Whi’ ligh’nin’
I’m working on a column about cider. Did you know that the standard book on cidermaking is by Annie Proulx of Shipping News and Brokeback Mountain fame? It’s true! Here’s what she has to say on the subject of apple brandy:
There’s a mistaken belief that North American “home” distillers must, by tradition, set up shop along a cool back-hollow stream or in an abandoned warehouse, utilizing ingenious hillbilly-crafted still made of such things as discarded boilers, water heaters, and even car radiators to boil off the “lighnings”—that’s “white” from corn, “Jersey” from apples. Instead, today’s devotees of homemade eau de vie can set up shop in the comfort of their own kitchens. And a highly illegal home shop avocation, and sometimes vocation, it is.
The ordinary pressure cooker is ideally suited for a secret double identity as outlaw.
Applejack, I wish I knew how to quit you!
Comment by Kate
Wow. This is too coincidental not to share. I’m in the homebrew store right now, reading blogs on my iPhone while my boyfriend is being all beer geeky. He just decided to make cider for the first time. I walked over to show him this post, and he had THAT Annie Proulx book in his hand. (And the guy at Mountain Homebrew confirmed that that is indeed the best book for cider-making.)
Posted on December 6, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Comment by mamster
Wow. If he decides to distill his cider, don’t tell anyone, just get all nudgy and winky.
Posted on December 6, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Comment by ctate
I was once served a little tipple of … well, I don’t know what to call it, and neither did the maker. He’d made mead, and then distilled it. There doesn’t seem to be a standard term for the resulting product — he called it “metheglyn,” but that word properly means a spiced/herbed straight mead, not a distillation product.
He’d only single-distilled it and hadn’t aged it, but it was still excellent. I wonder whether he ever pursued the project….
Posted on December 7, 2008 at 10:53 am
Comment by Paul
There’s a story behind Annie Proulx and that cider making book but I can’t corroborate it on the Internet in the few minutes I’m willing to devote to the topic. :( Here you go, anyway: The first edition was written in conjunction with an ex-husband or friend and Annie hasn’t worked on subsequent editions. I believe the story is that she allows her name to stay associated with the book to help generate more sales.
Posted on December 8, 2008 at 11:29 am