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> “Liquor at that time,” recalled the Massachusetts carpenter Elbridge Boyden, “was used as commonly as the food we ate.” And it made perfect sense in the age
by zeteo 10y ago
> “Liquor at that time,” recalled the Massachusetts carpenter Elbridge Boyden, “was used as commonly as the food we ate.”
And it made perfect sense in the age before refrigeration. Since alcohol doesn't spoil it's a great way to achieve long-term storage of calories from grains (beer, whiskey) or fruit (wine, brandy). For many centuries the French peasant would be sustained in his daily labors by the bottle of wine in his pocket.
In rural areas alcohol was a necessity, not a luxury. Part of the reason why the young Federal government ran into trouble imposing what it thought was a tax on vice [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiskey_Rebellion
- narag 10y agoSoft beer I can believe it. But whisky? I don't think so. After a little physical activity, a headache is what you can expect. BTW, was beer popular in USA at that time?
- kevin_thibedeau 10y agoCider was the most common drink.
- jhbadger 10y agoAnd for stronger stuff, Applejack (which is distilled cider; often by the primitive freeze-distilling method).
- brokenmasonjars 10y agoI may be wrong but I remember learning some where some years ago that cider was less in alcoholic content. Sometimes I travel to Ithaca which has a cider store that sells a number of European ciders. Surprisingly a lot are 2.5% to 5.4%. Mead was also drank but I'm not sure it's popularity. If you read Food in England by Dorethy Hartley; beet wine, turnip wine and carrot wine were all being made too. I have a recipe for parsley root wine that I keep meaning to try whenever I have them fresh from the garden.
- SFJulie 10y agoThe amount of alcohol nowadays in cider is due to legislation. My cider without chaptalisation can go to ~6%. (100g/l is what modern apple yields in sugar this 100g/17 ~ 5.8%) Actual cider makers are owned by a few brands that can make cheaper cider that are horribly sugarish since the 90s. Old «farmers» cider were more acid, astringent and strong. No need to say, that farmers were no idiots and that the knowledge of adding more sugar to higher the degree of alcohol is known since the XIXth. I have add access to «cidre fermier of the grandpa» that was 12%. Opaque, whitish and making you cough. That is how my cider is looking like, and how home made and «illegally sold under the mantel» ciders were. The government is trying to kill the taste of traditional products for the profit of big shitty brands. But the gustative resistance is all over the country since decades. We will not bow down, and will keep on making bread, hams, alcohol, choucroute, pickles and jams in our homes.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoI believe this book may be relevant to your post: "Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front" https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Want-Do-Illegal-Stories/dp/0963810952 https://www.amazon.com/Everything-Want-Do-Illegal-Stories/dp...
- SFJulie 10y agoI was a tad exaggerating. However living in Canada made me scared of how much the federal govt was looking so victorian. They are scared of everything, making blood wurst the traditionnal way (by taking blood, spices and milk) is forbidden! They almost pasteurize everything, even the cheeses ! And god curse the queen, Québec has awesome cheeses better than most UK and germany. Cheesus God! I don't want to take part in the global fight against tasty food! Tripes, boundins, alcohols, bagels, couscous, kebab, pierogi, pizza, bo bun and so much more should be the symbol of a new generation, giving up on flags for the profit of what should really unite us: happy fooding!
- WorldMaker 10y agoIn the US there are definitely still a lot of laws on the books outright prohibiting the brewing of ciders and the sale of ciders. Most of these laws are leftovers of American prohibition and its teetotaling war on all alchohol. Some of the anti-cider laws were the first on the books and the strictest and hardest to overturn in the way that marijuana laws are similar the vanguard of America's laws in place from its war on drugs. Alcoholic cider is one of the easiest things to homebrew, and was indeed something of a common beverage. To my grandfathers and great-grandfathers, brewing cider was an act of home rebellion, a reminder of how simple and commonplace alcohol can be. During the American Prohibition cider brewing was seen as a slippery slope to bootlegging and moonshine. (Partly because it was.) I think America is still recovering from a lot of Prohibition-era anti-cider bias. There are still a lot of people that seem to think that making home ciders is dangerous and a quick way to die, even as there is an incredible movement overall in homebrewing beers these days. In some states, from what I recall, it may even still be the case that homebrewing cider is technically illegal.
- guard-of-terra 10y agoCan human body actually make use of alcohol as energy? Because I was fairly sure we can only make energy of something that breaks down to glucose, which alcohol obviously doesn't. Not so sure already.
- narag 10y agoI've read somewhere that beer was used instead of water in areas where water wasn't safe. IIRC, beer has non-alcoholic calories also. I don't believe one can live on spirits, but it could make you forget you are hungry :) Edit: I should have read TFA before commenting.
- r00fus 10y agoOld saying that my wife's French grandpa liked to say - "I don't drink water, it makes me rust".
- pouetpouet 10y agoHeard it as "Water make iron stomachs rust". Usually everyday beer as a replacement of water was smallbeer/bière de table with 2-3% alcohol.
- crooked-v 10y agoAll the calories from the grains or fruits used to make alcoholic drinks don't just evaporate into the ether! "Lite" beers with low calorie contents are a fairly new invention. If you look back far enough, some early brewing, like that of ancient Egypt, made beer so thick that mugs would often come with straws built into them so people could get past the thick layer of almost-solid grains that would float to the top.
- sndean 10y agoEthanol is broken down and eventually fed into the TCA cycle. Some useful byproducts are also made. So, yeah, you get some energy out of ethanol. It's a pretty inefficient way to get energy though.
- bane 10y agoThere were also classes of alcohol that we just don't really bother much with today. For example Small beer and various other low alcohol beers were very common and helped prevent sickness from drinking tainted water. One of my friends is a very dedicated home brewer, and he's recently taken an interest in a lost class of 2-3% beers that have fallen out of fashion. There's also traditional ferments like Kvass or Brottrunk which are made from bread, have <1% alcohol and are very drinkable and can also make the foundation for a soup or other foods which need some quick flavor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_beer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_beer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kvass
- pavel_lishin 10y agoI had completely forgotten that kvass is a bit alcoholic on my last trip to visit my family, until I realized that I was having a very good time indeed having started drinking it when I woke up early in the morning. Makes me wonder a bit about just how much of that stuff I drank as a kid, because I certainly don't remember moderating myself then, either.
- rdtsc 10y agoKefir can have a bit of alcohol in it as well. Not sure how much industrially produced kind has. But brewed at home would have some.
- magic_beans 10y agoKombucha as well.
- wruza 10y agoBoth kvass and kefir can save your morning after yesterday's zastolie (and the entire day if otherwise you would start it with more alcoholic drinks).
- santaclaus 10y ago> One of my friends is a very dedicated home brewer, and he's recently taken an interest in a lost class of 2-3% beers that have fallen out of fashion. Isn't that what a session beer is supposed to be?