Historical cider factoids.

[LeBreton]

Thanks for the links frugalaudio!

 

[BoomerCreek]

I'll take more. i love cider history.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

More free, old, books on Google:
https://www.google.com/search?q=cider&num=100&hl=en&tbo=d&tbm=bks&source=lnt&tbs=bkv:r&sa=X&ei=F5PjUOGuFKu00AHQu4D4AQ&ved=0CB4QpwUoAw&biw=876&bih=771

Wow, I don't know that I'll get to it all, but Thanks for the link!

 

[LeBreton]

Came across a study today from 1898 where Mr. F.J. Lloyd (noted agricultural scientist in the UK) conducts a study of in bottle pasteurization of cider ala Pappers_ method. Seems he was unsuccessful and had 3 bottle bombs . . . guess he shoulda used a plastic soda bottle to gauge the pressure

 

[LeBreton]

1860 - An Ohio gentleman, Mr. Levi Bartlett proposes a method of preserving unfermented cider. In modern terms, he is essentially keeving his fresh pressed cider, then racking off into a freshly sulfited barrel and storing cool.

Meanwhile, in eastern Ohio a bumper crop of apples drops prices and cider is selling for $2 per 40 gallon barrel, and many farmers are shipping low quality apples to Pittsburgh for 20 cents/barrel to be made into brandy.

 

[jackfrost]

And Prior to Motts, it was Duffy Mott. One of their locations was in Hamlin NY, just down the road from me.

An exterior view of the Duffy-Mott Company's facilities on Lake Road in Hamlin, N.Y. This photograph was taken in 1977, the year production at the facility was ended. Historical note: This is one in a series of photographs of the Duffy-Mott Company, Inc. facility in Hamlin, N.Y. This company was formed in 1900 through the merge of the W.B. Duffy Cider Company in Rochester, N.Y. with Mott's, which was begun by Samuel R. Mott in Bouckville, N.Y. Both of these companies had been started in 1842 and produced apple-based products such as cider and vinegar. In 1929 the Duffy-Mott Company, which was then based in New York City, purchased the Standard Apple Products Company and its processing plant in Hamlin. The company increased its assets, product line and facilities nationwide through the years. The Hamlin plant, built on Lake Road in the early 1900s, was razed in 1986.

Gigantic apple piles in the yard of Duffy-Mott Company, Inc. on Lake Road in Hamlin. The company mainly produced cider and vinegar until it began branching out to make other products in the 1930s such as applesauce. Several varieties of apples were used in Duffy-Mott products.

Employees of the Duffy-Mott Company, Inc. in Hamlin. These women made jelly (which the company began producing in 1936) and were therefore referred to as the "jelly ladies". Standing from left to right are Mrs. Emma Frost, Ethel Rodas, Ola Perry, Catherine Day, Grace Stevens, Minnie Waterborn, Bessie Merritt, Vera Blodgett, Meta Waterstreet and Lillian Bauer. Kneeling from left to right are Ruth Koss, Esther Miller, Anna DelaLanty and Eva Simmons. In this photograph the women are posing on the scale. A truck driver would place his load of apples on this scale to be weighed and would be handed his weighing slip from the window in the upper right corner.

An aerial view of the Duffy-Mott Company Inc. in Hamlin, looking roughly northeast from the rear of the facility, which fronts on Lake Road. Circa 1974.

You talk about jellies. I often wondered about back sweeting with jams and preserves....I know older women that ha e been making these items for years and I Jan e frown up on the flavors s...a little warm wafted stablied Mead and good quality jams/preserves.....what do you think?....BTW. dnt want to Jack thread the op. Is amazing. Just a thot tho

 

[LeBreton]

Finally came across the oldest written reference of cider, in Pliny the Elder's encyclopedia Natural History written around AD 77-79. In book XIV, which is devoted entirely to alcoholic beverages he mentions wine being made of "pears and all kinds of apples" in Syria.

 

[ChasidicCalvinist]

While this is all well and good, I'm interested in seeing the hopped cider recipe from 1867! Can you share that at all?

 

[LeBreton]

Sure!

Marquart, John
Six hundred receipts, worth their weight in gold : including receipts for cooking, making preserves, perfumery, cordials, ice creams, inks, paints, dyes of all kinds, cider, vinegar, wines, spirits, whiskey, brandy, gin, etc., and how to make imitations of all kinds of liquors : together with valuable gauging tables : the collections, testing, and improvements on the receipts extending over a period of thirty years
1867

How to keep common cider good for years.

Take the cider when you think it will suit your taste, put it into a kettle, and boil it very little. Make a bag and put into it 1/4 pound of hops, then put the bag with hops into the kettle with that cider, and tie it fast to the handle so that the bag with hops will not touch the bottom of the kettle; scum off the cider while you have it on the fire, and after it has boiled a short time take it off the fire, and let it cool down lukewarm; put it into a good sweet barrel, and add 1 pint good fresh brandy, bung it up, and it will keep the same as you put it into your barrel for years.


It's interesting to note that the author is, in addition to using hops, boiling the cider to preserve sweetness via pasteurization.

 

[jackfrost]

Sure!

Marquart, John
Six hundred receipts, worth their weight in gold : including receipts for cooking, making preserves, perfumery, cordials, ice creams, inks, paints, dyes of all kinds, cider, vinegar, wines, spirits, whiskey, brandy, gin, etc., and how to make imitations of all kinds of liquors : together with valuable gauging tables : the collections, testing, and improvements on the receipts extending over a period of thirty years
1867

How to keep common cider good for years.

Take the cider when you think it will suit your taste, put it into a kettle, and boil it very little. Make a bag and put into it 1/4 pound of hops, then put the bag with hops into the kettle with that cider, and tie it fast to the handle so that the bag with hops will not touch the bottom of the kettle; scum off the cider while you have it on the fire, and after it has boiled a short time take it off the fire, and let it cool down lukewarm; put it into a good sweet barrel, and add 1 pint good fresh brandy, bung it up, and it will keep the same as you put it into your barrel for years.

It's interesting to note that the author is, in addition to using hops, boiling the cider to preserve sweetness via pasteurization.

This is really good info thank you for sharing

 

[ChasidicCalvinist]

That is fascinating, thanks! I wonder how much cider he is putting in the kettle? That is, what ratio of cider (?) to 1/4lb of hops.