Name: CIDERS.—ArtiriciaL, or Cider Witaout APPLEs.
Ingredients: 1 gallon cold water; 1 lb dark brown sugar; ½ oz tartaric acid; 3 tablespoons yeast

CIDERS.—ArtiriciaL, or Cider Witaout APPLEs.

Ingredients

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

Directions

Make the mixture

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 for use the next day.
For larger batches, maintain these proportions as needed.

Use and store

If it gets sour, add a little 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 sweetness and food for the yeast to ferment into alcohol and carbonation.
Tartaric acid: Adds acidity, giving the drink its tart, cider-like sharpness.
Yeast: Ferments the sugar, producing the drink's alcohol and fizz.

“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.