Crabapple wine taste?

[BigDaveK]

I have 10 pounds of apples I plan on using a food mill to remove seeds tomorrow. I don't see anyone mentioning using a food mill, is there some kind of drawback to using one?

I think the main drawback is that it's simply more work.

My pear and crab apple this year were fermented with the pulp and seeds. My apples are crushed and pressed but I'd like to ferment with the pulp just out of curiosity.

Lots of opinions about using/not using seeds. Personally I think the seeds are hardy and won't affect anything by a 5ish day ferment - but I don't have scientific proof.

 

[Rojoguio]

Thank you Bud, as least you have worked with apples already making wine. Mayhaws are boiled to soften them squeezed for juice so I am expecting a little Mayhaw Jelly taste which is what I'm after. My wife grew up on a small farm where they grew apples and said they threw the entire cores away as they have a little different taste than flesh & skin. The plan now is to cut all flesh and skin away first and drop that in my lemon juice to hold then food mill the cores and do a taste test of the resulting product.

 

[Rice_Guy]

I have 10 pounds of apples I plan on using a food mill to remove seeds tomorrow. I don't see anyone mentioning using a food mill, is there some kind of drawback to using one?

The question on a food mill is, how aggressive? / how much seed damage?
All apples contain cyanide in the seed. In intact apple this just sits there nicely contained. If you damage the seed coat you expose the cyanide to water and it gets extracted. ,,, In small doses this doesn’t make any difference, the liver will remove the chemical from the body.
If the mill you have damages all/ most seed coat it should not be used!

Flavor? My guideline in the apple family is to separate the structures and taste, example peel apple skin to taste for tannins without catching sweet notes from the flesh. ,,, ALL apple seedlings are different, they don’t breed true. ,,, You could check flavor on a few seeds to see if it is bitter, again though,,, if you collect a bowl of apple seeds and eat them like nuts it could kill you.

 

[BigDaveK]

Thank you Bud, as least you have worked with apples already making wine. Mayhaws are boiled to soften them squeezed for juice so I am expecting a little Mayhaw Jelly taste which is what I'm after. My wife grew up on a small farm where they grew apples and said they threw the entire cores away as they have a little different taste than flesh & skin. The plan now is to cut all flesh and skin away first and drop that in my lemon juice to hold then food mill the cores and do a taste test of the resulting product.

You could use your mayhaw jelly for wine. It would be akin to a sweetened concentrate. Though the extra pectin would need to be dealt with. From memory I think it's simply adding the jelly to boiling water and allowing it to cool. My jelly wine turned out great and someday I'll do it again.

 

[Rojoguio]

Awesome idea. We only had enough juice this year to make our annual consumption of jelly. I had 1-1/2 gallons of juice from the year before that I thawed out. Was hoping to put it together today but cooked for the wife and a guest for lunch and trying to finish a outboard hydraulics I rebuilt ate the day away.