What Is Apple cider and How Can I Use It?

Wondering what to do with apple cider? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 153 recipes to put it to work.

Key Points

US apple cider is fresh-pressed, cloudy, unfiltered juice, tarter and more complex than clear filtered apple juice.
"Sweet cider" is nonalcoholic; "hard cider" is fermented and alcoholic. This is the sweet kind.
Boil it down to about a quarter volume for a tart syrup, glaze, or pork braise.
Mull it with cinnamon, cloves, and orange peel at a bare simmer, never a hard boil.
Keep fresh unpasteurized cider refrigerated and use within 7 to 10 days, or freeze up to a year.

What is apple cider?

In the US, apple cider means fresh-pressed apple juice that has been left cloudy and unfiltered. It is usually unpasteurized when you buy it straight from an orchard, pressed from a blend of apples, often heritage varieties.

That blend, and the cloudiness, are the whole point. The pulp and fine sediment that filtered apple juice strips out are what give cider its body and round mouthfeel. They also make it taste tarter and more complex than the clear stuff in a juice box.

Apple juice, by contrast, is the same fruit clarified and usually sweetened to a consistent flavor. Cider always tastes more like the apple it came from.

Cider is a fall product. Mills press it when apples come off the trees, and the best jugs show up at farm stands from September through the holidays, then disappear by winter.

American usage also splits on alcohol. Plain cider is "sweet cider" and is nonalcoholic, while "hard cider" has been fermented into an alcoholic drink. This page is about the sweet kind.

Cooking With Apple Cider

The trick most cooks miss is that cider concentrates beautifully. Simmer it down and the sugars and acid intensify into something between a syrup and a glaze. Boil a quart hard until it reduces to about a quarter of its volume.

That reduction is a tart cider syrup for finishing pork or drizzling over pancakes.

Bisquick Apple Pancakes with Cider Syrup uses exactly that reduction trick, and Apple Walnut Cake With Apple Cider Glaze leans on a boiled-down cider glaze for its tang. Apple Cider Doughnuts cook reduced cider right into the batter so the apple flavor survives the fryer.

It also works as a braising liquid. The acid tenderizes and the sweetness balances rich meat, which is why pork loves it. Braised Pork Loin with Turnip & Potatoes uses cider as the braise, and it turns up in cider sauces for roast pork and even pan sauces for salmon.

Then there is the obvious one: heat it with spices. Mulled Cider and Wassail simmer cider with whole cinnamon and cloves plus a strip of orange peel, the warm drink that defines the season.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Cider has a natural affinity for pork, poultry, cabbage, and root vegetables. Warm baking spices belong with it: cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, star anise, and a strip of citrus peel. Maple and brown sugar pull it sweet, while mustard and sage pull it savory.

The most common mistake is boiling spiced cider hard and long. A rolling boil drives off the bright aromatics and can turn the cider bitter from the spices steeping too aggressively. Keep it at a bare simmer, around 190°F (88°C), and pull the whole spices after 20 to 30 minutes.

The second mistake is reaching for filtered apple juice and expecting the same result. Juice is sweeter and flatter, so a cider reduction made from juice tastes one-note and cloying.

If juice is all you have, cut the added sugar in the recipe and add a splash of lemon to fake some of cider's acidity.

Substitutes

The closest swap is unsweetened apple juice. Use it one-for-one, but it runs sweeter and milder, so add about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or cider vinegar per cup to bring back the tartness cider has and juice lacks.

For a savory braise where you want apple character without much sweetness, mix three parts apple juice with one part apple cider vinegar. That restores the acidity cider brings to pork and cabbage.

White grape juice works in a punch or mulled drink if you also add a squeeze of lemon, though it loses the apple identity.

Avoid hard cider as a one-for-one substitute in baking. The alcohol and dryness change both flavor and chemistry, and it will not sweeten a batter the way sweet cider does.

Buying and Storing

Buy it cold, from the refrigerated case. Look for "fresh pressed" with a short ingredient list of just apples. The best cider comes from a local mill in fall and lists a blend of varieties rather than a single apple.

Cloudy is good, and a layer of sediment at the bottom is normal, so just shake the jug.

Most fresh, unpasteurized cider is highly perishable. Keep it refrigerated and use it within about 7 to 10 days of pressing, since the natural yeast will slowly start to ferment it, making it fizzy and eventually turning it hard or vinegary.

Pasteurized cider in a sealed jug lasts longer, often a week or more past opening. Check the date.

Cider freezes well. Pour off a little headspace for expansion and freeze it for up to a year, then thaw in the fridge for cooking and reductions. If a jug has gone slightly fizzy but smells fine, it is starting to ferment and is best cooked down rather than drunk.

Quick facts

Where to find apple cider: Apple cider is usually found in the beverages section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

In Chinese: 苹果酒
British (UK) term: Apple cider
en français: cidre
en español: sidra de manzana

Recipes using apple cider

There are 153 recipes that contain this ingredient.

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