Primary Resources for CIDER & PERRY

Transcriptions & translations, as needed, by Susan Verberg.
If you know of a recipe not included, please contact me!

PERIOD (<1600)

The fyrst boke of the introduction of knowledge made by Andrew Borde, of physycke doctor. A compendyous regyment; or, A dyetary of helth made in Mountpyllier MDCCCLXX
LONDON:PUBLISHED FOB THE EARLY ENGLISH TEXT SOCIETY, BY N. TRUBNER & CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1870
https://archive.org/stream/fyrstbokeintrod01boorgoog/fyrstbokeintrod01boorgoog_djvu.txt
https://ia600205.us.archive.org/8/items/fyrstbokeintrod01boorgoog/fyrstbokeintrod01boorgoog.pdf

[p.256/264]
Of cyder.
Cyder is made of the iuce of peeres, or of the iuce of aples; & other whyle cyder is made of both; but the best cyder is made of cleane peeres, the which be dulcet; but the beest is not praysed in physycke, for cyder is colde of operacyon, and is full of ventosyte, wherfore it doth ingendre euyll humours, and doth swage to moche the naturall heate of man, & doth let dygestyon, and doth hurte the stomacke; but they the which be vsed to it, yf it be dronken in haruyst, it doth lytell harme.


William Harrison: Description Of Elizabethan England, 1577 (from Holinshed's Chronicles). Dr. Furnivall condensed Harrison's chapters for the New Shakespeare Society, and these have since been reprinted by Mr. Lothrop Withington, 1876.
http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1577harrison-england.asp

In some places of England there is a kind of drink made of apples which they call cider or pomage, but that of pears is called perry, and both are ground and pressed in presses made for the nonce. Certes these two are very common in Sussex, Kent, Worcester, and other steeds where these sorts of fruit do abound, howbeit they are not their only drink at all times, but referred unto the delicate sorts of drink, as metheglin is in Wales, whereof the Welshmen make no less account (and not without cause, if it be well handled) than the Greeks did of their ambrosia or nectar, which for the pleasantness thereof was supposed to be such as the gods themselves did delight in.


Le Paulmier, Julien. Traité du vin et du cidre ("De vino et pomaceo"), traduit en français par Jacques de Cahaignes, réimprimé, avec une introduction, par Émile Travers. (1589), 1896.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Iuliani_Palmarii_De_vino_et_pomaceo_libr.html?id=sGoXACtol1wC (Latin, 1588)
http://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/9200365/BibliographicResource_3000004846954.html
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k3787011


SEMI-PERIOD (1600-1650)

Gervase Markham, the English Hus-wife, 1615
GervaseMarhamTheEnglishHuswife-39.pdf
https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/objects/lse:heh898zor/read/single#page/1/mode/2up

[p.185/196]
Of making Perry or Cider.
As for the making of Perry and Cider, which are Drinks much used in the West parts, and other Countries well stored with fruit in this Kingdom, you shall know, that your Perry is made of Pears only, and your Cider of Apples; and for the manner of making thereof, it is done after one fashion, that is to say, After your Pears and Apples are well pick'd from the stalks, rottenness, and all manner of other filth, you shall put them in the Press-mill which is made with a Millstone running round in a circle, under which you shall crush your Pears or Apples, and then straining them thorow a bag of Hair-cloth, tun up the same, (after it hath been a little settled) into Hogsheads, Barrels, and other close vessels.

Now after you have prest all, you shall save that which is within the hair-cloth bag, and putting it into several vessels, put a pretty quantity of Water thereunto, and after it hath stood a day or two, and hath been well stirred together, press it also over again, for this will make a small Perry or Cider, and must be spent first, Now of your best Cider, that which you make of your Summer of Sweet fruit, you shall call Summer, or Sweet Cyder or Perry, and that you shall spend first also ;  and that which you make of the Winter and hard Fruit, you shall call Winter, and sowr Cider or Perry, and that you may spend last, for it will endure the longest.


Cogan, Thomas. The Haven of Health (1584). London: Anne Griffin, 1636
https://ia800500.us.archive.org/22/items/havenofhealthchi00coga/havenofhealthchi00coga.pdf

Chap. 219 Of Cyder.
The fifth kinde of drinke usuall here in England is Cyder. Howbeit Cider is not in so common use any where within this land as in Worcester shire, and Glocester shire, where fruits doe most abound. And marvaile it is to see how plentifull apples and peares are in those countries, in so much that every hedge almost in the common fields, and by high way sides are full of good fruites. And if a man travaile through that country, when they be ripe, hee shall see as many lie under his horse feet, as would in some places of England bee gladly gathered up, and layed in store under locke and key. Cyder is for the more part cold in operation, and is better or worse, according to the fruit whereof it is made: in respect of the coldnesse it is good for them that have hot stomackes, or hot livers. Yet if it bee used for a common drinke (as master Eliote reporteth) it maketh even in youth, the colour of the face pale, and the skinne riveled. It cannot bee very wholesome in any condition, considering that fruites doe ingender ill humours. Yet it is best after Christmas and about Lent. I remember when I was a student at Oxford one mistris, G. sold Pery [Perie] insteed of Rhenish wine, and so beguiled many a poore Scholler. And indeed that Cyder which is made of pure peares, being drunke after winter is like in taste, to a small white or Rhenish Wine, but yet differeth much in operation. Sed caveat emptor. [buyer beware] (p.254-255)


Venner, Tobias. Via Recta ad Vitam Longam, or, A plain Philosophical Demonstration of the Nature, faculties and Effects of all such things. Printed by R. Bishop, for Henry Hood, and are to be sold at his shop in Saint Dunstans Churchyard in Fleetstreet, London: 1636.
https://archive.org/details/TobiasVennerViaRectaAdVitamLongamOrAPlainPhilosophical

Whether Cyder and Perry are for common use wholesome and profitable drinkes.
Cyder and Perry are usuall drinkes where fruits doe abound: they are cold in operation, and better or worse, according to the fruits wherof they are made. In respect of the coldnesse of them, they are good for such as have hot stomacks, or hot livers, and by reason of a very pleasing sharpe taste which they have, if they be drunke after they are foure or five moneths old, they are of a notable penetrating faculty, and doe greatly helpe the weaknesse of the stomack, and distemperature of it, proceeding of a hot cause: for tey excite the appetite, temper the drinesseof te humors and inwards parts, assuage the thirst, and very greatly represse the ebulation of choler. Moreover by reason of their penetrable power, they provoke urine, and open the obstructions of the stomack, mesaraick veines, milt, lieer, and reines. They are wholsome for hot and dry bodies, namely, for the cholerick, but especially the atrabilarick. Yet they are not good to be used as common drinke, with meats, except of them that have very dry stomacks, and subject to too much atriction of the same, bacuse they cause the meats too speedily to descend from the stomack, and besides that, the much and often use of them is hurtfull to the liver, which by over-cooling, it doth so enfeeble and dispoliate of its sanguifying faculty, that the colour of the face becommeth pale and riv'led, and the skin oftentimes polluted with a white spotty deformity, through an ill habit of the parts, acquired by the too often use of these drinkes doth exceedingly weaken the braine and reines, whereupon rheumes and seminall fluctions, aches of the joynts, weaknesse of the limmes and back, doe very quickly ensue. They are best to be taken for whom they are agreeable, in an empty stomack, as mornings fasting, and about an houre or two before meale, for then they are better remove the obstructions, and attemper the drinesse of the parts. Only those that are atrabilarij, which abound with choler adult, for the most part, the meats doe very slowly, and that not without some difficulty descend, may very profitable drinke a draught or two thereof at their meales. But let the plegmatick, and such as are of cold constitutions, or subject unto the windie collick, altogether eschew the use of these drinks, because they abundantly opplete their bodies with waterish, crude, and windy humors, with a sudden labefaction of the liver. They are meliorated, by putting to them Sugar, Nutmeg, and especially Ginger, which chiefly corrected their crude and windy quality. Of these two sords of drinks, caeteris paribus, Perry for pleasantnesse and goodnesse hath the precedency, which in taste is like unto small Rhenish-wine, from which it differeth but little in operation. But you must understand that these drinks, while they be new, are very hurtfull, because they consist of much excrementall moysture, which abundantly filleth the body with crude and flatuous humors. But after that the excremental superfluity of them, by processe of time is concocted and absumed, which in foure or five moneths will very well come to passe, the use of them, as I have shewed, may be very profitable to coole, to moysten, and to open obstructions.


OUT OF PERIOD (>1650)

John Evelyn’s Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest-Trees, and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. As it was Deliver’d in the Royal Society the xvth of October, [MDCLXII]…To which is annexed Pomona; Or, An Appendix concerning Fruit-Trees in relation to CIDER; The Making, and severall wayes of Ordering it. The Royal Society, 1664.
http://www.wine-maker.net/Thackrey_Library/Library_pdf.files/Evelyn_Cider_V1.pdf


Digby, Kenelme. The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digby Knight Opened, 1669. The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened. Anne MacDonell (ed.), 2005.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16441

TO MAKE CIDER
Take a Peck of Apples, and slice them, and boil them in a barrel of water, till the third part be wasted; Then cool your water as you do for wort, and when it is cold, you must pour the water upon three measures of grown Apples. Then draw forth the water at a tap three or four times a day, for three days together. Then press out the Liquor, and Tun it up; when it hath done working, then stop it up close.

A VERY PLEASANT DRINK OF APPLES
Take about fifty Pippins; quarter and core them, without paring them: for the paring is the Cordialest part of them. Therefore onely wipe or wash them well, and pick away the black excrescence at the top; and be sure to leave out all the seeds, which are hot. You may cut them (after all the superfluities are taken away) into thinner slices, if you please. Put three Gallons of Fountain water to them in a great Pipkin, and let them boil, till the Apples become clear and transparent; which is a sign, they are perfectly tender, and will be in a good half hour, or a little more. Then with your Ladle break them into Mash and Pulpe, incorporated with the water; letting all boil half an hour longer, that the water may draw into it self all the vertue of the Apples. Then put to them a pound and a half of pure dubble refined Sugar in powder, which will soon dissolve in that hot Liquor. Then pour it into an Hippocras bag, and let it run through it two or three times, to be very clear. Then put it up into bottles; and after a little time, it will be a most pleasant, quick, cooling, smoothing drink. Excellent in sharp Gonorrhoeas.

SIR PAUL NEALE'S WAY OF MAKING CIDER
The best Apples make the best Cider, as Pearmains, Pippins, Golden-pippins, and the like. Codlings make the finest Cider of all. They must be ripe, when you make Cider of them: and is in prime in the Summer season, when no other Cider is good. But lasteth not long, not beyond Autumn. The foundation of making perfect Cyder consisteth in not having it work much, scarce ever at all; but at least, no second time; which Ordinary Cider doth often, upon change of weather, and upon motion: and upon every working it grows harder. Do then thus:

Choose good Apples. Red streaks are the best for Cider to keep; Ginet-moils the next, then Pippins. Let them lie about three weeks, after they are gathered; Then stamp and strain them in the Ordinary way, into a woodden fat that hath a spigot three or four fingers breadth above the bottom. Cover the fat with some hair or sackcloth, to secure it from any thing to fall in, and to keep in some of the Spirits, so to preserve it from dying; but not so much as to make it ferment. When the juyce hath been there twelve hours, draw it by the spigot (the fat inclining that way, as if it were a little tilted) into a barrel; which must not be full by about two fingers. Leave the bung open for the Air to come in, upon a superficies, all along the barrel, to hinder it from fermenting; but not so large a superficies as to endanger dying, by the airs depredating too many spirits from it.

The drift in both these settlings is, that the grosser parts consisting of the substance of the Apple, may settle to the bottom, and be severed from the Liquor; for it is that, which maketh it work again (upon motion or change of weather) and spoils it. After twenty four hours draw of it, to see if it be clear, by the settling of all dregs, above which your spigot must be. If it be not clear enough, draw it from the thick dregs into another vessel, and let it settle there twenty four hours. This vessel must be less then the first, because you draw not all out of the first. If then it should not be clear enough, draw it into a third, yet lesser than the second; but usually it is at the first. When it is clear enough draw it into bottles, filling them within two fingers, which stop close. After two or three days visit them; that if there be a danger of their working (which would break the bottles) you may take out the stopples, and let them stand open for half a quarter of an hour. Then stop them close, and they are secure for ever after. In cold freesing weather, set them upon Hay, and cover them over with Hay or Straw. In open weather in Winter transpose them to another part of the Cellar to stand upon the bare ground or pavement. In hot weather set them in sand.
The Cider of the Apples of the last season, as Pippins, not Peermains, nor codlings, will last till the Summer grow hot. Though this never work, 'tis not of the Nature of Strummed Wine; because the naughty dregs are not left in it.

DOCTOR HARVEY'S PLEASANT WATER-CIDER, WHEREOF HE USED TO DRINK MUCH, MAKING IT HIS ORDINARY DRINK
Take one Bushel of Pippins, cut them into slices with the Parings and Cores; boil them in twelve Gallons of water, till the goodness of them be in the water; and that consumed about three Gallons. Then put it into an Hypocras-bag, made of Cotton; and when it is clear run out, and almost cold, sweeten it with five pound of Brown-sugar, and put a pint of Ale-yest to it, and set it a working two nights and days: Then skim off the yest clean, and put it into bottles, and let it stand two or three days, till the yest fall dead at the top: Then take it off clean with a knife, and fill it up a little within the neck (that is to say, that a little about a fingers breadth of the neck be empty, between the superficies of the Liquor, and the bottom of the stopple) and then stop them up and tye them, or else it will drive out the Corks. Within a fortnight you may drink of it. It will keep five or six weeks.

APPLE DRINK WITH SUGAR, HONEY, &c
A very pleasant drink is made of Apples, thus; Boil sliced Apples in water, to make the  water strong of Apples, as when you make to drink it for coolness and pleasure. Sweeten it with Sugar to your tast, such a quantity of sliced Apples, as would make so much water strong enough of Apples; and then bottle it up close for three or four months. There will come a thick mother at the top, which being taken off, all the rest will be very clear, and quick and pleasant to the taste, beyond any Cider. It will be the better to most taste, if you put a very little Rosemary into the liquor, when you boil it, and a little Limon-peel into each bottle, when you bottle it up.


Gulielma Maria Posthuma Springett Penn. Penn Family Recipes: Cooking Recipes of Wm. Penn's Wife, 1674. G. Shumway, 1966.
https://www.amazon.com/Penn-family-recipes-Cooking-Gulielma/dp/B0006BNTYW/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507835446&sr=1-2-fkmr0&keywords=Penn+Family+Recipes%3A+Cooking+Recipes+of+Wm.+Penn%27s+Wife%2C+Gulielma+Gulielma+Maria+Posthuma+Springett+Penn%2C+1674.+G.+Shumway%2C+1966


John Worlidge. Vinetum Britannicum: Ora Treatise of Cider and Other Wines and Drinks ... Fruits Growing in this Kingdom ... Propagating All Sorts of Vinous Fruit-trees ... Making Metheglin and Birch-wine. The Second Impression. To which is Added, a Discourse Teaching the Best Way of Improving Bees. Dring, 1678 (p.52)
https://books.google.com/books/about/Vinetum_Britannicum_Ora_Treatise_of_Cide.html?id=ck1XAAAAcAAJ


C. W. Radcliffe Cooke. A Book about Cider and Perry. Horace Cox, 1898 - Cider.
https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Book_about_Cider_and_Perry.html?id=RS1EAAAAYAAJ


Renfrow, Cindy. A Sip Through Time, a Collection of old Brewing Recipes. Self published, 1996.
https://www.amazon.com/Sip-Through-Time-Collection-Brewing/dp/0962859834/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1507835393&sr=8-1&keywords=a+sip+through+time