1867 Six Hundred Receipts by John Marquart

600 MISCELLANEOUS VALUABLE EECEIPTS.

131

circular trough, or by a cider-mill, which is either driven by hand or by horse power. When the pulp is thus reduced to a great degree of fineness, it is conveyed to the cider-press, where it is formed by pressure into a kind of cake, which is called the cheese. This is effected by placing clean sweet straw or hair-cloth between the layers of pomace or pulp, till there is a pile of 8 or 10 to 12 layers. This pile is then subjected to different degrees of pressure in succession, till all the must or juice is squeezed from the pomace. This juice, after being strained in a coarse hair sieve, is then put either into open vats or close casks, and the pressed pulp is either thrown away or made to yield a weak liquor, called washings, or, as we call it, water-cider. After the liquor has undergone the proper fer- mentation in these close vessels, which may be best effected in a temperature of from 40 to 60 degrees of Fahrenheit, and which may be known by its appear- ing tolerably clear, and having a vinous sharpness upon the tongue, any further fermentation must be stopped by racking off the pure part into open vessels exposed for a day or two in a cool situation. After this, the liquor must again be put into casks, and kept in a cool place during winter. The proper time for racking may always be best known by the brightness of the liquor, the discharge of the fixed air, and the appearance of a thick crust formed of fragments of the reduced pulp. The liquor should always be racked ofi' anew as often as a hissing noise is heard, or as it extinguishes a candle held to the bung-hole.