apple facts

Allow about two pounds of apples for one nine-inch pie (six to eight apples).
When cooking with apples, use very little water; none for pies; betties or cobblers, etc. Add only enough water for applesauce to prevent the apples from scorching.
When using apples in salad, dip apple slices in lemon juice, orange juice, vinegar and water, or salt water to prevent darkening. Golden Delicious apples stay white longer.
To soften brown sugar, put hardened brown sugar in a container that has a tight cover. Place a slice of apple on a bit of waxed paper and set on top of sugar. After a few days, the sugar will be moist again.
Apple slices can also be placed in cake containers to keep cakes from drying out, especially fruit cakes.

Apple juice, sterilized by pasteurization, is prepared from the first pressings of apples. It is available clarified and non-clarified and is sometimes marketed under such labels as cider or sweet cider.
Country cider is an unclassified, unpasteurized apple product; therefore, it requires refrigeration. Normally it is prepared in a farm mill setting and sold at roadside stands.
Hard cider is apple cider which has begun to ferment or completed fermentation. When fermentation is completed all the sugar has turned to alcohol and it is no longer effervescent.