Artificial, or Cider Without Apples
Ingredients
Directions
In a large container, combine 1 gallon of cold water with 1 lb of dark brown sugar and ½ oz of tartaric acid.
Add 3 tablespoons of yeast and shake well to mix.
Make this mixture in the evening; it will be ready to use the next day.
For larger batches, scale the ingredients while maintaining the same proportions.
If it becomes sour, add more of the mixture to improve the flavor.
Serve chilled with ice in hot weather or bottle it for later use.
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
What each ingredient does
- Dark brown sugar
- Provides sweetness and food for the yeast to ferment into alcohol and carbonation.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar, producing the fizz and the cider-like flavor of the drink.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds sourness that gives the drink its tart, bright character.
The step that matters
Adding the yeast and mixing. Yeast must be evenly distributed through the cold sugar water so fermentation starts throughout the batch. Shaking well helps disperse it, and uneven mixing can leave some portions under-fermented or too sweet.
“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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