Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-06-18
Cider and Apples.

In the food of vast numbers of people
for several centuries the apple has
played a great and satisfactory part.
Of all the fruit which temperate climes
afford it is at once the most wholesome
and the most palatable. From its con-
sumption when ripe no evil effects re-
suit; it is more digestible than the pear,
safer than the gooseberry or cherry, and
useful in a greater variety of ways than
all its compeers put together. In early
spring it adorns the field by its incom-
parable blossoms, enchanting the eye
by its beauty, while it fills the air
around with the most delicate of per-
fumes. Equally as the queen of the
desert, and the cooks most constant
friend, it has the highest claim to dis.
tinction. From its juice the wine of
Devonshire is made; raw, it ekes out
the breakfast of the labOrer; roasted,
It is unsurpassed in the delicious taste
1t affords; as the foundation of jams,
jellies, tarts, and conserves innumera-
BILE, it holds an unrivaled place.
All kinds of experiments have been
made with it, and each has been sue
cessful. 1t has figured conspicuously
both as a meat and as drink. In the
thirteenth century, according to Gull
laume LIE Breton, the inhabitants of
Normandy not only made cider their
daily beverage, but were so Jealous of
their recipe of the grateful draught that
they would neither send it away from
their country nor let the secret out.
When one sad day, however, the Nor
man harvest Of apples fell short, and
the good people OF Normandy had
to 60 further afeld for the gen.
erous fruit which they loved so
well, they found, to their horror,
that their neighbors of Biscay had, by
some means or other, discovered the Sc.
cret of cider themselves, and were ready
not only to sell the fruit but its product
as well, Still, in Paris the people were
sadly behindhand with the apple, and
as late as the fifteenth century contented
themselves with sour kind of drink
called "depense,' - made by sleeping tho
fruit in water, of which the most that
could be said was that it was as harm
less as it was uninViting.
England had meanwhile made far
greater progress in the use of the apple.
We find it indeed, placed upon the menu
OF u uluueI gwen bOu6WneFe dDOuJ inc
year 1850, and being handed round to
the guests "hot roasted, with white sug-
arplums uponi it," in company with such
other delicacies as roasted figs, sorrel,
and rosemary, as kind of preparation
for the soup and fish which follow
while in splendid pie, intended for
royalty, which contained, among other
delightful components, partridges,
quail, thrushes, bacon, sour grapes, and
skylarks, it very properly held a promi-
nent position. So good was 1t found in
every situation afforded it that the cru
saders mixed it with their beer, and
while not forgetting juniper, resin, gem
tain, cinnamon, allspice, bread-orumbs,
sage and laurel, chopped up the apple
very fine, and by its aid filed up the
cup. 1t was not, however, until the six
teenth century that, in the form of a pie
dnmixed with either fruit, it attained the
dignity of a side Dish, though from that
dme forward it deseryedly ranked clone.
London TeleqTdph.