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To Keep Cider

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Ferment

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

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

  3. To keep cider sweet, allow it to ferment to your taste, then add 1½ tumblers of grated horseradish and shake well.

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

Preserve and store

  1. For preservation, mix 1 ounce of powdered charcoal and 1 ounce of powdered sulfur.

  2. Lower a red-hot iron into the mixture and suspend it above the cider for 12 hours.

  3. Store the cider in a tight barrel in a cool cellar.

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

Cider
Forms the base liquid, and its natural sugars are what fermentation converts.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and provides extra sugar for the fermentation to work on.
Egg whites
Help clarify the cider by binding fine particles that can then settle out.
Grated horseradish
Adds a sharp, pungent aroma and flavour to the finished cider.
Powdered charcoal
Absorbs impurities and off-flavours from the cider.
Powdered sulfur
Its fumes help inhibit spoilage microbes, aiding preservation.

The step that matters

Sealing the cider after fermentation ceases. Once the cider stops fermenting, sealing it tightly keeps air out so it does not oxidise or spoil. Leaving it open too long lets in contaminants that can sour the cider.

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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