Cider, Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own - Hardcover

Watson, Ben

3.97

156 ratings by Goodreads

9780881508192: Cider, Hard and Sweet: History, Traditions, and Making Your Own

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0881508195 ISBN 13: 9780881508192

Publisher: Countryman Press, 2008

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A fully updated and expanded primer for anyone who wants to make cider and for those who just like to drink it.

With the rise in consumer demand for local foods and local food products, and the emergence of more small craft food and beverage producers since this book was originally published in 2000, this revised edition of Cider, Hard and Sweet comes at the right time.

Watson's expanded the section on the history of cider to chronicle lesser-known cider producers such as those in Spain and Asia; broadened the selection of North American cider varieties and European cider apple varieties; provided new cidermaking basics tailored to beginner and intermediate cidermakers with special attention to the new cidermaking equipment available; added new recipes for cooking with cider from notable chefs and bartenders; and added a new chapter about the recent popularity of perry (pear cider) available for purchase today. 50 black-and-white photographs

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Review:

Slack-My-Girdle. Never has a fruit been better named. It's an apple, in this case, favored in Devonshire, England, by apple cider makers. A few pints of their good cider and you may want to slack your girdle, too. Crack the cover of Ben Watson's Cider, Hard and Sweet and you may find yourself planting apple trees against the day you too can fill your basement with jugs of fermenting apple juice. You would be following in a long, long tradition.

Watson's history of cider starts with the apple itself in the Tien-Shan mountains of far off Kazakstan. Alma-Ata, formerly the Kazak capital, translates as "father of apples." There have been a number of apple-centric books published of late, all of them echoing similar historic details. Watson distinguishes himself by focusing on the place of cider--the alcoholic beverage--in human history, particularly American history. "In 1726," the author tells us, "it was reported that a single village near Boston, consisting of about 40 families, put up nearly 10,000 barrels of cider. One historian stated that in the year 1767 a per capita average of 1.14 barrels of cider were consumed in Massachusetts." That'd be 35 gallons per person!

The arrival of breweries and brewers with German and eastern European immigration in the late 1800s, the codling moth, the exodus from farm to city of the majority American population, Prohibition, bad winters--all these factors and more led to the decline of cider making in America. A few farmers continued in the tradition; everyone else made and sold apple juice and called it cider. The tradition hung on in Britain and Europe, however, and new American cider makers are taking advantage of this living body of knowledge, planting European cider apples and trying some of the old varieties still available in this country. A book such as Cider will encourage the movement.

Watson gives clear instructions to get the cider enthusiast started, and then fills in with the kind of details that push the beginner deeper into the subject, deeper into the skills and legacy. A valuable resource for anyone interested in giving cider making a go, Cider, Hard and Sweet will be just as useful to anyone who has discovered the delicious world of cider, and wants to know more. --Schuyler Ingle

About the Author:

Ben Watson is editor-at-large for Chelsea Green Publishing and a longtime supporter and writer about the Slow Food Movement. He lives in Francestown, NH.

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