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Cider syrup, also known as apple molasses, is a fruit syrup concentrate made from apple cider. It was first made in colonial America.[1][promotional source?][2] It is a thick, dark brown, opaque syrup with concentrated apple flavor.[1] The color is darker than honey and its flavor is more tart than maple syrup.[2] A syrup-like product has a much longer shelf-life than the fresh fruit, thereby extending the apple harvest's contribution to diets throughout the year.[2]
Cider syrup is a natural[vague] product which is easy to make,[compared to?] as it needs no additional ingredients or special processes.[3] It is produced by boiling sweet cider, intermittently stirred, until the water content of the cider has evaporated. Many farms still produce apple cider syrup today in Maine, Massachusetts, and other parts of New England.[1][3] It was historically[timeframe?] an important sweetening agent for foods, especially as a substitute for imported cane sugar and molasses.[3] Apple cider syrup was traditionally used in baking cakes, cookies, pies, beans, and similar recipes. It was also used as a table sweetener, to top pancakes and puddings. Cider syrup contains nutrients such as sodium, potassium, sugars, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and magnesium.[4] It is an endangered regional food tradition of the United States.[3]
History
Cider syrup, also known historically as boiled cider or apple molasses, is a concentrated sweetener made by reducing fresh apple cider through prolonged boiling. The practice originated in colonial North America, particularly in New England, where apples were abundant and households developed methods to preserve the harvest beyond the autumn season.[5]
During the 18th and 19th centuries, boiled cider was commonly produced in rural communities and used as a household sweetener in cooking and baking. By concentrating cider into a shelf-stable syrup, families were able to store a sugar-rich product for winter use, particularly at times when refined cane sugar and imported molasses were costly or difficult to obtain. The syrup was used in desserts, sauces, and preserves, and in some cases was diluted with water when fresh cider was no longer available.[5]
The production and domestic use of cider syrup declined during the 20th century as refined sugars became inexpensive, refrigeration reduced reliance on concentrated fruit products, and traditional cider mills became less common. By the mid-20th century, cider syrup had largely disappeared from everyday household use and survived primarily as a regional food tradition in parts of New England.[5]
Flavor profile
Cider syrup survives to today. Its continued popularity[compared to?] may be[weaselwords] due to its fruity acidity and complex layers of taste.[opinion] The taste of apple blossoms, citrus and honey is detectable from only one drop of cider syrup on the tongue.[editorializing] It is rich, with a touch of smokiness in taste and aroma, from where the edge of the syrup is faintly charred during its preparation.[promotion?] These elements make the syrup distinctive[compared to?].
The apple cider syrup has a bright and concentrated aroma of apples.[3] It also has a dark colour and caramelizedsweetness,[1] which is specially balanced by sharp acidity that the result of the good[compared to?] sugar and acid balance found in most North American dessert.[3][incomprehensible]
The apple cider syrup is a thick, dark brown syrup.[2] It is translucent-to-opaque, with a tangy bite.[2][promotion?] No extra food additives or sugar is added to the apple cider syrup.[dubious–discuss] It tastes more tart than maple syrup.[2]
Apples
The boiled cider was often produced from "sweeting" apples in early times[timeframe?] that contained relatively[compared to?] less malic acid and were sweet.[3] The various kinds of "Summer Sweeting," which is generally cited[by whom?] as a kind of apple applied in producing boiled cider, may refer to one or more very old[timeframe?] New England apple varieties, such as the 'Hightop Sweet' from eastern Massachusetts, or the 'Sidney Sweet' from Maine.[3] Farmers still[timeframe?] look after the apple trees in an old-fashioned[according to whom?] way: organically and sustainably.[promotion?]
Climate
The temperature, amount of precipitation, sunshine duration and soil pH can all influence the growth and quality of apples in a place. It directly changes the sweetness and acidity of cider syrup. Hence, one year's cider syrup is never like the next year's. Otherwise, farmers sometimes have to purchase superior[compared to?] apples for cider and cider syrup from another orchard.
Processing
Historical production
Boiling syrup
The instruction of making the cider syrup was required[incomprehensible] to put fresh juice into an open, unreactive metal container and skim the surface as it boils down.[3] The volume should[according to whom?] be concentrated to approximate the one-seventh of the original.[3] Hence, the apple cider syrup is labor-intensive and expensive to make.[2][contradictory] At least one early source[verification needed] declares that premium apple molasses can be produced by steam cooking apples in a container, weighing them down in slatted baskets and pressing their juice through the straw, and then reducing the expressed juice.[3] Most manufacturers[until when?] only ground, squeezed and boiled down the apple into fresh juice, fermented into alcohol or made cider syrup.[3]
Gail Borden Jr., of New York City (who developed condensed milk as well) gained a patent for the "Improvement in Concentrating and Preserving for Use Cider and Other Juices of Fruits" (Patent No. 35,919, dated 22 July 1862).[3] However, Borden does not advocate to evaporate the fresh apple cider, but to boil the cider or fruit juice in a vacuum kettle to maintain the qualities.[3]
Modern process
Contemporary manufacturers boil off the pure cider syrup in an evaporator,[3] just like the production of maple syrup from maple sap.
Storage stability
Keeping away from light and under 10°C is the best[according to whom?] method to extend the life of the cider syrup; refrigeration is not essential, but provides ideal storage conditions.[6] The syrup has a high concentration of sugar, so has antibacterial activity.[6][7]
Commerce
Historic
Cider syrup represented[until when?] a seasonal, local, and economical choice for various backcountry farmers, most of whom did not reside near the central coastal or riverine routes, like maple sugar[non sequitur].[3] Historically, the early[timeframe?] settlers all[dubious–discuss] used boiled cider or cider jelly to make up the juice.[3][incomprehensible] This food was not only seemed as enjoyment[incomprehensible] but also considered to be intake nutrition during winter (many months). Otherwise, these productions[which?] were used[by whom?] as a raw material to make other fruit syrup, preserved fruit and jelly before the commercial development of pectin.[3] This method was passed to today's kitchen from the traditional New England kitchen.[3] The cider syrup not only provided a long shelf life to the apples, but also it brought higher incomes to farms, saleable at three to five times the price of the apples.
As westward expansion grew and the number of farms decreased in New England, in the years after the Civil War,[3] the agricultural economy declined.[3] As more people are attracted to locally grown[buzzword] food, small farms and orchards start to come back.[3] There were fewer recipes after the Second World War. It is hard to find a business on the traditional cider syrup from New England.[incomprehensible][3] Due to its ease of production,[contradictory] boiled cider has mostly slipped out of the public consciousness and quietly become commercial obscurity, lying in the shadows of maple syrup and honey.[1] At present, boiled cider is relatively little known except as a cultural artifact, and is absolutely under-appreciated,[according to whom?] even in its traditional homeland of New England, US.[3]
Recently
A new cider syrup related product was brought out from the Averill Farm in 2015[promotion?] which is located in Massachusetts.[1] In the times of weak trade, the workers from the Averill Farm found a new way of consuming the cider syrup, which had a great business prospect[buzzword] in the future.[1] They realised the synergy[buzzword] that the cider syrup could have with other products from the farm.[1] They started adding the cider syrup into the wine[incomprehensible] instead of adding sugar and honey into the wine.[1] The new cider syrup related product had impressive sales on Franklin Country Cider Days.[1] It had sales on the market at the end of November in that year. After that, the cider syrup won its customers in a short time.[1]
In 2007, a young Slow Food chef[who?] in New Hampshire developed a kind of ice cream, "caramel apple gelato" that highlighted the caramelized and slightly smoky flavor of the syrup.[3] Such culinary creativity will be significant to establish a new market potential[buzzword] and appreciation of the cider syrup, also securing their future.[3] Apple cider syrup is very popular[dubious–discuss] in cocktail bars and boutiques in the US, where new mixed drinks containing the syrup are being developed[by whom?].[2]
"Cider Syrup Days" is a community event was held by the CISA organisation (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture).[8] The tag of this event is 'North Hadley Sugar Shack', in Massachusetts[promotion?].[8] The Cider Syrup Days were operated for two days, from 7am 7 to 1 Novemberpm 8 November 2015.[8]
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