[Sca-cooks] Cider

[johnna holloway]

 Here are a few sources for more on cider and the USA.

As to definitions, John Mariani in The Encyclopedia of
American Food and Drink, 1999 seems to indicate that the
term cider was used for either  "hard" or "sweet" cider,
with the terms hard or sweet being added to denote which type.
He says that it lost popularity in America as beer became
more popular in the 19th century. Peter J. Hatch in The
Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello (Univ. Press of Virginia,
1998) has a great deal to say about apples and cider. He goes
so far as to indicate that sweet cider was the Coca-Cola of
Colonial America. Hard Cider might be thought of as the beer;
together both ciders were the national beverage of America by the
1820's. Jefferson was of course much into cider production.
Sandy Oliver's Saltwater Foodways and Sanborn Brown's Wines and Beers
of Old New England talk about cider in early and later colonial New
England. Brown notes that even colonial "hard" would not have been
all that alcoholic a drink unless  honey or sugar was added to boost the
sugar content. Otherwise it was fairly dry apparently.

There are two other books I should mention for those wanting to
pursue the study of cider.
Cider, Hard and Sweet : History, Traditions,
and Making Your Own by Ben Watson, 1999
and
Cider : Making, Using & Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider
by Annie Proulx,  and Lew Nichols. 2nd ed. 1997

 Also See:http://www.cidermuseum.co.uk/ for the traditional cider museum
at
Hereford, England. (It's worth a stop if you're ever in that part of
the country.)

Johnnae llyn Lewis
Johnna Holloway

Philip & Susan Troy wrote:
>> Phil Anderson wrote:
> > Brighid writes:Yes, cider is period.  Most cider would have been hard cider, since
> >>they lacked the preservatives that prevent sweet cider from
> >>fermenting.
> > They probably also lacked any inclination to prevent it :-)
> > I'm curious as to when the US began to use "cider" to refer to a non-
> > alcoholic drink -- does anyone know if it was before Prohibition?
>
> Hmmm. There were some pretty powerful waves of Temperance Union activity
> long before the Volstead Act of 1919. I wonder what activity was like
> around the time the Federal government established Thanksgiving as a
> legal holiday in the U.S. ... am I right in thinking that Thanksgiving
> represents a pretty large focal point for the consumption of
> non-alcoholic cider in the U.S., as well as not representing nearly as
> much in the way of usage for the hard cider that was a standard local
> beverage in many parts of the country? I guess what I'm wondering is if
> Thanksgiving has become _more_ associated with non-alcoholic cider than
> with hard cider, and has this situation ever been different?
>
> Adamantius (interested in food-marketing trends in relation to things
> like refrigerated railway cars)
>