On Food and Cooking

Apple Juice and Cider Apple juice can be
either opalescent or clear depending on
whether its pectins and proteins are left intact
to deflect light rays. Made fresh, it will stay
pale and retain its fresh flavor for about an
hour, after which the darkening and aroma-
modifying influences of enzymes and oxygen
become evident. Browning can be minimized
by heating the juice rapidly to the boil to
inactivate the browning enzymes, but of
course this lends a cooked flavor to the juice.
Pasteurized apple juice was first
manufactured around 1900 in Switzerland,
and is now one of the most important
commercial fruit products in the United
States. Cider is still an important product in
northwest Spain, western France, and
England, where the traditional method was to
let the fruit pulp ferment slowly through the
cold winter, reaching an alcohol content
around 4%.