Fruit press
Encyclopedia
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
solids - stem
Plant stem
A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...
s, skin
Peel (fruit)
Peel, also known as rind or skin, is the outer protective layer of a fruit or vegetable which could be peeled off. The rind is usually the botanical exocarp, but the term exocarp does also include the hard cases of nuts, which are not named peels since they are not peeled off by hand or peeler, but...
s, seeds
SEEDS
SEEDS is a voluntary organisation registered under the Societies Act of India....
, pulp, leaves, and detritus
Detritus
Detritus is a biological term used to describe dead or waste organic material.Detritus may also refer to:* Detritus , a geological term used to describe the particles of rock produced by weathering...
- from fruit juice.
Cider press
A cider press is used to crush appleApple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
s or pear
Pear
The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....
s. In North America, the unfiltered juice is referred to as cider
Apple cider
Apple cider is the name used in the United States and parts of Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples...
, becoming known as apple juice once filtered; in Britain it is referred to as juice regardless of whether it is filtered or not (the term cider
Apple cider
Apple cider is the name used in the United States and parts of Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples...
is reserved for alcoholic juice). Other products include cider vinegar
Vinegar
Vinegar is a liquid substance consisting mainly of acetic acid and water, the acetic acid being produced through the fermentation of ethanol by acetic acid bacteria. Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods generally are used with traditional...
, (hard) cider, apple wine
Apfelwein
Cider in Germany is called Apfelwein , as the German language has not used the word cider. It is also regionally known as ebbelwoi, äppler, stöffsche, apfelmost , viez , and saurer most . It has an alcohol content of 5.5%–7% and a tart, sour taste...
, apple brandy, and apple jack
Applejack (beverage)
Applejack is a strong alcoholic beverage produced from apples, popular in the American colonial period.Applejack was historically made by concentrating hard cider, either by the traditional method of freeze distillation or by true evaporative distillation. The term applejack derives from jacking, a...
.
The traditional cider press is a ram press
Ram press (food)
A ram press is a device or machine commonly used to press items with a mechanical ram, such as with a plunger, piston, force pump, or hydraulic ram. In food preparation, there are various kinds of ram presses:...
. Apples are ground up and placed in a cylinder, and a piston
Piston
A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from...
exerts pressure. The cylinder and/or piston is "leaky" and the juice is forced from the solids.
Cider presses often have attachments to grind the apples prior to pressing. Such combination devices are commonly referred to as cider mills.
In communities with many small orchard
Orchard
An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...
s, it is common for one or more persons to have a large cider mill for community use. These community mills allow orchard owners to avoid the capital, space, and maintenance requirements for having their own mill. These larger mills are typically powered by electrical or gasoline engines. Mill operators also deal with the solids, which attract wasps or hornets. Cider mills typically give patrons a choice between paying by the gallon/litre or splitting the cider with the mill operator.
Larger orchardists may prefer to have their own presses because it saves on fees, or because it reduces cartage. Orchardists of any size may believe their own sanitation practices to be superior to that of community mills, as many patrons of community mills make cider from low quality (windfall apples, or apples with worms). Those making speciality ciders, such as pear cider, may want to have their own press.