Cider Digest #0099

Published in

· 9 Apr 2024

Subject: Cider Digest #99 Thu Jan 2 11:00:06 EST 1992 
Date: Thu, 2 Jan 92 11:00:08 EST 
From: cider-request@expo.lcs.mit.edu (Are you SURE you want to send it HERE?) 

Cider Digest #99          Thu Jan 2 11:00:06 EST 1992 
Forum for Discussion of Cider Issues 
Jay Hersh, Digest Coordinator 
                              
Contents: 
  SINGING OF THE CIDER (Eric Rose) 
                              
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Date: Wed, 1 Jan 92 19:03:51 EST 
From: Eric Rose <rose@aecom.yu.edu> 
Subject: SINGING OF THE CIDER 

Howdy ciderheads, 

     Thought I'd share a bit of cider lore with you.  My girlfriend, a grad 
student in colonial American history, told me about this.  In 17th and 18th 
century New England (and maybe elsewhere), the term "singing of the cider" 
was used to describe the low-key fizzing sound made by the fermentation 
of cider in the colonial kitchen in its open container.  The interesting 
bit is how this noise, and hence hard cider itself, saved some women from 
being convicted on witchcraft charges! 

     According to my source, a frequent defence of a "goodwife" against a charge 
of witchcraft was to present evidence of her adherence to her domestic "duties," 
e.g. cooking, cleaning, and yes, cider-making.  Jill (my girlfriend) cites 
court testimony from the 1710's in which a neighbor of a woman accused of 
witchcraft testifies to having entered her (the defendant's) kitchen one day 
and seen "soup on the fire, and everything in good order, and heard the 
singing of the cider."  The woman was acquitted, of course!  It seems that no- 
one believed you could be evil if you fulfilled the roles dictated to you, 
or at least if you made cider!  So think when next you quaff your homemade 
cider of the noble history of the drink, that saved our long-departed colleagues 
from the gallows.  Brew on! 

- --  
          *************************************** 
          *                                     * 
          * Eric Rose                           * 
          * Albert Einstein College of Medicine * 
          * 1300 Morris Park Avenue             * 
          * Bronx, NY 10461 USA                 * 
          *                                     * 
          * INTERNET:  rose@aecom.yu.edu        * 
          *                                     * 
          *************************************** 

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