Los Angeles herald., 1891-05-01
SWEET APPLE CIDER.

The Old and the New Methods of Ex-
tracing the Saccharine Juice.
''The sight of keg of sweet cider on
the counter is more frequent in city res
taurants nowadays than it was. dozen
years ago. A piece of pumpkin pie and
glass of saccharine apple juice doubt
less appeal to the country bred tastes. of
many a grizzled merchant and busy
clerk, and call up recollections of rude
old country cider mills and thegreat vats
of amber liquor into which they once
inserted the potent rye straw. Or pos
sibly the pretty girl washing glasses at
the counter reminds them of some coun-
try Pomona suck as John Keats drew in
MS poem OF Autumn" who loved to sit
beside cider press 'and watch the last
slow oozings, hour by hour"
The romantic old time cider mill is
being rapidly supplanted by the more
thorough and trustworthy modern sort.
In the old one the apples were often
ground by horse power. But most fire.
quently the cider mill was pitcher beside
small stream, the power of watch. half
wasted on great "overshot" wheel. Wa
made to do the grinding. Oftsn the
supply OF water would fail, or the dam
or other contrivances give way, .andth
there was great temptation to water
the cider to make up for lost time while
waiting for the dam to fill up. The
pressing was done generally by an up
right screw into which iron bars were
thrust and pushed around by brawny
arms The writer has seen a broad back
ed Dutch woman helping her husband at
this arduous work.
The modern cider mill, however.
shows by the puffs of steam that it does
not depend ON dams. To be sure, there
may be dam a foot high in the neigh
boring ravine, fall of water enough to
work hydraulic ram and feed the
boiler. The grinder revolves at rate
which makes the building hum. The
ground apple, orpulp, fallsdown through
the floor into canvas sacks, which are
hastily closed and laid in tier of
dozen on the platform of the hydraulic
press. Then down comes the cover with
irresistible power, and the essence of the
apple gurgles into the vat. From here a
pump, also propelled by steam, forces
the liquid up into large vat, from
which it can be drawn into barrels by
turning spigot. In old times the load
ing of q barrel of cider, weighing over
400 pounds, occupied the close attention
of several brawny men, as they rolled it
up a pair of ''skids," with concert of
"heave ons." But now pair of barrel
tongs, rope thrown over q windlass
having large wheel for the hand rope.
and the muscle Of one man lifts the bar
rel and swings it into the wagon.
1t is strong argument for the sweet
cider drinker that the pomace left after
pressing is absolutely worthless as food
for anything or as fertilizer. The
virtue of the apple must therefore go
with the juice.
The best cider is that made late in the
season from the best matured fruit.
Cold weather also conduces to its keep
ing well. Russet apples make about the
finest cider in the market, and it will
bring an extra price. Some other va
rieties, Newtown pippins or crab apples,
make very fine thick cider. If properly
worked, cleared of pomace, and kept
air tight in clean new barrels, it will
keep all winter as rich and pleasant as
sherry wine, while, of course, less al
coholic and SO less harmless.
Thepleasure of Sucking cider through
straw" is not always attainable, as
straws are not everywhere convenient at
hand. An excellent substitute for the
straw is stick of macaroni ni-Pittsburg
Dispatch.