Year: 1860

CIDER MAKING.


The season is now at hand for this important
operation, with all who have n surplus of au-
tumn apples, and no market for their inferior
winter ones. As to the domestic uses of cider
40 propose ~ - "oihinc 7. - n comno1;tv
used for other purposes than drinking ESQ SO ihere
is no violence done to the strictest Temperance
advocate in discussing its manuiacture-vine-
gar, and acids of various kinds being the juice
of the apple, cider-wise, before it reaches the
acetous fermentation necessary for its ultimate
purposes in picking, chemistry, or the arts.


Ii is hardly worth while to discuss the filth,
rottcnncss, and other trumpery, mixed up by
many cider-makers with their apples, good, bad
and indifferent, which all 20 into the mill, and
press together, and the amalgamated juice of all
thrust into foul, musty barrels, and sent to mar
ket under the name of cider. 1t is abomnsble
trash at the best, and the vilest swill which any
creature, claiming humanity can pour down his
unsanctifed throat. Yet oceans" of it is made
every year, sold, and drunk; and, if it be but
strong enough called "good, by the barbarians
who take it into their vicious stomachs. We
will not even tell the disgusting process of max
ing it, for fear some part of the description may
be adopted by an innocent cider-maker unwit-
tihgly, being no believer that bad example is
necessary TO warn the spectator against its prac-
ticc. Better place good example before him /;
and thus we proceed to give few rules for
making


GOOD CIDER.


Early apples are sometimes made into cider,
but owing to their thin and comparatively wa
terry Juice, the cider they make lacks body and
in the warm weather in which it is made, it soon
turns acid, and remains pal0table but a short
time. October and November are the cider
months for the Northern States, and apples
which fully ripen their juices in those months
are the proper kinds of which to make it, OF
the varieties best to make into cider, we need
say but little. An astringent fruit, not particu-
larly palatabe to the taste, usually makes the
best cider. That is to say, it has more body,
is of the heaviest specific gravity, possesses more
| spirit, and will therefore keep longer than the
thinner and volatile must of the finer varieties
of table fruits, or those most priced for edible
uses. This explanation will be sufficient for the
understanding of our readers, and when we add
that cider is the least profitable purpose to
which good apples-and it is just as easy for the
orchardist to raise good market apples as poor
ones-can be turned, the conclusion remains
that it is only worth while to make cider out of
such fruit as cannot find ready market in their
raw condition.


Whether an apple be sweet, sub-acd, TART or
absolutely sour, all mixed together, if ripe, and
in the fulness of'their juice, will make the rich
est, and for long keeping, the strongest cider,
even if its ultimate purpose be vinegar; for its
superior saccharine quality, when once changed
by the acetous fermentation, gives il greater
strength than the juice of one possessing less
saccharine in its flesh. Still the acid apples
usually make good cider, as all the edible var-
cites of that character possesses more or less of
the saccharine in their composition and unless
for particular uses, we would mix the sweet and
acid kinds together, when equally ripe, for or
dinory cider purposes.


HOW TO MAKE IT.


First Let the apples be ripe, as for eating
or cooking.


Second. Pick over the fruit carefully taking
only the sound and rejecting the decoyed and
wormy ones.


Third. Grind them Immediately after seec-
ton, unless they require additional ripenng for
few days, to get their juice or must IN its
highest state of development.


Fourth. PreSerre The most ScrUpulous neat
ness IN ereTy part Of the 'cork from BEGINNING
to end. AS to the cider mill, we do not care
much what the character or description is so
that it thoroughly crush the apple, seeds and
ALL il possible. 1t should not be made pulp,
reduced by Il crater, but given such a-erushing
as will permit every drop of juice to be ex-
pressed by the screw, when laid into the cheese.
The small, patent mill, of various Names is
getting into common use for such as make but
few barrels or gallons, and when the proper
rules are regarded, answer a tolerable purpose
but when large quantities are made, horse
power mill, of the nut or cog varieties, is better
than either the revolving stone, as in the old
fashioned oil-mills and bark-grinding, is proba-