Meriam-Webster dictionary does not give a definition of cider champagne, but says that, champagne cider is “a sparkling cider that is matured in vats and then fermented in bottles to produce effervescence”. Perhaps this is what my paternal grandmother, Helen S Wright, meant when she gave a recipe for the drink in her 1909 book, Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines. On the other hand, she includes two recipes for champagne cider that are different from each other and from that of cider champagne although all three involve cider, spirits, honey or sugar, and fining with skim milk. Photo Credit Amanda Slater Wikimedia Commons
Her is the recipe for cider champagned in the words of my grandmother:
Five gallons of good [apple] cider, one quart spirit, one and one-quarter pounds honey or sugar. Mix, and let them rest for a fornight, then fine with one gill of skimmed milk. This, put up in champagne bottles, silvered, and labelled, has often been sold for champagne. It opens very sparkling.
This recipe is preceded by one for apple cider but the kind of apples is not specified.
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