Part 39 (1/2)

As regards straining, we have seen some of the finer sorts of perry made by a more complete straining than the above; in fact, a rough kind of filtering in flannel bags. This would take too long a time for general purposes. It is, however, a good way of making drink for bottling.

The after-management of cider and perry is a subject upon which much has been both said and written. We, however, join in the country opinion, that ”if it be made well the less it is messed with the better.”

We prefer putting cider in large casks in a cool cellar-say of from one to two hundred gallons or more,-to each of which should be two tap-holes, one in the middle and one towards the bottom; the first tapping from the middle hole insures a clear fluid without disturbing the lower part, which thus goes on ”settling down.”

If cider from good fruit be made well, it will have an agreeable sub-acid flavour, derived from the malic acid, which is the principle which gives the refres.h.i.+ng juice of most fruits.

Fermentation is necessary to make good cider, as by it the sugar of the fruit is converted into alcohol or spirit; and if, when this process is complete, the fermentation ceases, we shall have a refres.h.i.+ng, exciting, and generous fluid; if, however, it pa.s.ses from vinous to acetous fermentation, we get acetic acid, and the product is sour.

Cider made from good and well-ordered fruit in temperate weather, and put in casks in a cool cellar, will be likely to ferment equably, and to stop at the right time; if so, the product will be of the best; if, however, these conditions have not been complied with, the cider will be more or less harsh or ”hard,” and no means will avail to improve it.

Sulphur may be burnt in the casks to check fermentation; but we would after all prefer acetic to sulphurous acid. Chalk and lime will decompose the acid, but to little purpose. The London method of adding sugar or sugar-candy and water to sour cider-and to them all mature cider is sour-is in itself innocent enough.

There is, then, this consolation: if the cider be harsh, farm labourers will drink it; and as they will not, as a rule, drink half so much of the inferior as of the best, they will after all be the gainers.

CHAPTER LI.

ON THE USES AND ECONOMY OF CIDER AND PERRY.

If we canva.s.s the opinions of the ma.s.s of the people in cider-producing and non-cider-producing counties as to the relative merits of cider and beer, we shall find opinions wider apart than even the counties themselves. The ”Beer-drinking Briton” cannot at all understand how the lover of cider can skin his throat with such sour stuff as cider, whilst the agricultural labourer in cider districts infinitely prefers harsh cider to the finest ale. We recollect, in one of our geological trips in to Herefords.h.i.+re, in company with an esteemed clerical friend, that a quarryman, working in Wenlock limestone, tendered us a few sh.e.l.ls, on which we offered him sixpence, remarking, ”Here's a quart of beer for your trouble.” This same man then gave our companion a couple of trilobites, who presented him with a coin of like value to our own, but with the remark, ”Here, my friend, is a _gallon of cider_ for you.” The effect upon the man's whole being will never be forgotten. He was the slave of the Church for the whole day, and ever thereafter for all we can tell.

In cider districts the farmer, his family and friends, all relish cider, and with all, its proper use seems to agree in a most remarkable manner; but it would be fun to a country cousin who could cease to look at the matter in a serious light to see what a face his London relative would make at a draught of his ”own peculiar;” and yet he of the town professes to like sweet cider; but as his knowledge of sweet cider is obtained from the summer drink of the London houses, called ”Prime Devons.h.i.+re Cider,” the following recipe will explain it:-

Take of Vinegar (or sweeter still, cider) 1 pint.

Brown sugar (or treacle) 1 pound.

Water 7 quarts.

The following will be found in Cooley's ”Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts:”-

CIDER, MADE.-An article under this name is made in Devons.h.i.+re for the supply of the London market, it having been found that the ordinary cider will not stand a voyage to the metropolis without some preparation. The finest quality of made cider is only ordinary cider racked into a clean cask, and well sulphured; but the ma.s.s of that which is sent to London is mixed with water, treacle, and alum, and then fined down, after which it is racked into well-matched casks (_i.e._, a burnt-sulphur match). The larger portion of the cider sold in London, professing to be Devons.h.i.+re cider, would be rejected even by the farmers' servants in that county.

No wonder, then, that cider is not a favourite beverage when it is only used as a summer drink in some sophisticated form; but, when understood and obtained at all good, we believe it to be wholesome and palatable, and, indeed, we know it to be preferred before even the best ales in cider districts.

There is a common error amongst town-folk who prefer the above mixture that cider is not intoxicating, that it has no strength in it; but we regret to say that it is not only intoxicating, but we believe more exciting than beer: it is true that its effects pa.s.s off sooner.

Drunkenness with cider would seem to be so far different than in the case of beer, in that while the latter makes its victim heavy and stupid, the former incites to motion, and leads to quarrelling, fighting, and foolhardiness.

Hence, then, cider so exhilarates the farm labourer that he will do any amount of work if he is constantly plied with it, and all the while that it is but stimulating him, he fancies he is getting strength and vigour from it; but, alas! he is only thus drawing upon his capital; exhaustion follows a hard day's work got over amid hard drinking, which requires the following day to be spent on the same high-pressure system, or else little will be done. Hence one of our own labourers, during barley mowing at so much _per acre_, was fain to confess that he ”wanted a pint of cider at four o'clock in the morning worse nor any other time of day.”