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To Keep Cider

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

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

Prepare the cider

  1. Dissolve ¾ pound of sugar in 1 gallon of cider.

  2. Add 6 beaten egg whites and a handful of coarse sea salt.

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

Alternative method

  1. For another method, let cider ferment to desired taste, then add 1½ tumblers of grated horseradish and shake well.

  2. After a few weeks, rack off and seal in clean casks.

Longer preservation and storage

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

  2. Heat a piece of red-hot iron and lower it into the mixture above the cider in the barrel.

  3. Keep 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

Egg whites
Their proteins bind and carry suspended particles, helping clarify the cider as they settle.
Grated horseradish
Its pungent compounds add aroma and a sharp flavour that masks off-notes in the cider.
Powdered sulfur
Sulfur compounds act as a preservative that slows spoilage microbes in the cider.

The step that matters

Leaving the mixture open until fermentation ceases. Sealing too early traps active yeast, which can keep producing gas and off-flavours. Waiting until fermentation has fully stopped means the cider is stable before it is closed up in the container.

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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