One of the great frustrations when cooking with apples, whether you’re just trying to make some apples for a snack, or use them in a recipe, is the tendency for the cut slices of apple to turn brown.
Once the air hits your slices, you’ve got a ticking clock to use or eat them before they turn a muddy shade of brown, so why not learn how to best keep your apples from turning brown?
How Can I Use My Homemade Unbrowned Apples?
Apples that have been prevented from going brown can easily be stored in the fridge or on the counter, awaiting use, so you can use these apples in the same way you would use regular apples!
Eat them on their own, or use them in all sorts of different recipes, with the knowledge that they won’t turn that sickly shade of brown.
What Kind Of Special Equipment Do I Need To Stop Apples Turning Brown?
There are a few different ways to stop apples from turning brown, but the only things you really need are a bit of lemon juice or salt, so other than those two additional ingredients, and maybe a bowl to help mix them together, you don’t need anything else!
Ingredients
1 apple
1tbsp Lemon juice
Or
2 cups water
1tsp kosher salt
How To Keep Apples From Turning Brown
Step 1 – Put all of your cut apples into a bowl, or arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Step 2 – Drizzle your cut apples with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and stir all of your apples together.
Optionally, if you don’t want the taste of lemon juice on your apples:
Step 3 – Make a saltwater solution by combining the salt with the water and dunk all of your apple slices into the mixture.
Step 4 – Store your apples like this until you are ready to use them, making sure to rinse off the saltwater taste just before you eat them.
Troubleshooting Tips
• If your cut apples still seem to want to turn brown, despite the fact that you added lemon juice to them, you might simply not have given them a sufficient coating. Simply re-add your cut apple to a bowl and add more lemon juice or salt water to coat each piece of apple completely, and then try again!
• One thing you might run into when stopping your apples from turning brown is the added ingredients ruining the flavor of your apples. If you accidentally use too much lemon juice or leave your apples too long in the salt water, they might taste too acidic or salty. If this happens, just make sure to wash off any extra that you don’t want when it comes to eating the apple, and then eat it right away, and you should be fine.
• If you are using the salt water option, you might find that your salt solution just won’t mix together properly, leaving a muddy layer of salt at the bottom. If this happens, bust out the wire whisk and give it a really firm whisking to try and incorporate it all together.
Nutritional Facts
For the health-conscious out there, here are the nutritional details for 1 sliced apple with lemon juice.
Calories: 120
Total Fat: 0.5 grams
Saturated Fat: 0.1 grams
Cholesterol: 0 milligrams
Sodium: 5 milligrams
Total Carbohydrates: 3.1 grams
Dietary Fiber: 5.5 grams
Sugars: 23.5 grams
Protein: 0.7 gram
Potassium: 258 milligrams
FAQs
This recipe offers two methods for keeping your apples from turning brown – lemon juice or salt water.
Both of the methods provided offer the same anti-browning effect, but the salt water method requires you to rinse off your apple slices before you enjoy them.
The lemon juice can also add a really tasty acidic flavor to the apple slices, so the lemon juice method definitely seems the best for both flavor and convenience. However, the salt water method allows you to store your apples almost indefinitely without them getting browned, so it is definitely something that you need to weigh up for yourself.
The methods in this recipe will allow you to keep your apples unbrowned for different lengths of time depending on which one you choose.
The lemon juice method will keep the apples unbrowned for a good few hours, which should be long enough to allow you to get everything else ready and still have unbrowned apple slices.
The saltwater method, however, will allow you to store your apples for pretty much a week or so in your fridge without affecting their quality or changing their color. Just keep in mind, though, that the longer the apple slices sit in the saltwater solution, the saltier they will end up being, making it harder and harder to remove the salt from them in the end.
Browned apples are not only unsightly, but they are also a little bit more bitter and gross-tasting than regular apples.
However, if you don’t really care how your food looks and don’t notice the bitterness, there is nothing stopping you from just not doing these methods – your apples will probably brown pretty quickly, but so long as you eat or use them quickly, you shouldn’t notice that big of a problem.
How to Keep Apples From Turning Brown
Ingredients
1 apple
1tbsp Lemon juice
Or
2 cups water
1tsp kosher salt
Instructions
Step 1 – Put all of your cut apples into a bowl, or arrange them in a single layer on a baking sheet.
Step 2 – Drizzle your cut apples with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and stir all of your apples together.
Optionally, if you don’t want the taste of lemon juice on your apples:
Step 3 – Make a saltwater solution by combining the salt with the water and dunk all of your apple slices into the mixture.
Step 4 – Store your apples like this until you are ready to use them, making sure to rinse off the saltwater taste just before you eat them.
Nutrition Facts
- Serving Size: 1
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