CIDER

From Master Chef Louis P. De Gouy, The Gold Cook Book (1947)

“Among the early New England farmers, cider, cider brandy, beer and rum were popular beverages. The Dutch were partial to beer, and after landing on the shores of the New World, they lost little time in establishing breweries in New York and Albany. New Englanders, however, abandoned the steady drinking of beer and ale for cider. It was cheap and cost but a few shillings a barrel. The thrifty farmer sometimes laid in a supply of from ten to thirty barrels of cider against the winter. A keg or puncheon of rum would usually lie beside the cider barrel in the cellar, left there to ripen with age. Thirsty travelers needed go thirsty only between farmhouses, for every farmer kept a liberal supply of cider and proffered it without renumeration.

“It is said that President John Adams, although an earnest wisher for temperance reform, drank a large tankard of cider every morning on getting up from bed to the end of his life. Perhaps this contributed to his reaching the age of ninety-one. Cider lovers would probably argue that it did. It may be recalled that another President, William Henry Harrison, was elected after one of the most spectacular campaigns in our political history, known as “the Log Cabin and Hard Cider” campaign.

“Cider-making is about as natural a process as the making of anything can be. After pressing the juice from the apples, nature does the rest of the work, only requiring a little time. If one doesn’t want his cider hard, he must step in and prevent the natural process of fermentation from taking place by the use of chemicals or by the process of pasteurization. The United States Department of Agriculture recommends the pasteurization method, which doesn’t employ chemicals at all. If one wishes really hard cider, he may raise its potency by freezing it. This separates the water from the alcoholic portion and by chipping off the ice formed from the water, the remaining liquid is truly a strong man’s drink.
The process of making cider consists of three main operations: the collection of the fruit; the expression and fermentation of the juice; and the storing and care of the fermented liquor.

“’Sweet Cider’ is the juice before fermentation has begun; as it ferments it becomes ‘hard,’ and the longer it is allowed to ferment, the harder it gets.

“When thoroughly fermented, it can be come just as potent as any liquor made from fruit or grain.
Three sorts of apples may be used in the process: the sour, the sweet, the bitter; late apples are said to make better cider than early ones. After the fruit as been crushed, the pulp, to which a little water has been added, is placed in canvas bags to drain into vats. The juice is allowed to flow through a strainer, which, in the old days, was always made of straw. The barrels are bunged up and removed to a cool cellar, where the bungs are removed and the cider left to ferment.

“Cider which has been submitted to distillation becomes applejack, also known as cider brandy, and frequently called ‘Jersey Lightning.’

 … Should good old cider be despised,
		And ever neglected more.
		Should plain log cabin be despised
		Our fathers built of yore …
"Although it is one of the oldest beverages known, the exact place of cider in the nomenclature of beverages is uncertain. At first thought, its place would seem to be under the classification of wines, but in some of its more alcoholic forms, such as hard cider, cider brandy, apple whiskey and applejack, it belongs more properly with the more potent liquors.
'The name is related to the Hebrew word 'sheker' or 'shaker,' and the Greek word 'sikera,' meaning 'strong drink.' In Wycliffe’s version of the Bible, he translated Luke 1: 15: 'He shall be great before the Lord, and he shall not drink wyne ne cider.' The precise origin of the drink has never been determined, but it is fair to assume that it has always been manufactured wherever apples are found. Teertullian (A.D. 220) and Augustine (A.D. 325) both mention it.”