Malouin table drink (farmhouse cider served at meals and celebrations)
Breton Cider of the Return
DrinkReconstruction🍋 🍯 🫙facile10 min
A slightly sparkling, tangy and fruity farmhouse cider, from the natural fermentation of cider apple juice. An emblematic drink of Cartier's Brittany, recreated here in a sweet, quick version for the whole family.
Why this dish? Saint-Malo and 16th-century Brittany were lands of apple trees and cider. Upon his return from New France, Cartier would find the Malouin table where farmhouse cider accompanied fish and galettes—the daily and festive drink of the region, safer than water.
Back in port, after so many months of stagnant water and sour wine from the barrels, nothing cheered me so much as a pot of our Breton cider. We press the apples in autumn, let the juice work on its own in the barrel, and there it is, gently pricking the tongue. In Saint-Malo, no celebration without cider: it accompanies fish, galette, and loosens the tongues of returning sailors. Drink to my health, but not too much, for it goes to the head.
Ingredients
- •Cider apples (bittersweet) — a full basket (juice to ferment)
- •Wild apple yeasts — natural (spontaneous fermentation)
How it was made : Real cider was obtained by natural fermentation: apples were crushed and pressed in autumn, the juice placed in barrels fermented with wild yeasts on the fruit skin. Safer to drink than often contaminated water, cider was a daily drink in Brittany and Normandy. Making alcohol is for adults; the version proposed here is non-fermented, for family audiences.