IMPROVEMENT AND PRESERVATION OF CIDER. 93 



IMPROVEMENT AND PRESERVATION OF CIDER. 



By E. N. HORSFOED, Prof, Hort. Chemistry. 



The accompanying communications, on the Improvement and Preserva- 

 tion of Cider, were considered of so much value, that, at a meeting of the 

 Society, regularly organized, it was ordered, " That the communications by 

 Professor Horsford be published in the Transactions of the Society." 



Cambridge, October 25, 1858. 

 To the President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. 



Dear Sir: — I beg to inclose a recipe for improving cider. 



The object, to which my efforts have been directed, was to provide a 

 cheap, easily-managed, and perfectly safe agent for arresting fermentation, 

 at any desired stage of its progress. 



The fermentation of the sugar of the cider, it is well known, is due to 

 the fermentation of an albuminous substance which the cider holds in sus- 

 pension or solution. 



By fermentation the sugar is first converted into alcohol and carbonic 

 acid. If the albuminous matter be in great excess, as it uniformly is, its 

 fermentation goes forward to convert the alcohol into acetic acid, and the 

 cider becomes sour. If the quantity of sugar be large, a corresponding 

 quantity of alcohol will be produced. When it is not in sufRcient quantity 

 it may be added to the cider, and more of the albuminous matter consumed 

 to produce alcohol and carbonic acid, and of course less will remain to 

 convert the alcohol into vinegar. 



But if, when the fermentation has been carried forward just far enough 

 to impart to the cider the taste which is most preferred, — when it is spark- 

 ling, still sweet, but slightly acid ; — if at this stage the albuminous matter 

 be withdrawn, the cider will permanently retain its acceptable flavor. 



To accomplish this withdrawal I employ Sulphite of Lime — a salt made 

 soluble only by acid, and of course quite inert until acid presents itself to 

 the cider. As soon as fermentation produces acetic acid, this salt yields 

 sulphurous acid, which destroys the ferment. This is essentially the agent 

 employed to prevent fermentation in the wine production of France. 



The substance I employ settles at the bottom with the lees, and may be 

 entirely separated from the cider. 



The testimony of quite a number of friends, who have for the last three 

 years followed the recipe, as well as the experiments I have myself direct- 

 ed, are so emphatic as to the excellence of tlie result, that I feel justified in 

 submitting to the attention of the Horticultural Society this method of im- 

 proving cider. 



I am, very respectfully, 



Your obedient servant, 



E. N. Horsford, 

 Prof. ofHor. Chem. to the Mass. Hor. Soc. 



