Brined (or lacto fermented) apples are as essential to Russian food tradition as kvass and rye bread. As all fermented foods, it was a way to preserve nutrients from harvest to harvest. Of course, times have changed, and wax covered neon-in-February fruit made its way to the Russian markets too. But folks still carry on the ages old tradition, if not with some modifications.
TRADITIONAL PREPARATION OF RUSSIAN BRINED APPLES
There are still people who make Russian brined apples the way their great great grand parents did — in large oak barrels (dubovaya bochka) lined with rye straw. That prevents apples from mechanical damage and enhances flavor. Apples get a topping of more straw and clean burlap. Then folks seal the barrels, leaving small openings for pouring the brine. Those openings serve for adding water during the course of fermentation.
VARIATIONS OF RUSSIAN BRINED APPLES
There is a plenitude of recipes for Russian brined apples in the old country. Some are apples only, some have salt and the same pickling spices as sauerkraut and cucumber pickles. In fact, they often ferment in the same vessel as sauerkraut. And other recipes use honey or sugar and ‘sweet’ spices like cinnamon, cloves, cardamom. One common thing is the use of firm, very ripe yellow apples from the late harvest, September to October. The Russian name for those apples is Antonovka, this is from the name image search to give you an idea of what they look like.
I tried brining red apples and they get mushy and discolored, yuk! Good apples wrinkle slightly and get almost translucent under the skin. They can be firm or on the soft side, but never mushy. Golden Delicious work okay. Although I haven’t gotten that translucency from them that I remember from my childhood, I do enjoy them. Every fall I get some mystery yellow apples at the farmers market, small, fragrant and beautiful — those work really well for brining.
MY FAVORITE RECIPE OF RUSSIAN BRINED APPLES
My favorite recipe is with honey, rye flour and rye malt and some mint. Rye gives a subtle fragrance that I just love and honey keeps apples from getting sour. If I tried to describe the taste and texture, it would be like biting into lemon lime soda, fizzy and fresh, just amazing.
I use rye starter to get fermentation going, which is a popular practice in the north of Russia; it allows PH to drop very quickly and prevents any off-flavors. To make sprouted rye, also referred to as malted rye, you can follow the same process described here, and grind the grains in a coffee grinder. Fermented red rye malt, called ‘Solod’ in Russian, is another ingredient often added to brined apples. Rye is very quick to sprout and my time from soaking to drying the sprouted berries is less than two days. You can also buy it already made. The advantage of sprouted rye is that grain starches turn into simple sugars that are an easy fuel for fermentative yeast and bacteria, and the quicker you can establish a good environment for the little guys, the more predictable your fermenting outcome would be. On the photos below you can see the white froth that forms on top of the brine – it smells pleasant and looks pleasant as opposed to occasions when I fermented without the flour – the froth is dirty yellow color and smells funny.
Folks often add leaves from sour cherry and black currant to the brined apples, which add a very nice fragrance, if you happen to be fortunate to have access to those. Otherwise, try this recipe to get a baseline, then let your imagination guide you. 🙂
PLEASE NOTE – IMPORTANT!
- Make sure to not use red apples – you will not want to eat them, just take my word for it!
- Unripe red apples that are green in color, or crab apples don’t work either.
- Do not use non-organic store bought apples, the wax coating will prevent the brine from penetrating the apples. And it’s not a good idea to poke holes in the apples to go around that.
- You want to monitor the water level closely. Apples need to stay submerged in brine all the time, otherwise they will get brown and mushy. Apples will absorb water (some more than others) so you will need to add more to keep the apples covered.
- Whey is not used in any of the traditional recipes for brined apples, even though it is widely available.
- This recipe is not something I came up with trying to be complicated – it is a very old recipe that I’m simply sharing with you. I felt compelled to add this note after reading all the comments on Facebook 🙂
HOW TO MAKE RUSSIAN BRINED APPLES
Ingredients
Enough apples to fill one gallon mason jar (I got 11 apples, small to medium) – late harvest yellow (never red!) firm varieties are traditionally used in Russia, the only ones to fit that description that I can find in Chicago are golden delicious. What I have on these pictures are local farmers market apples that look a lot like what’s used in Russia.
Handful of mint leaves
Filtered water (about 8 cups)
2 tablespoons whole rye flour
2 tablespoons sprouted (malted) rye flour (optional, but recommended) how to sprout
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup honey
1-2 tablespoons of sourdough starter, preferably rye (how to make rye starter)
Equipment
One gallon mason jar with lid
Medium sauce pan
Hand whisk
Measuring spoons
Instructions
Wash apples and mint, and place them in a gallon mason jar with mint closer to the bottom. Try to wedge the apples to that they stay below the shoulder of the jar. Mine are wedged so they can’t move at all.
Pour water into the jar to measure how much you need, then pour it into a sauce pan.
Add rye flour and sprouted rye flour, whisk well. Add salt.
Bring to slow boil whisking frequently; remove from heat. Cool. Add honey and stir to dissolve. This is brine.
Add rye sourdough starter to the brine, whisk until dissolved and frothy.
Pour the brine over the apples so that there are a couple of inches of liquid above the apples.
Cover tightly. Leave at room temperature for 5-6 days. You will notice fermentation activity the next day.
Twice a day (or more often, if able) remove white froth that forms on top of the brine with a spoon.
If you notice the water level going down, you can add more water (boiled and cooled). It happens because apples absorb water, and some do more than others.
Transfer to refrigerator; and allow to ferment 30-60 more days. The apples get better with longer storage.
Keep in refrigerator up to a year.
ALSO TRY MY RECIPE FOR RUSSIAN BRINED PLUMS ~
Russian Brined Apples
Ingredients
- Enough apples to fill one gallon mason jar I get 10-12 apples, small to medium - late harvest yellow (never red!) firm varieties are traditionally used in Russia, the only ones to fit that description that I can find in Chicago are golden delicious. What I have on these pictures are local farmers market apples that look a lot like what's used in Russia.
- Handful of mint leaves
- Filtered water about 8 cups
- 2 tablespoons whole rye flour
- 2 tablespoons sprouted rye flour optional, but recommended how to sprout
- 1/2 tablespoon salt
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1-2 tablespoons of sourdough starter preferably rye (how to make rye starter)
Instructions
- Wash apples and mint, and place them in a gallon mason jar with mint closer to the bottom. Try to wedge the apples to that they stay below the shoulder of the jar. Mine are wedged so they can't move at all.
- Pour water into the jar to measure how much you need, then pour it into a sauce pan.
- Add rye flour and sprouted rye flour, whisk well. Add salt.
- Bring to slow boil whisking frequently; remove from heat. Cool.
- Add honey and stir to dissolve. This is brine.
- Add rye sourdough starter to the brine, whisk until dissolved and frothy. Pour the brine over the apples so that there are a couple of inches of liquid above the apples.
- Cover tightly. Leave at room temperature for 5-6 days. You will notice fermentation activity the next day.
- Twice a day (or more often, if able) remove white froth that forms on top of the brine with a spoon. If you notice the water level going down, you can add more water (boiled and cooled). It happens because apples absorb water, and some do more than others.
- Transfer to refrigerator; and allow to ferment 30-60 more days. The apples get better with longer storage. Keep in refrigerator up to a year.
Notes
- You want to monitor the water level closely. Apples need to stay submerged in brine all the time, otherwise they will get brown and mushy.
- Apples will absorb water (some more than others) so you will need to add more to keep the apples covered.
- Please make sure to not use red apples - you will not want to eat them, just take my word for it!
33 comments
Great recipe, very easy to follow and so little to do for what is very decorative on our counter and I hope will be very yummy 🙂 We used local golden delicious apples straight off the tree, I tried to get the smaller pretty ones with that nice almost translucent yellow. Cant wait to taste them! Thank you!!
So cool, Dina! Can’t wait to hear how they turn out! 🙂
Thank you !
I have sprouted rye a year ago and now-at last- found time to try this recipe 🙂
I am a little confused though : wouldn’t the high temperatures alter the enzymes in the malt, honey and wipe out all life within the starter ? Is there a reason for this and can one omit the cooking of the brine?
I obviously don’t want the final product to end up in the trash either .
Please , help .
Заранее благодарю.Юля
Any ideas for a gluten free subsitute for rye??
Hi Alicia, you can skip a starter altogether (fermentation will occur even without it – I tried it), or add a splash of raw apple cider vinegar, or kombucha (I haven’t those but don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t work).
I too am needing a gluten free option and from your suggestion Valeria the raw cider vinegar or kombucha act as the “starter” in lieu of the rye flour. I am thinking the 6 Tbsp minimum but in thinking about kombucha and how you start from a previous batch, I’m thinking maybe closer to 2 cups, with 6 cups of filtered water and remaining ingredients. Anyone else have any thoughts?
Starter isn’t necessary for the fermentation, it speeds up the drop in PH, which reduces the initial bacterial phase of fermentation which, in some cases, can produce off- flavors.,
This looks just so interesting and tasty; thank you for taking the time to share it.
I’m going to give it a try using a gluten free method.
Thanks
Marilyn
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Would green apples work?
Like Granny Smith? I did not have good luck with them, I tried twice, some apples were okay not great – too soft, some just awful – had these dry chewy spots inside, very strange. I do have to add that I used store bought Granny Smith apples, it seems like they are stored for a long time before they get to the stores; fresh farm apples might be different 🙂
The Granny Smith variety was specially bred during the 1800’s here in Australia. It has been suggested that growers were trying to provide an extremely long lasting apple to help maintain freshness for the long transportation distances domestically and was particularly helpful in preventing scurvy on the long ship ride back to England (3-6 months).
The ability to maintain freshness may be why they weren’t a good candidate. Then again with modern agricultural practices it could entirely be the sprays used that kill the fermentation process.
It’s an interesting recipe and if I can source suitable apples I’ll give it a go.
So interesting! Thank you for sharing, William ~
This looks amazing! I cannot wait to try this! Thanks for sharing.
When I make sauerkraut I tuck apple sections in layers with the cabbage, and add extra brine to jar the apples in when removed. This works well and quickly for almost any variety. I also use kraut juice as a starter with great success. When brining whole apples in the fall, I like to use Sundance and Golden Supreme, which are from a local orchard. For me the key seems to be the keeping ability. As William noted about Granny’s, they’re log keepers and don’t brine well. The ones I use have a much shorter life, usually 2-6 months.
Thanks for the tips, Doug! My mom likes to brine apples with sauerkraut too 🙂
I’m heading to an apple orchard next weekend, I’ll look for those apple varieties!
My Mom, who was the family cook, came from a backwoods Appalachian family who lived with no electricity into the 1950s. Food was preserved by fermenting, salting, smoking, curing, drying, and canning. I was lucky to be able to watch, learn, and eat the results of those amazing processes that had been handed down to her. It created in me yearnings for the flavors of preserved food. I just turned 60, and have been a student of these methods for 40+ years now. I love your recipes, and believe that as long as chefs like you continue to share their knowledge, we humans may finally learn to eat well.
Thank you Valeria.
Doug, Golden Delicious (nee Co-op 29) is a parent of the disease resistant Sundance. Golden Supreme’s parents are unknown, but it’s believed to be a descendant of Golden Delicious.
Golden Delicious might be the best introduction to apple varieties. given the way we manipulate plants, i assumed that it’s a yellow variant of Red Delicious. it didn’t take many clicks to discover how wrong i was.
Golden Delicious is remarkable for several reasons: it was a chance seedling, the first to be sequenced, and The Free Encyclopeida says “it had the highest number of genes (57,000) of any plant genome studied to date.” humans have more chromosomes (23 pairs vs. 17), but apples have over twice as many genomes!
in this context, we probably care about the skin’s permeability with respect to brine, not its color. so blessing Golden Delicious, its descendants, or all yellow-skinned varieties seems risky.
Valeria, you owe me nothing but i have to ask: which red-skinned varieties did you try? Cortland seems promising to me, and McIntosh is the obvious candidate.
p.s. now that i know that whey is not used in any of the traditional recipes, i will discard the buttermilk i goosed with vinegar to make it more acidic. 🙂
Hi Felix, I tried Gala, Jonathan and McIntosh, and I will definitely stick to the yellow apples 🙂
thanks for supplying this detail. i stared at Gala because its skin is thin, but it also keeps well so i ruled it out. tough skin might help an apple keep well, so maybe the varieties we see most often in stores are ones we should avoid?
long ago, my tongue became swollen while i was eating an apple at a friend’s house. he offered to take me to a hospital, but i decided that my condition wasn’t that serious. i haven’t bought apples since then, and look forward to adapting this recipe to my kitchen.
one thing i will do is wash the apples thoroughly to remove the wax from their skins. this cleaning will make me more willing to use sprayed apples, and it should facilitate brining.
I have never tried these…..what do they taste like. Have read some about them on facebook….but not what they taste like.
What kind of mint is used in the traditional recipe?
Hey Paul, I don’t think it matters, I’ve seen the same kinds of mint there as we have in the States, but just for fun here is an image search for you: https://yandex.ru/images/search?text=russkaya%20myata
I made these last year and ended up pitching them because they got a thick layer of mold on top. I was so disappointed cuz they smelled so good underneath. Could we have eaten then anyway? I want to try them again but can I do it without sprouting rye flour? Thanks for your help
Hi! I’m relatively new to fermenting and decided to make a batch of these. They foamed up really nice, but at about 4 days I noticed that the foam and top layer started to get really syrupy and almost slimy. Is that normal? Is it ok to continue with the fermentation? And, out of curiosity, what is happening from a fermentation perspective?
Thank you!
Id like to know this too
Good day Awesome website One question however Can you give more details on the Russian apple recipe with regards to marking them in an oak barrel? Size of barrel, amount of rye, traditional herbs and spices used, etc. Thanks very much Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
Hi! It’s going too much to the weeds for me 🙂 Here is a Russian website with a barrel recipe, you can use Google to translate it. You can also search ‘как сделать моченые яблоки в бочке’ (how to make brined apples in barrels) and see what looks good to you.
Sounds so interesting what does it taste like I want to try and make this
can the apples be peeled before make this?
Brined apples are never ever peeled in Russia.
Would opal apples work?
These are incredible — super memorable and a wonderful, special flavor. Thank you so much!