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A cousin of ours always used to hang a shin of beef in his cider! He said that it improved it.
Many people know of traditions of beef (or other meat,or rats ...) being added to the barrel to "feed the yeast", as a protein nutrient.
So on the cidermaking days on October 05 we decided to put it to the test!
We filled two demi-johns with freshly pressed apple juice. A piece of beef (rump steak from Waitrose) was added to one, and they were both fitted with airlocks. Over the next five months they fermented into cider.
After a blind tasting of our trial ciders during Easter 2006, our conclusion is that adding a large piece of rump steak to one gallon of apple juice made the cider revolting!
A team of 18 volunteers agreed to try the ciders, blindfolded as the ciders were very varied colours. They were asked to identify the beef cider, and then say which was their favourite cider out of four types :-
- cider fermented with raw beef
- 'normal' farm cider from cider apples
- cider made from desert apples
- cider fermented in a rum cask with sugar added
After everyone had tasted the four ciders, it was decided by all that the beef had not improved the cider. Comments from volunteers included "disgusting", "tasted like roast dinners" and "vile".
The favourite cider was a draw between the cider fermented in a rum cask with sugar added and the cider made with desert apples, which was interesting, and shows how different people's tastes are.
We will attempt a similar experiment after making cider Ocober 2006 - but with a lot less beef!
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