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To Keep Cider

A method for preserving cider using sugar, egg whites, salt, horseradish, charcoal, sulfur, and a heated iron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Horseradish and cider work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 338 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Keep Cider

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cider

  1. Mix ¾ pound of sugar, 6 beaten egg whites, and a handful of coarse sea salt into 8 gallons of cider.

  2. Leave the mixture open until fermentation ceases, then seal it tightly.

  3. Allow the cider to ferment to your taste, then add 1½ cups of grated horseradish and shake well.

  4. After a few weeks, rack off the cider and seal it in clean casks.

Cure with charcoal and sulfur

  1. Mix 1 ounce of powdered charcoal and 1 ounce of powdered sulfur in an iron vessel.

  2. Heat a piece of red-hot iron and lower it into the vessel above the cider for 12 hours to cure another batch.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Horseradish + cidertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together338 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + horseradishtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together694 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Sugar + horseradishtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Sugar + cidertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Their proteins help clarify the cider as they bind and carry suspended particles out of it.
Grated horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent aroma and flavor that mellows as the cider matures.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and fuel for fermentation, shaping the final balance of the cider.
Powdered sulfur
Produces sulfur dioxide fumes that help sanitize the vessel and inhibit unwanted microbes.

The step that matters

Heating the iron above the cider. Fumes from the charcoal and sulfur are released by heating, and the vapour must reach the cider without the iron touching it. Sealing the vessel keeps the fumes in contact with the liquid for the full curing time, and overheating can release fumes too quickly for even exposure.

Swap the horseradish

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cider):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Sweet potatofits about as well
  4. Horseradishthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cider. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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