2 kilograms overripe, bruised or spotted apples 3 litres cold water 1 cup sugarWash and dry apples and cut into thin slices (include peel and core). Place in a crockery basin or stainless steel pan and cover with water. Cover with cloth and allow to stand for ten days, stirring daily. The mixture will ferment and bubble. After ten days drain the apples and discard solids, reserving liquid. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Strain through several layers of fine muslin. Do not squeeze - this sends it cloudy. Bottle into clean dry bottles and stand uncorked but covered with a cloth for 14 days. It will continue to bubble, but decrease towards the end. Cork securely, label and date. Store for three months before using.
We have used this recipe with the tail-end of our Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apple crop. Despite the exceedingly simple approach it can produce surprisingly impressive cider with good effervescence. In more recent times we have acquired a juicing machine. It saves a lot of cutting and slicing and the resulting juice works well with the recipe above; we just added a cup of water to each litre of juice plus at least one cut-up apple to ensure there are some live yeast cells. The cider was cloudy and we could not make it clear by filtering, but it still tasted OK.
When we only half filled some bottles we obtained a very acceptable cider vinegar, so if you want vinegar then follow the recipe above, but do not fill the bottle more than 3/4 full. It might help to add a spoonful or so of last year's (or any other unpasturised) vinegar before capping the bottle. We deduce from this experience that excluding air as much as possible favours yeasts (producing alcohol and so creating cider) whereas bacteria (producing acetic acid hence vinegar) will dominate if there is a larger area exposed to the air.
Despite filling the bottle to the top, you may have some "failures" where your cider, even though it has some effevescence, has an acid taste because it has gone partly to vinegar. Do not despair; you have just made the ideal marinade base; especially good with pork. Similarly, if your bottled cider has sediment which you would prefer not to drink, just throw it into your pork marinade or gravy.