Bottling apples

[Graye]

On a walk through some pretty deep woods we discovered two really laden apple trees. We have picked some for wine but I would like to bottle some. I have kilner jars but am not too sure how to do this. They are not cooking type apples, rather very tart little rosy ones, a bit like Worcester Permains.
Is it always necessary to stew apples before bottling or can they be lightly blanched or even put in raw? Do I need to add lemon juice, sugar, etc? I can see various references to bottling apples when I do a search through the site bit a tried and tested method would be good!
We were in fact looking for sloes and didn´t find a single one. I'm not sure if it's just a bad year for sloes but I would have expected to see them on the trees even if they weren't ripe. Plenty of trees, no sloes! Are there any on the trees in the UK? We will be back for 10 days at the end of next month and may have to wait until then I suppose.

[ina]

I would always stew apples before filling them into the jars. You get more in that way; they tend to shrink when cooked. Don't have any tried and tested recipes, though... Sugar depends on how sweet the apples are, really - and how sweet you like them!

[Millymollymandy]

I stew apples galore and freeze them and never add any sugar. All our apples are either dessert ones or very large ones which are specially for compote (stewing). I don't know anything about bottling though I'd have thought that they would need to be cooked first.

I assume that the lack of sloes is due to the lack of plums this year in general.

[Big Al]

Will someone please tell me how to preserve the apples into jars from the first step. I'm new to preserving but have a glut of cooking apples and desert apples. I was told to put them in a sheet of newspaper one apple per sheet and keep in a dark dry place but I'd like to try some in bottles so it would be like pork and apple or ready to make a pie etc.

TIA

Alan

[Odsox]

I have bottled apples in the past and they are very useful later in the year, my favourite is with a small piece of root ginger added.

I can't tell you how much sugar to add as that depends on the sweetness of the apples to start with and on personal taste.
Try cooking a small test quantity first and note the sugar needed.

To bottle, it's dead easy.
Peel and slice apples (or any other fruit) and pack tightly into (kilner) jars.
Make up a sugar/water syrup and fill jars almost to the top, leaving a little headspace.
Put the filled jars in a saucepan and 3/4 fill with water ... it's best to put an old tea towel in the bottom of the saucepan first and place jars on that, as it stops the jars "chattering"
Screw the jar lids only very lightly and bring saucepan to the boil.
When you can see the syrup simmering in the jars leave for a few more minutes then turn off the heat.
After a few more minutes screw the jar tops tightly (with oven gloves), and that's it.

It does take some time before the syrup in the jars boils but filling with freshly made hot syrup does speed things up a bit.
This stage of course cooks the fruit as well, but keeps the fruit pieces intact.
Store in a cool dark place and they will be OK for at least a year, if not two.

[Big Al]

I have bottled apples in the past and they are very useful later in the year, my favourite is with a small piece of root ginger added.

I can't tell you how much sugar to add as that depends on the sweetness of the apples to start with and on personal taste.
Try cooking a small test quantity first and note the sugar needed.

To bottle, it's dead easy.
Peel and slice apples (or any other fruit) and pack tightly into (kilner) jars.
Make up a sugar/water syrup and fill jars almost to the top, leaving a little headspace.
Put the filled jars in a saucepan and 3/4 fill with water ... it's best to put an old tea towel in the bottom of the saucepan first and place jars on that, as it stops the jars "chattering"
Screw the jar lids only very lightly and bring saucepan to the boil.
When you can see the syrup simmering in the jars leave for a few more minutes then turn off the heat.
After a few more minutes screw the jar tops tightly (with oven gloves), and that's it.

It does take some time before the syrup in the jars boils but filling with freshly made hot syrup does speed things up a bit.
This stage of course cooks the fruit as well, but keeps the fruit pieces intact.
Store in a cool dark place and they will be OK for at least a year, if not two.

Rock on Tony... rock on...... Thanks for that. I'll be doing some when the morphine gives way to a reasonable clear head.....

[Graye]

Thanks for that Odsox. I'm off to pick a sackfultomorrow and will try your suggestion.

[buzzybee]

I found this while lookking for advice on freezing apples, (which if anyone has some of I'd gladly take it) but I'm actually quite tempted by this method. can you still use the bottled apples for things like crumbles and pies and sponges? the ones we have been given I think are technically eaters but I'm not too bothered as long as they taste nice...

[rockchick]

Excellent, might try this, we've got 2 huge apple trees in our new garden and there's only so many batches of chutney i can face making!