I started making cider with the intention of trying a few eighteenth-century receipts (oldey-timey for recipe) and began collecting historical references. Then (as you’ve probably guessed) everything spiraled out of control and I started reading up on the general history of cider making.
Below is our growing collection of cider history sources. Please check back as we’re adding things all the time.
Primary Sources
Pomona; or, An appendix concerning fruit-trees in relation to cider, the making and several ways of ordering it. John Evelyn, 1664 (British).
Vinetum Britannicum: Or a Treatise of Cider and Other Wines and Drinks. John Worlidge, 1678 (British).
Cyder: A Poem. In Two Books. John Philips, 1708 (British).
Cider entry in The Family Dictionary. William Salmon, 1710 (British).
Cider entry in Chamber’s Cyclopædia. Ephraim Chambers, 1728 (British).
The Compleat Cyderman: Or, the Present Practice Of Raising plantations Of the Best Cyder Apple and Perry Pear-Trees, With the Improvement Of their Excellent Juices. William Ellis, 1754 (British).
The Cyder-Maker’s Instructor, Sweet-Maker’s Assistant, and Victualler’s and Housekeeper’s Director. Thomas Chapman, 1757 (British).
Cider entry in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1771 (British).
Cider entry in The Complete Farmer. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, 1777 (British).
“A Practical Essay on Raising Apple Trees, and Making Cider.” A. Crocker, 1793 (British).
A Treatise on the Culture of the Apple & Pear and On the Manufacture of Cider & Perry. Thomas Andrew Knight, 1797 (British).
“Process for Making Cider.” Richard Platt, 1804 (American).
“A Treatise On the Cultivation Of Apple Trees and the Preparation Of Cider From the French Of Francis Le Couteur.” in The Agricultural Magazine, Or, Farmers’ Monthly Journal of Husbandry and Rural Affairs, Vol. 9, 1811 (French).
Cider and Perry entry in The Wine and Spirit Dealer’s and Consumer’s Vade-mecum. R. Westley, 1817 (British).
Cider entry in The Cyclopaedia or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature. 1819 (British).
“Timothy Pickering on Beef Cattle, Dairying, and Cider.” Timothy Pickering, 1826 (American).
Cider entry in Mackenzie’s Five Thousand Receipts in All the Useful and Domestic Arts. Colin Mackenzie, 1830 (British).
Cider & Perry entry in The Art and Mystery of Making British Wines, Cider and Perry, Cordials and Liqueurs. Anonymous, 1865 (British).
The Cider Makers’ Manual: A Practical Hand-Book. J.S. Buell, 1869 (American).
The Apple and Pear As Vintage Fruits. Robert Hogg, 1886 (British).
A Study of Cider Making In France, Germany, and England With Comments and Comparisons On American Work. William B. Alwood, 1903 (American). A wonderful study of French, German, British, and American cidering at the turn of the twentieth century. Compares traditional cidering with the then beginnings of industrial cider making.
Secondary Sources
The History and Virtues of Cyder. R.K. French, St. Martin’s Press, 1982. Reprint Robert Hale & Company, 2010.
The Fruits and Fruit Trees of Monticello: Thomas Jefferson and the Origins of American Horticulture. Peter J. Hatch, University of Virginia Press, 1998.
Cidermaking. Michael B. Quinion, Shire Publications Ltd., 1982.
“They Will Be Adjudged by Their Drink, What Kinde of Housewives They Are”: Gender, Technology, and Household Cidering in England and the Chesapeake, 1690 to 1760.” Sarah Hand Meacham, The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 111, No. 2 (2003), pp. 117-150.
“New England Cider Mills, Distilleries, and Breweries, 1790–1840.” Roger N. Parks & Sylvie Turner, Old Sturbridge Village, 1964.
“Cider Production and Consumption in Early New Engand: An Interpretive Report.” Dennis D. Picard, Old Sturbridge Village, January 1985.
The History of Applejack or Apple Brandy in New Jersey From Colonial Times to the Present. Harry B. Weiss, New Jersey Agricultural Society, 1954.
The Archive of Cider Pomology: An Archive Of Orcharding and Cider Making.
Pommel Cyder 