Boiling Cider
To prepare cider for boiling, the first process is to filter it immediately on coming from the press. This is easiest done by placing some sticks crosswise in the bottom of a barrel,—a flour barrel with a single head is the best,—wherein an inch hole has been bored, and covering these sticks with say four inches of clean rye or wheat straw, and then filling the barrel to within a foot of the top with clean sand or coal dust,—sand is the best. Pour the cider as it comes from the press into the top of this barrel, drawing it off as soon as it comes out at the bottom into air-tight casks, and let it stand in the cellar until March. Then draw it out with as little exposure to the air as possible, put it into bottles that can be tightly and securely corked, and in two months it will be fit for use.