Name: Ciders.— Artificial, or Cider Without Apples.
Ingredients: 1 gallon cold water; 1 lb dark brown sugar; ½ oz tartaric acid; 3 tablespoons yeast

Ciders.— Artificial, or Cider Without Apples.

Ingredients

1 gallon cold water
1 lb dark brown sugar
½ oz tartaric acid
3 tablespoons yeast

Directions

Make the mixture

Combine cold water, dark brown sugar, tartaric acid, and yeast in a container, then shake well to mix the ingredients.
Make this mixture in the evening for use the next day.
For larger batches, scale the ingredients while maintaining the same proportions.

Serve and store

If it becomes sour, add more of the mixture.
Serve chilled with ice in hot weather or bottle and store 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

What each ingredient does

Dark brown sugar: Provides the sugar that yeast ferments, and adds sweetness and molasses flavor.
Tartaric acid: Adds the sharp, tart acidity that gives the drink its cider-like bite.
Yeast: Ferments the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide, which makes the drink fizzy and alcoholic.

“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.