Beverage

Cider

Cider is fermented apple juice—not the unfermented "sweet cider" of a North American farm stand, and not perry. West-country farmhouse pints, Norman cidre bouché, Basque sagardoa, and supermarket sparkling all share the name and almost nothing else in the glass. Bittersweet cider apples such as Kingston Black, Dabinett, and Michelin give tannin and dry length that dessert apples will not; a Bramley or Granny Smith ferment is sharper and thinner. Strength usually sits below wine; acid and tannin do the talking. In the kitchen a dry cider deglazes pork, mussels, and onions the way a modest white wine would, and it lightens a batter without the hop bitterness of beer. Cook with a cider you would drink. Still farmhouse cider can be cloudy and quietly funky; champagne-method bottles are tight and bright. Reduce it and the apple sweetens as the alcohol burns off, so start drier than the sauce you want. Keep sweet drinking cider for the glass or a last-minute glaze, not a long braise. Distinct from apple juice, cider vinegar, and from perry.