas Sweetmeats

     There are all sorts of candy substitutes, such as stuffed dates, candied ginger, fruit pastes and salted nuts.  Not only stuffed dates, but stuffed prunes are delicious.  Wash them thoroughly, take out the seeds and slip into each one an almond or a peanut and see how eagerly the children will eat them.  Dried fruits, such as dates, figs, prunes and raisins not only have sugar, but are also highly nourishing.  Raisins and nuts, if given with moderation, will not prove indigestible.

     A half pound each of dates and nuts run through a grinder, softened with lemon juice and cut into squares like caramels make a wholesome substitute for candy.

     Use more home salted nuts this Christmas than in previous years.  Peanuts, pecans or almonds, if prepared in olive oil or butter, will not go begging.

     To candy orange or grape fruit peel requires the use of some sugar, but less than for its equivalent in candy, and you are using up what would otherwise be thrown away.  The following recipes require very little sugar:

     Peanut bars No. 1:  One cupful of granulated sugar, half a cupful of broken peanuts; put the sugar in an iron skillet, stir constantly until it melts to a golden brown.  Stir in the nuts and pour at once into a buttered pan.  Stir constantly while the sugar is melting, as it burns easily.

     Peanut bars No. 2:  Shell and remove the skins from one quart of roasted peanuts and chop fine.  Beat the white of one egg until stiff, but not dry, and add gradually one cupful of brown sugar, one-fourth teaspoon of salt and one-half teaspoonful of vanilla.  Fold the peanuts into the mixture and spread evenly in a buttered shallow pan.  Bake in a quick oven until well puffed and browned.  As soon as taken from oven cut in bars, using a sharp knife.

     Chocolate caramels:  One pint of sugar, one pint of extracted honey (or sorghum), one-quarter pound grated chocolate, one-half cupful sweet cream, one tablespoonful of vanilla extract.  Try this often while boiling by dropping a small portion in cold water.  When it will form a soft ball, pour about one-quarter inch thick on greased tins.  Mark in squares just before it hardens.

     Walnut creams:  Boil to the hard snap stage one cupful of grated chocolate, one cupful of brown sugar, one cupful of extracted honey (or sorghum), one-half cupful of sweet cream.  When it hardens on being dropped into water, stir in a piece of butter the size of an egg.  Just before removing from fire add two cupfuls of finely chopped

How to Do Things

Apple Products     |     Household Recipes

nuts, stir thoroughly and pour on buttered plates to cool, then cut it into squares.

     Cracker Jack:  One cupful of brown sugar, one cupful extracted honey (or sorghum).  Boil until it hardens when dropped into cold water.  Remove from the fire and stir in one-half teaspoonful of soda, and when this dissolves, stir in all the popcorn it will take.  Spread on greased tins and mark in squares.

Salable Things from Waste Apples

In these days when the world faces an increasingly serious food shortage it is unwise to overlook any resources that will add good nourishing food to the depleted supply. In many States the percentage of cull or cider apples runs fully one-third of the total and it is frequently estimated that thou­sands of tons of such apples are wasted each year.

While a portion of the larger culls may be evaporated to excellent ad­vantage, the most practical way of di­verting this enormous waste into good food is by pressing. Practically all the valuable and nutritive elements of fruits are contained in the juice. The other part consists largely of cellular tissue and is of little value except to retain the juice, which in ripe apples runs as high as ninety per cent.

Products of Apple Juice

A modern hydraulic cider-press will extract an average of a little more than four gallons of cider from each bushel of ordinary culls. This juice is readily converted into a variety of food products that are not only appe­tizing and nourishing, but most of them are in concentrated form con­venient to market and easy to pre­serve. Cider vinegar, boiled cider, apple syrup, apple jelly, apple butter and pasteurized cider are all in active demand and can be sold at a better net profit than is usually obtained from the apples in a fresh condition.

Even the pomace need not be wasted. It is being used extensively as feed for dairy and beef cattle, and for hogs and sheep. Many pronounce it equal to ordinary corn silage. Pomace also has a distinct value as jelly stock be­cause of its pectin content, which is not impaired by drying. Frequently the pomace is pressed a second time, the resulting juice being used for making vinegar or jelly.

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Apple Products | Household Recipes

A Temperance Health Drink

Pasteurized cider is highly recom­mended as a temperance drink by eminent physicians and scientists. It is a tonic as well as a nutrient, con­taining natural salts and acids of spe­cial value in the correcting of stomach complaints and liver and kidney trouble, and can readily be made avail­able as a delightful home beverage the year around. Chemical preservatives should be avoided, but pasteurizing to 160 degrees for two hours, and seal­ing tight, is effective.

Cider Vinegar

One of the staple food products from waste apples that is in universal de­mand is cider vinegar. Pure cider vinegar commands a premium on the market.

In the process of transforming cider into vinegar, two distinct fermenta­tions take place. First is the vinous or alcoholic fermentation, which is the changing of the sugar of the cider into alcohol, caused by the action of certain natural yeast bac­teria. Second is the acetic fermen­tation by which the alcohol thus formed is changed to vinegar acid or acetic acid. The alcoholic fermentation may be accele­rated by the addition of yeast, using a cake to each five gallons, dissolved in warm water before adding. The acetic fermentation is also aided by the addition of good vinegar contain­ing some mother of vinegar.

It is important to allow plenty of room for air in the barrel during all stages of fermentation and also to maintain the temperature between 60 degrees and 80 degrees. Care should be taken not to start the second fer­mentation until all the sugar in the cider is changed into alcohol, other­ wise the change to vinegar will be retarded.

Boiled Cider

There exists in this country a potential market for boiled cider that would consume a hundred times the amount now produced if the product could only be obtained. Boiled cider is the fresh juice concentrated by evaporation in the ratio of five gal­lons reduced to one. In this form it will remain in a perfect state of preservation for years. It is dark brown in color and of a syrupy con­sistency. It has an extensive use both commercially and in the kitchen, being especially desirable for mak­ing mince-meat and apple butter, as well as having a multitude of other culinary uses.

By continuing the evaporating process until the cider is reduced to the ratio of seven to one, the product becomes jelly.

A Home-Made Sugar Substitute

When sugar and sugar products are scarce and high, a practical use of the generous sugar content of apples is especially acceptable. An extensive series of experiments by the Department of Agriculture resulted in the development of a method of making apple table syrup which produces an attractive article or fine flavor.

The process is as follows: Stir into seven gallons of sweet cider five ounces of powdered calcium carbon­ate--a harmless, low-priced chemical--and boil in a large kettle five min­utes. If a large vessel is not avail­able the cider may be boiled in

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batches. After boiling, pour the cider into glass jars, and allow it to settle until perfectly clear, which requires about seven hours. Return the clear liquid to the preserving kettle, being careful not to pour off any of the sedi­ment. Fill the vessel only about half full, as it foams up when boiling. Add a level teaspoonful of the cal­cium carbonate for the seven gallons of liquid and boil rapidly until a tem­perature of 220 degrees is reached, or until it is about one-seventh of the original volume and the consistency of maple syrup when cooled rapidly and poured upon a spoon.

To insure clear syrup the cooling must be done slowly. A good way is to set the jars of syrup in a wash­ boiler of hot water and allow the whole to cool. Use this syrup like any other table syrup, and as a flavoring adjunct. Also as sauce for puddings and for making brown bread, fruitcake, candy, etc.