There's only one state that I know of in the US that differentiates between juice and cider. They say juice is filtered clear, cider is cloudy. You don't have to filter to get clear, a little pectic enzyme will clear cider quickly but there's a lot of waste and you are removing some of the healthy stuff (the pectin for one). Europe has the difference between juice and cider as unfermented and fermented. Fermented is "hard cider" in the US. So here it's up to you what you call it. To me "better" for applesauce is a little tart and cooks down easy. My niece likes my Arkansas Black sauce for taste but you could cook them forever and they'd never turn to sauce without a stick blender. She hates tart which is why she started giving me the apples from her old tree. So flavor is in the eye of the beholder. I think any apple that softens readily in storage would be a good candidate for cooking down easily. I've done Cortland (stays white as sauce) and McIntosh and they do good. Yellow Transparent and Lodi are said to be good sauce apples.

Glass lid type jars are not used today as you cannot easily determine whether they have a vacuum inside or not as there is no visual indicator. Pulling on the rubber ring tab may release a vacuum, but once its released, it can then spoil. Metal lids today and embossed dimples that are designed to go concave when the jar is sealed under vacuum. Once the lid is removed the dimple pops out as a small round bump. Mold inside after canning and storage tells me that there is an insufficient process going on and it can render the product toxic! Even for that, the rubber rings do fail and should be replaced as they are not made the same way as the metal lids seals. When I dad used old glass jars with wire bails and glass dome lids, he would put the rubber rings in boiling water too and then stretch them over the lip of the jars, and once in awhile one would tear apart. One type is rubber ring the other is a silicone compound on the metal lids. The metal lids are not designed to be reused either, as their seal area has a permenent pressure groove in the compound after being used on a jar, and will not return to its original state. Today a local PBS channel had a quick recipe for apple sauce. It called for cutting unpeeled apples from their cores and putting them in a big pot with a cup of water and cook a half hour or more to soften. Then they ran them through a Foley, but you could see it takes a long time to get the pulp out and having to deal with skins that block the sieve holes. They used only one kind of apple and didn't mix types, and only added about a half cup of sugar. The chef also added a little cinamon after straining. It was not a canning recipe, but anyone with common sense could make it into a BWB apple sauce.

Here is a recipe I have used before.. Turned out good.. Summertime Blueberry Wine Makes 5 gallons (19 L) 15 lbs. (6.8 kg) blueberries 9 lbs. (4 kg) sugar 2��"3 cups grape concentrate (optional ��" this will add to the wineâÂÂs fruitiness) 2.5 tsp. acid blend 2.5 tsp. pectic enzyme 3 tsp. yeast nutrient 0.18 oz. (5 g) potassium metabisulfite (approximately 150 ppm SO2) 2 tsp. potassium sorbate 1 tsp. tannin Yeast (Lalvin EC1118 or Lalvin 71B-1122) Crush the blueberries. Add the water-sugar mixture and enough water to make 5 gallons (19 L). Add potassium metabisulfite. Cover and let sit for two days. 3. Add sugar, if necessary, to reach specific gravity of 1.090. 4. Add the tannin, acid blend, pectic enzyme and yeast nutrient. Stir everything to blend. Maintain a constant fermentation temperature range between 70��"75 ðF (21��"24 ðC). Add yeast to the must. 7. Stir the floating cap of fruit pulp into the fermenting must twice a day during fermentation. 8. Fermentation will continue for approximately 14 to 21 days. Take notice if the bubbles in the airlock have gotten very slow ��" that is a good sign that the fermentation is coming to an end. Use your hydrometer to monitor and make sure that the fermentation has stopped. 9. Use a mesh bag to extract the juice from the blueberries in the must. Rack the remaining juice to a carboy, leaving the sediment (lees) behind. If possible, move the wine to a cooler place, like a basement, to clear. Rack the wine at least two more times before even thinking about bottling it. Add another Campden tablet to the wine after each racking. The wine should age at least three months

Rhubarb wine is one of my favorites and easiest to make. To begin the process I harvest rhubarb during the season, cut and freeze it in gallon zip lock bags. For my recipe I use twelve pounds of frozen cut into one inch size rhubarb, usually about three gallon bags, a two and a half pound bag of raisins, ten pounds of sugar, and three jugs of water. All is put into a (guessing about a 20 gallon plastic tote) as the rhubarb thaws I begin stirring allowing all to warm not quite to room temp before adding a package of Red Star premere curvee yeast... Prior to adding the yeast i check the liquid if its at my desired "balling"reading. Stirring is done twice a day for about a weeks time, at which time I tip the tote up a couple of inchs on one end and insert a siphon hose down into the other end and begin drawing off the juice into a five gallon carboy. I stop filling at the point in the glass carboy where it begins to round into the top portion to allow for expansion during "working" process. usually I fill a couple more cleaned jugs for topping off after racking the first time... Note at no time was a wine press used or any boiling of water. I use city water from the tap which is prefect for use in my wine making recipes and cleaning of equipment... Most of my fruit wines are made using the same steps... In using rhubarb wine - I usually use it in a mix with other wines because it usually enhances the favor of the wine to which its added without any rhubarb after taste.