CORRECTION: I misspoke; it was his sister who John left his land to. He did not have a daughter. I'll drown my mistake in some Laird's Old Apple Brandy: bit.ly/ShopDrinkingHistory
I live in Fitchburg (next city over from Leominster). I saw the best way to pronounce the name on Family Feud. The cue card had written on it Lemon stir. :) I might try this one when it gets colder around here.
I live in Leominster MA! We pronounce it "Lemon stir". I'd say a little less than half of us have Boston accents, we have a lot of mixed diversity here so minorities/Irish descent don't usually have that Bostonian in them.
Few people know this, but the LAST living tree planted by Johnny Appleseed is still hanging on by a thread in Mansfield, Ohio. A few years ago, I was allowed to take a cutting and transplant it at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus. He was a remarkable man and I HIGHLY encourage everyone to learn more about his life!
In Norfolk in the UK, at least in some areas, apple brandy is called "Scumble". My grandfather used to make it with a farmer friend of his in a barn. The vat in which it was made was about 15' across and 4' deep. It was filled with crushed windfall apples, sugar was added, then it was left to ferment naturally. The result was then distilled, resulting in approximately 1,000 gallons imperial of 100% apple flavored alcohol. The mash was then fed to pigs which resulted in some very superior pork.
@@samc2 Yup. The pigs can get pretty drunk on old mash. Alcohol is the product of yeasts eating sugars. The Fruit or grain is used is to influence the flavor of the alcohol and it's where the sugars come from for the yeasts to eat. There is a rough formula for the amount of sugar to yeast but back in the day it was quite often wild yeasts spores in the air that started the fermentation cycle. If the cycle looked like it was going to peter out , That could be from any natural sweet source...honey, fruit sugars or refined sugar, or depending on the reason either sugar was added or more yeast was added. If the the mash looked like it was over working and the fermentation was too aggressive, some thing could be added to give the yeast something to work on other than the mash. One could at meat to the the vat, but that would have been expensive. SO Grandad used to catch and kill rats and throw them in the mash. Yes, he'd skin them, gut them and clean them up first. Some say that this is an old wives tale and that, that sort of thing was never done. I know that it was becasue I saw it done.
His Swedenborgian faith was also one of the reasons he didn't graft apple trees, he believed it hurt the trees. It's also a lot cheaper to carry around a sack of apple seeds than a bunch of grafted saplings!
@@cam4636 I mean being against spreading cultivars via grafting for religious purposes is directly comparable in a way a lot of comparisons like this aren’t.
My ancestors knew John! He used to sleep in thier barn when he would pass thru Indiana! Aparently he was delightfully nutty, very earnest, always helped out where he could. But they made him sleep in the barn because of his lice 😬 Regardless, grandpapy Hossinger left in his will that his kids had to plant flowering crab apple trees in the yards of their future homes in his honor. So at least we can say he left a good impression. He’s kind of the quintessential american wierdo, y’know?
That's super cool. Do you/your family uphold that tradition? I'm from Northeast Ohio and there are loads of apple/crabapple trees, had several in my old yard. Rural area. Makes me wonder if any of them were descendants of his trees 🤔 Probably not planted himself though.. Probably.
The reason applejack was such an "evil" spirit probably had something to do with the "jacking" or freeze distilling process by which it was made at the time. Unlike hot distillation, freeze distilling takes off water first and leaves behind all the unsavory toxic compounds that get cut out of modern distilled spirits. So, while applejack was quite popular in early America, especially among the lower classes, it had a nasty habit of making one go blind and mad if one partook of too much. I believe that's where the blowing up the town and reciting poetry bit came from. And yeah, modern hot distilled apple brandy is basically the same thing as classic applejack without all the "making you go blind and mad".
Came here to say this. The term "apple palsy" was also coined in reference to the particularly horrific hangovers people had from consuming too much apple jack
The reason it made people blind and mad was that freezing only removes the water. It leaves behind methanol and other poisonous substances. Evaporative distillation can separate the ethanol from the other chemicals, if done correctly. th-cam.com/video/gGUe20RZZkc/w-d-xo.html
you're not wrong. look up john muir. basically a bum who lived in the woods, but had such force of character that he created yosemite national park, and well, the idea of the national park.
every culture has famous weirdos/evildoers. tis their eccentricity that empowers, an obsessive pursuit leading to excellence. tis why theoretical physicists often have annoying quirks and lacking people skills.
We had a book about Johnny Appleseed that said he just loved apples so much he wanted everyone to have delicious apples to eat…not that he was scamming land grants and DEFINITELY not that most of the apples were for making alcohol
@@TipTheScales27 Our modern apples are damn good. His? Mostly werent. Using seeds his orchard primarily ever produced inedible crab apples - for cider and animal feed. As the OP said - it was a low-cost way to fulfill the words of the law with nearly no further investment. Scoring cheap land grants by symbolic but not too useful "cultivation" effectively
There was recently an item on, I think, the SciShow channel about how important Johnny Appleseed was. Apparently, due to his work he increased the genetic diversity of apples in the US, providing huge numbers of trees for today's botanists to use to create new varieties of apple.
I LOVE the idea of Johnny Appleseed. He harmed no animals, lived at the beck and call of no man, and came and went as he saw fit, spending his days out in nature. AND he gamed the system.
I remember my relatives in Southern Appalachia making apples jack in the fall. First it was fairly easy to do. Make apple juice, let it ferment then let it freeze. Pour off the alcohol. Second it was much easier to hide from the revenuers.
I learned in junior high that, on the American frontier, apple CIDER was allowed to ferment, making HARD CIDER. Freezing the hard cider concentrated the alcohol into APPLE JACK.
Except for being very, very, Christian Johnny was pretty much a Celtic Green Man imported to a whole new continent. Also, lawn bowling was quite popular in the colonial US, so they might have been good on that front.
@@FalconOfStorms I think It might technically count as Deism or something. He was defiantly a monotheist of the Christian tradition, but it was probably closest to one of those US protestant splinters without actual clergy.
Not really a surprise, especially since early America still had a lot of ties to the old world and it's stories. In fact Johnny appears in the novel "American Gods" as a cultural hero. The book is about the Gods of the old world who exist in America. The idea is that faith makes a God real, so when different people got here they brought their gods and myths. But as they moved away from those beliefs, the Gods basically became living manifestations who have to just have to find a way to get along just like humans. Johnny isn't a God, but the legends, stories and cultural tradition made him similar to the Gods. So in that world sprites, fairies, both friendly and malevolent spirits exist... So a guy who has similarities with the old legends would probably find himself existing outside reality in the same space as those mythical beings.
This looks very much like the Wassail we drink in the Autumn called Halloween Wassail or Halloween Lambswool . All very similar ingredients , although we add ginger, mixed in a saucepan and warmed through , then whisk in the pulp of the baked apples and serve either in the wassail bowl , or individually in large glasses . The apple pulp rises to the top of the drink and looks [ vaguely ] like lambswool , but is very delicious . Keep making these great videos . It's fascinating to see how folk traditions have changed over the centuries .
I thought he had not baked the apple enough, a few more minutes and it would fall apart. When I bake an apple for eating I leave it until it is mush. Then you can mix in the stuffing of raisins and chopped apricots and spices.
According to Amy Stewart in her book, "The Drunken Botanist," apples best for hard cider and apple brandy are the really super sour ones referred to as "spitters" because if you ever bite into one, you immediately want to spit it out.
@@paulwagner688 tbf, the reason grafting is the go to method is that Apples are very random when planted via seed. You can't predict what kinda apple the tree that will grow will produce, doesn't matter what tree you got it from
@@oldfrend Amy Stewart doesn't say in her book. One can make port or brandy out of mediocre wine from white grapes. I wouldn't try home distillation. There is a science to the art of distillation that requires one to not use the first and last of the distillation, called the tops and the tails. Also, it's illegal in the US.
"Oh, the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord, for giving me the things I need: the sun, and the rain, and the apple seed. The Lord is good to me." We sang this for grace before snack in Girl Scouts.
Apples, like many fruit bearing species, have diploid chromosomes with a strong tendency towards heterozygous composition (meaning that a parent plant will not have exact copies of the same gene, but have different coding). The massive genome coupled with internal gene mutations creates creates vast variations among offspring. Edible cultivars are derived by pure luck within the vast probable variations, and can only be reproduced by grafting branches onto less desirable cultivars.
Crabapples don't get enough love. We had a crabapple tree when I was little and I loved to eat them straight off the tree. They also make the best jelly.
I agree 100% I have very fond memories of the crab apple tree that grew in our back yard in Chicago many years ago. I looked forward to Autumn when they were ready to eat.
Traditional applejack was actually made through freeze distillation in the winter months. It is also a separate drink from apple brandy as well. It was made quite simply, apple cider was left to freeze outside and the remaining liquid would be mostly alcohol - as alcohol does not freeze easily. Freeze distillation isn’t capable of distilling to to degree of concentration traditional is, so you’re left with a far less alcoholic beverage that tastes closer to apple cider than apple brandy. Very easy to drink in large quantities without noticing, similar to apple pie moonshine. This quality is what gave it its reputation of getting one really drunk.
@@SlavicCelery I have to admit, my only endeavors into freeze distillation were with an awful booze I made with bakers yeast, table sugar, raisins, and coolaid mix during highschool lol. I did make a pretty penny selling that to my classmates at least. Boy was that shit disgusting
Applejack is slightly poisonous due to the distillation method. Basically if you drink too much you will not only have a nasty headache but vicious nausea. Like a regular hangover...but worse. I'll stick to calvados.
@@robcampbell3235 That is a complete and utter myth, no method of distillation is dangerous. Anyone with more than two brain cells would know that because there is no chemical reaction that turns ethanol to methanol via evaporation then anything that is safe to drink before distilling (like fermented apple juice) is also safe to drink after.
As an Ohioan I can vouch for the apples (esp. of the crab variety) everywhere statement. Personally, I prefer apple moon shine to whiskey...because what else do you do in the boonies with that many apples.
And crab apples make the most fantastic butter after the style of apple butter and pumpkin butter. They are fantastically delicious. We've got some really flavorful crabapple trees out here in Colorado. If you're up for a super intense mouthful, like all of the flavor of a good sweet tart apple condensed, they're even good for straight eating. Of course, I'm also the kids who eats lemons straight, so take that as you will.
I love the way you say “Leominster” any one from MA I’m sure they caught that too. That’s the word we use to weed out the spies! 😆 Just poking fun. Love your channel!
Okay, I hooted with laughter when you were reading the NY Times articles about NJ Apple Jack: "...and they were reciting poetry to all the surviving inhabitants" and also that Victor Hugo had written that he "glided into insanity". Great lines! I also hooted yet again with "that is a town that needed a bowling alley!" Great one, Max!
When I was a little girl I was OBSESSED with the Johnny Appleseed song that we learned in elementary school. I used to sing it on the swingset all the time! I wonderful memory. Thank you Max!!!
Is it this one? Oh, the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord, for giving me the things I need, the rain and the sun and the appleseed. The Lord is good to me. Amen, amen, A-a-a-a-a-men!
I live in north central Ohio and there are Johnny Appleseed named places everywhere!! There also happens to be an abundance of wild apple trees around the country side.
Fun fact: the jack in applejack refers to the process of jacking, which is distillation by means of freezing. Water freezes first and is removed, leaving a stronger proof of spirit.
It also leaves a bunch of poisonous toxins behind like wood alcohol that can make you go blind, that is why it is outlawed for commercial production nowadays...
@@-jank-willson unlike shotty moonshine, you really wouldnt be able to concentrate it nearly enough for those other compounds to seriously harm you. It does make hang overs worse though.
@@-jank-willson Ice distillation isn't actually illegal, Eisbock, And while it will make you feel like shit, won't actually make you go blind. That happens when people ad other noxious chemicals, like terpines, to alcohol, as was common during prohibition. You can drink pure heads/tails and you're liver/kidneys/spleen will give out long before you ever go blind.
You missed a part of his history, namely that the Department of the Treasury destroyed most of the original apple trees he planted during prohibition because they could only be used for alcohol production.
@@matthewlister3755 I flew over there for a friends' wedding once. They have a small airport there, and the first thing you see when you go out to the reception area is "It's pronounced WOOSTER!"
Applejack is definitely sinfully good. Stated by someone who has survived the homemade hooch. Johnny was a clever individual finding a loophole in land management policy turning production waste into a successful land acquisition initiative. My hometown had a legendary character referred to as "the Leatherman" as his clothes were made of all animal pelts. Locals would provide handouts that helped him survive while he lived in the foothills of the town as he was a trapper by trade. Very much enjoyed this story of America's past. 🍎👍
Weird, my hometown had a campfire story of "the leatherman" who would murder and skin people. According to legend, he was supported and helped by a town on the far side of the woods.
@@elbruces there are probably many local tales of Leathermen in parts of the country as many early settlers merely lived off the land and trapping water based animals for their fur and hide was very much in demand. So, these same individuals would make their clothes essentially for free from their efforts. Our town had a benevolent leather man and there are historic photos of the individual in our town's library. Our local legend states that if you come across a black dog walking in the foothills of the town, then you are destined to die within a year. No one takes this seriously but just something to talk about when you're on the trails....
Why does the title make it sound like a Netflix documentary? If it does go into production, you should get John Townsend hosting it with ya, all while spouting poetry to cause some chaos.
Jon and Ryan talked about doing some 18th Century Poetry reading on the last livestream. They also talked about making up some of their own in the same style.
I live in the same town he was born in! We have a festival for him each year. He is pretty important to our town. Thank you for not only sharing his history but also a nice drink I can make!
The best totties are with bourbon. As a Kentuckian I can assure you there's a lot of very interesting myths and tales behind America's Whiskey. Some people say bourbon was discovered by a grocer reusing old scorched barrels, others say it was Jim Beam's experimentation. Do a video on it Max! Maybe a Manhattan?
Bourbon would be a very good one to do a history on! Maybe a general history of early American liquor making and why certain types of liquor were made more than others.
I couldn't find any apple Brandy, so I improvised and bought peaches and peach Brandy. Then fried the peaches in butter and brown sugar for the fruit. It worked out really well.
Please, a moment of your time for some Vogon poetry: "Groop. I implore thee, / my foonting turlingdromes, / and hooptiously drangle me, / with crinkly bindlewurdles, / or else I shall rend thee in the gobbelwarts / with my burglecruncheon. / See if I don't."
Fun fact. The reason applejack is “strong” despite having the same ABV as whisky was because of the traditional process it was made. Whisky was distilled with heat allowing precise removal of methanol from the spirit. Applejack was freeze distilled which did not remove the methanol so you were stuck with it in the final drink. Methanol and higher fusel alcohols are known to give some serious headaches, intoxication and downright poisoning if ingested in high amounts which traditional applejack definitely had well… when you consume a lot of it anyway.
@@pattheplanter Apples are some of the worst fruits for it too! since it's from pectin, which apples are high in. Though that does suggest currants would be the worst... (real black currants, not the dried grape kind)
@@mwater_moon2865 I suppose the Rock's Gooseberry Champagne wasn't good for methanol content. Lucky they haven't made it for a few decades. The best champagne I ever tasted and only £6 a bottle.
ahahah that was brilliant. 'i dunno why i'd want that apple in there. it'll just be apple soaked in flavor alcohol by the time i get to the bottom. and now i know why' XD
I'm so glad u did this episode! I'm from Leominster, Ma and we have a Johnny Appleseed festival every year at the end of September/ beginning of apple picking season.
As a Massachusetts resident, born and raised, I can tell you the town in question is pronounced "Lemin-ster", not matter what the spelling looks like. We have a lot of towns like that.
You should make a people try to say Mass. town names vid like A Southern Thing did for Alabama and Texas and Mississippi town names. It's always a hoot how names look vs how they're said.
I grew up in a small town on the west coast and every year my friends and I would have an apple festival. The lore was that when Johnny Appleseed got to the coast and realized he couldn't go any farther, he had nothing left to do but have a party and get drunk on applejack. We would drink hot apple drinks and press cider and eat various apple themed foods. We even had a song about it.
In Newfoundland, you don't find many apple trees on the Southern Shore where I grew up, but now that I live in Central Newfoundland, I'm finding trees everywhere I walk. I guess it had to do with the railroad and people throwing apple cores into the woods off a train, as well as the better soil and weather here. Anyways, I found two wild apple trees along side the old rail bed, and one is a bit sour but tasty, and the other is sweeter. Both are small and hard apples. I picked many pounds to bottle applesauce, to make apple crisps and pies, and to make cakes. They're really good, but hard to peel and core as they're so small. Perhaps it's the same kinda apple that Johnny Appleseed planted?
Like you I love foraging for fruit at this time of the year . Especially along roadside verges where people have thrown apple cores from their car windows . As apples do not come true to type from seed the apples from those ' volunteer ' trees will always be a bit random . I found the best way to process them is to cut them in half and cook them in a pressure cooker or InstaPot . Cook them to a pulp and then strain out all the apple skin , pips and other bits you don't want . You can then sweeten and spice the apple puree to taste .
It's cool that you're using these sorts of apples. May I suggest that you just cut the apples in half or into chunks depending on size, cook them and then run them through a hand cranked food mill. It'll strain out the seeds, skins and smooth out the cooked apple to a beautifully smooth consistency.
@@chrisholds1 oh I did that too. I find that little bits of core still get through. I'm thinking I need a better food mill. Thanks for the tips and taking the time to help me out 😊
@@JW-yt7lr good idea of pressure cooking them. I find the puree really thick...I guess there's a lot of pectin in my apples, and I had to add water to thin it out some. Perhaps next year I can attempt making my own homemade pectin from them??
Traditionally, Apple Jack was made from hard cider, then left outside to freeze. The solution poured off from the resultant apple slush was a higher alcohol content. Distilling hard cider results in even higher ABV. Calvados, an apple brandy from Normandy is one such product. I would use the hard cider/slush method to be truer to the recipe, but it's your show.
I grew up close to the Swedenbourgian's American settlement at Bryn Athyn in PA! They have a beautiful cathedral and museum of medieval art and history.
"...by the transitive property..." Oh this is starting off very well. Though this might be more of a distributive property kind of thing. Love(apple) + Love(cocktails) = Love (apple + cocktails). Transitive would me more like... if apple = love and love = cocktail, then apple = cocktail 🤔 I'm sorry. - Former math teacher
I was so obsessed with the tale of Johnny Appleseed as a kid that when I got my first pet (a hamster) I did indeed name him that. I think it was because the little guy liked apples too. Watching this brought back memories of my little hamster buddy, who died from old age at five years old.
That warning op ed article almost sounded like a sales promotion. It probably tripled sales overnight with all of the talk about blowing up everything with dynamite.
I grew up and have lived most of my life within an hour of Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Johnny Appleseed is a local legend, with a festival held in his honor every September in Johnny Appleseed Park. His grave is in Ft. Wayne, and the local minor league baseball team is called the Tin Caps in his honor.
It sounds perfect for a cold October day in Scotland, when the temp has already dropped to below ten degrees (Celsius), and when some place up north already has snow.
Back then they soaked fruit in liquid for the ladies, because it was unseemly for a women to drink, so they were given alchohol soaked fruit at gatherings, ,,little add on,,, the appetizer was supposedly stronger in content with the added fermentation ! Score one for the ladies !!!!!
@@oldfrend it's fabulous. I soak cocktail cherries in 180 proof alcohol for about a year (you could probably do it sooner, but this works for me to start around Christmas time and use the next Christmas) and then drain off the now cherry flavored alcohol for mixed drinks and coat the cherries in chocolate. Takes some planning ahead and patience, but if you like chocolate and cherries, definitely worth it. Thinking about trying it with fresh pitted black cherries.
Swedenborg is buried in the cathedral here in Uppsala - unfortunately at his original burial, in London, someone nicked the skull and replaced it with another. The body, and the wrong skull, came to Uppsala in the early 20th century and were only rejoined with the genuine skull in the 1970s.
My great-grandfather used to make applejack the old-fashioned way--by cold distillation. Basically, he'd put hard cider out into the snow in winter, let the cold freeze most of the water, discard the ice, and what was left was applejack. Unlike hot distillation, this concentrated the flavors rather than leaving much of them behind. This could make a big difference!
See, this is why you should combat global warming 🤣 All jokes aside, appearantly it is indeed the traditional way, but has some downsides. By freezing it, you don't remove the methanol. This might lead to a drink which can give you a headache. But I love the idea
We actually have a lot of land in the middle of our town that was one of Johnny's early land holdings! And it's actually across the river from where Daniel Decatur Emmett was born.
Hey Max, great episode as always! If I may live with a little suggestion: one should always put their other hand around the bottom of the glass when stirring a drink. Unless it's a stirring glass with a weighted, thick bottom, stirring a drink around can easily tumble the glass over, potentially breaking it and spilling everything out, especially if using a long barspoon that greatly increases leverage. At least that's what I was taught and what I think is logical. Anyway, love the show, cheers!
This came ust in time. We expect to have a night with sub zero temperatures.This video once again caters to three wishes: entertainment, a slice of history and an easy to follow recipe for something that seems to be tasty. Well done!
I remember growing up in Indiana and every year there was a Johnny Appleseed festival. Everything that was made of apples you could find there but the best things were the old fashion apple fritters that were fried in a huge cauldron over a fire. BTW my husband and I found your channel the other day and have been binge watching it ever since. We just love your channel!!
Point of spirit order! Apple jack is different from apple brandy. Jack is made by making hard cider, then setting it outside on a cold night, and discarding the ice that would form on top, increasing the amount of alcohol in the remaining liquid. Repeat as desired to increase potency. Apple brandy is made by distilling the hard cider. Essentially, one is closer to wine, the other is closer to actual traditional spirit.
The problem (which is a good thing) is that there is no applejack made as it was in the 19th century. Today applejack is not made like that nor does it use 100% apple, so old fashioned apple brandy is the closest you'll get.
Though true, nobody, at least not for sale, jacks. Freeze distillation tends to leave nasty and dangerous compounds like methanol since it just involves freezing the water which solidifies first. Heat distillation boils the alcohol and recollects it since it boils at a much lower temperature than water and can be much more controlled to not boil away things like the methanol.
@@TastingHistory I hope I didn't come off as hostile, I still enjoyed the episode immensely. Thank you for replying, and I look forward to seeing your future videos.
Quick correction. “Apple jack” is a spirit that was made by “freeze jacking” hard cider. Basically they would make hard cider, put it in a barrel, and when it froze, they would save the liquid(mostly alcohol, sugar, apple flavor, and some water) then throw away the ice. rinse and repeat. After a few goes, you wound up with an ABV approaching that of whiskey. Apple brandy is just that. Distilled and aged spirit made from apples.
Just a warning. By using this process, you also increase the methanol in your product( usually removed during true distillation) thus causing the worst hangovers if you got drunk on it.
I went to school with one of the Lairds, the business is still in the family. Washington bought their apple jack recipe after he acquired a taste for it during the battle of monmouth, they still have the contract he signed.
Read a document on Johnny Appleseed. I remember one segment where apparently native tribes saw him as a bit of a Medicine Man (sort of like a Holy Man) and left him alone because of it.
Hello Volbeat on the back shelf, and hooray for apple flavored cocktails. Hard apple cider is one of my favorite (spirited) drinks, Angry Orchard being my poison of choice. Nice to see our favorite drinks getting the same attention as our food does on Tasting History, including folk stories and hearsay surrounding their cultivation.
I’m from central Virginia, you can tour the distillery there. Also you can tour all the beer distillery’s and vineyards if you enjoy that. Beautiful place and LOTS of history!
Oh, the memories you brought back today...I remember learning about JA in 4th grade (1976) and all about how apples were propagated due to his efforts. I'm sure we learned the 'G' version of his history rather than the more detailed and far more interesting one you told us! Every fall, our school would take field trips to the local apple orchards (upstate NY was chock-a-block with them) to pick apples. Then there was the year we went apple picking with our family and my smart ass brother went to a tree, ate an apple and left the core hanging from the branch! A final memory--or what I can remember at least--was drinking Apfelkorn while stationed in Germany. Oh, the numbers of bottles we drank! I shall have to look for the Apple Jack to try.
I thought jacking( ice distillation) was making a spirit by freezing the water out, not distilling the spirit out of fermented must( I could well be wrong).
That's exactly what I have read. You need hard cider, and the more times you freeze it, the stronger it becomes. They show this in "June Bride" with Bette Davis.
Nope, you're absolutely correct. Applejack was discovered accidentally when most of the water in a barrel of cider had frozen around the sides, leaving just a core of applejack.
@@bando7567, I became obsessed with applejack since I learned they stopped making it here a few years ago. I was thinking of trying to make it myself, but I don't drink, so it never went anywhere.
- Our man won't marry in this world to gain a "pure wife in heaven" - Left his orchards to his daughter _Hmmm._ I mean, _technically..._ EDIT: Ah, nevermind, Max clarified it.
I used to work for the late Urbana University, in Ohio. Swedenborg founded it, or at least provided funding/land to found it. The university had its ups and downs (it's gone now). There was a museum devoted to John Chapman on the old campus. Not sure what they did with it - it was interesting, I admit. I knew a lot of the historical information, and also about Swedenborg, for obvious reasons. Swedenborg had some "interesting" ideas about divinity, philosophy, and where the prime mover actually lived. Worth a look at both Swedenborg's history and Chapman's.
The real genius is that after seven years the orchards were proved farm claims, and the land could be sold for a LOT more. Further, cider and applejack lasted and could be transported long distances, so cider apples were just fine.
if i remember correctly, Chapman basically franchised his orchards, granting local farmers usage rights in exchange for a cut of the profits. while he was a weirdo, he was a smart businessman.
CORRECTION: I misspoke; it was his sister who John left his land to. He did not have a daughter.
I'll drown my mistake in some Laird's Old Apple Brandy: bit.ly/ShopDrinkingHistory
I love your shirt. It looks phenomenal on you. Great fashion sense as well as good humour, good looks and great videos. Keep it up!
calvados
I live in Fitchburg (next city over from Leominster). I saw the best way to pronounce the name on Family Feud. The cue card had written on it Lemon stir. :) I might try this one when it gets colder around here.
ty for owning up to this egregious offense against central MA
I live in Leominster MA! We pronounce it "Lemon stir". I'd say a little less than half of us have Boston accents, we have a lot of mixed diversity here so minorities/Irish descent don't usually have that Bostonian in them.
Few people know this, but the LAST living tree planted by Johnny Appleseed is still hanging on by a thread in Mansfield, Ohio. A few years ago, I was allowed to take a cutting and transplant it at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus. He was a remarkable man and I HIGHLY encourage everyone to learn more about his life!
How wonderful you were able to take a cutting!!! I hope it thrives 🍎🌳
@@Trund27 Thanks! Yes, it’s still growing strong at the Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus, OH! 🍎
I sincerely hope that cutting is growing strong!
wait is that why Mansfield and Ontario spent so much time teaching us about Johnny Appleseed?
Woah cool! How is your tree doing?
In Norfolk in the UK, at least in some areas, apple brandy is called "Scumble". My grandfather used to make it with a farmer friend of his in a barn. The vat in which it was made was about 15' across and 4' deep. It was filled with crushed windfall apples, sugar was added, then it was left to ferment naturally. The result was then distilled, resulting in approximately 1,000 gallons imperial of 100% apple flavored alcohol. The mash was then fed to pigs which resulted in some very superior pork.
naturally apple flavored bacon. genius
And those pigs were obviously in a great mood afterwards.
The finished product of both sounds amazing
would it not intoxicate the pigs? Got to be honest I don't really understand how the whole making alcohol thing works
@@samc2 Yup. The pigs can get pretty drunk on old mash. Alcohol is the product of yeasts eating sugars. The Fruit or grain is used is to influence the flavor of the alcohol and it's where the sugars come from for the yeasts to eat. There is a rough formula for the amount of sugar to yeast but back in the day it was quite often wild yeasts spores in the air that started the fermentation cycle. If the cycle looked like it was going to peter out , That could be from any natural sweet source...honey, fruit sugars or refined sugar, or depending on the reason either sugar was added or more yeast was added. If the the mash looked like it was over working and the fermentation was too aggressive, some thing could be added to give the yeast something to work on other than the mash. One could at meat to the the vat, but that would have been expensive. SO Grandad used to catch and kill rats and throw them in the mash. Yes, he'd skin them, gut them and clean them up first. Some say that this is an old wives tale and that, that sort of thing was never done. I know that it was becasue I saw it done.
His Swedenborgian faith was also one of the reasons he didn't graft apple trees, he believed it hurt the trees. It's also a lot cheaper to carry around a sack of apple seeds than a bunch of grafted saplings!
They considered grafting a violation of God's nature. Today they'd be marching against GMOs and eating "organic".
@@rcrawford42 You may want to stretch before you reach like that
@@cam4636 I mean being against spreading cultivars via grafting for religious purposes is directly comparable in a way a lot of comparisons like this aren’t.
@@rcrawford42 The Swedenborgians still exist.
@@jasonsilverman3125 I consider myself a Swedenborg. There is usually one Swedenborg church in every major US city.
My ancestors knew John! He used to sleep in thier barn when he would pass thru Indiana! Aparently he was delightfully nutty, very earnest, always helped out where he could. But they made him sleep in the barn because of his lice 😬
Regardless, grandpapy Hossinger left in his will that his kids had to plant flowering crab apple trees in the yards of their future homes in his honor. So at least we can say he left a good impression. He’s kind of the quintessential american wierdo, y’know?
That's super cool. Do you/your family uphold that tradition? I'm from Northeast Ohio and there are loads of apple/crabapple trees, had several in my old yard. Rural area. Makes me wonder if any of them were descendants of his trees 🤔 Probably not planted himself though.. Probably.
"Add boiling water and nutmeg"
*Townsends busts down the door*
Was just thinking the same thing 😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I'm a descendant of John Chapman's sister, so Johnny is a great, great uncle of mine. I've always been fascinated by his Swedenborgianism.
Fr that’s insane unfortunately I’m a descendent of John c Calhoun there’s a lot worst people to be related to lol
@@austincalhoun1752Fancy that. I’m related (distantly) to Martha Washington.
@@Kaijugan nice - my 5th great grandfather founded Nashville
@@O-sa-car bull
@@Kaijugan lol - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Robertson_(explorer)
The reason applejack was such an "evil" spirit probably had something to do with the "jacking" or freeze distilling process by which it was made at the time. Unlike hot distillation, freeze distilling takes off water first and leaves behind all the unsavory toxic compounds that get cut out of modern distilled spirits. So, while applejack was quite popular in early America, especially among the lower classes, it had a nasty habit of making one go blind and mad if one partook of too much. I believe that's where the blowing up the town and reciting poetry bit came from.
And yeah, modern hot distilled apple brandy is basically the same thing as classic applejack without all the "making you go blind and mad".
Came here to say this. The term "apple palsy" was also coined in reference to the particularly horrific hangovers people had from consuming too much apple jack
Wow, interesting. Never knew freeze distillation was a thing.
Interesting. We use the same technique in Germany to brew Eisbock, a stronger beer
What's the point if it doesn't make you stark raving mad and blind as justice?
The reason it made people blind and mad was that freezing only removes the water. It leaves behind methanol and other poisonous substances. Evaporative distillation can separate the ethanol from the other chemicals, if done correctly. th-cam.com/video/gGUe20RZZkc/w-d-xo.html
"American Weirdos" would be a great name for a book about people like this. :) It's just got such an inspiring ring to it.
I'd read that. Especially if it included Emperor Norton.
I would absolutely read that.
I love how a huge part of American tradition/history is weirdo admiring lol
you're not wrong. look up john muir. basically a bum who lived in the woods, but had such force of character that he created yosemite national park, and well, the idea of the national park.
@@oldfrend Don't forget the Emperor of San Francisco.
@@pattheplanter Good 'Ol Norton.
every culture has famous weirdos/evildoers.
tis their eccentricity that empowers, an obsessive pursuit leading to excellence.
tis why theoretical physicists often have annoying quirks and lacking people skills.
@@pattheplanter Praised be His Majesty
We had a book about Johnny Appleseed that said he just loved apples so much he wanted everyone to have delicious apples to eat…not that he was scamming land grants and DEFINITELY not that most of the apples were for making alcohol
Apples are pretty damn good. Honestly don’t blame him. It was such a simple time back then lol
@@TipTheScales27 Our modern apples are damn good.
His? Mostly werent.
Using seeds his orchard primarily ever produced inedible crab apples - for cider and animal feed.
As the OP said - it was a low-cost way to fulfill the words of the law with nearly no further investment.
Scoring cheap land grants by symbolic but not too useful "cultivation" effectively
There was recently an item on, I think, the SciShow channel about how important Johnny Appleseed was. Apparently, due to his work he increased the genetic diversity of apples in the US, providing huge numbers of trees for today's botanists to use to create new varieties of apple.
Nothing to do with your comment. Your handle rocks dude. Snicker-snack!
I watched that video!
I LOVE the idea of Johnny Appleseed. He harmed no animals, lived at the beck and call of no man, and came and went as he saw fit, spending his days out in nature. AND he gamed the system.
Totally, history should remember more people like him.
Aaahhhh, he was a bum.
@@naomiwinters3738 I agree Naomi.
kind of seemed like a Buddhist monk that liked planting
@@Kruppt808 I guess that spirit doesn't need a label; it's more about the mindset.
I remember my relatives in Southern Appalachia making apples jack in the fall. First it was fairly easy to do. Make apple juice, let it ferment then let it freeze. Pour off the alcohol. Second it was much easier to hide from the revenuers.
Well freeze-jacking ain't illegal. Unlike my great grandfather's ”kerosene” still. At least that's what it tasted like 🙂.
I learned in junior high that, on the American frontier, apple CIDER was allowed to ferment, making HARD CIDER. Freezing the hard cider concentrated the alcohol into APPLE JACK.
*"Just gonna refill a little bit."*
Max' version of "Two shots of Vodka."
*glug glug glug glug glug glug glug glug glug glug*
“…reciting original poetry to every surviving inhabitant.” 🤣🤣🤣 I’m dying! Thank you for the much needed laugh Max and the NY Times 😂
Except for being very, very, Christian Johnny was pretty much a Celtic Green Man imported to a whole new continent.
Also, lawn bowling was quite popular in the colonial US, so they might have been good on that front.
I'm pretty sure Swedenborgianism isn't technically Christian.
@@FalconOfStorms I think It might technically count as Deism or something. He was defiantly a monotheist of the Christian tradition, but it was probably closest to one of those US protestant splinters without actual clergy.
@@FalconOfStorms I mean, they do think that they're the real Christians and all the other sects calling themselves Christian are mostly wrong, so...
Not really a surprise, especially since early America still had a lot of ties to the old world and it's stories.
In fact Johnny appears in the novel "American Gods" as a cultural hero.
The book is about the Gods of the old world who exist in America. The idea is that faith makes a God real, so when different people got here they brought their gods and myths. But as they moved away from those beliefs, the Gods basically became living manifestations who have to just have to find a way to get along just like humans.
Johnny isn't a God, but the legends, stories and cultural tradition made him similar to the Gods. So in that world sprites, fairies, both friendly and malevolent spirits exist... So a guy who has similarities with the old legends would probably find himself existing outside reality in the same space as those mythical beings.
Pseudiom has an interesting video on a similar character: The Leatherman.
This looks very much like the Wassail we drink in the Autumn called Halloween Wassail or Halloween Lambswool . All very similar ingredients , although we add ginger, mixed in a saucepan and warmed through , then whisk in the pulp of the baked apples and serve either in the wassail bowl , or individually in large glasses . The apple pulp rises to the top of the drink and looks [ vaguely ] like lambswool , but is very delicious .
Keep making these great videos . It's fascinating to see how folk traditions have changed over the centuries .
I thought he had not baked the apple enough, a few more minutes and it would fall apart. When I bake an apple for eating I leave it until it is mush. Then you can mix in the stuffing of raisins and chopped apricots and spices.
According to Amy Stewart in her book, "The Drunken Botanist," apples best for hard cider and apple brandy are the really super sour ones referred to as "spitters" because if you ever bite into one, you immediately want to spit it out.
And coincidentally, those apples were the ones Chapman went around planting.
The best cider varieties are "sharp" and "bitter-sharp" ones
@@paulwagner688 tbf, the reason grafting is the go to method is that Apples are very random when planted via seed. You can't predict what kinda apple the tree that will grow will produce, doesn't matter what tree you got it from
and what happens if you make cider/brandy out of sweet apples? not personally a fan of tart flavors myself.
@@oldfrend Amy Stewart doesn't say in her book. One can make port or brandy out of mediocre wine from white grapes. I wouldn't try home distillation. There is a science to the art of distillation that requires one to not use the first and last of the distillation, called the tops and the tails. Also, it's illegal in the US.
"Oh, the Lord is good to me, and so I thank the Lord, for giving me the things I need: the sun, and the rain, and the apple seed. The Lord is good to me." We sang this for grace before snack in Girl Scouts.
My whole life I thought Johnny Appleseed was just a fanfic written by the apple industry 🍎
If you look at it a certain way, Johnny Appleseed was the apple industry. So more an autobiography.
I'm in TEARS laughing so hard at this comment. Bravo. XD
I thought he was a legend or something tbh
Instead he’s just a really cool bum.
"The apple industry "? You mean "big apple"? Lol. I doubt they're organized enough to be spewing propaganda.
Apples, like many fruit bearing species, have diploid chromosomes with a strong tendency towards heterozygous composition (meaning that a parent plant will not have exact copies of the same gene, but have different coding). The massive genome coupled with internal gene mutations creates creates vast variations among offspring. Edible cultivars are derived by pure luck within the vast probable variations, and can only be reproduced by grafting branches onto less desirable cultivars.
Crabapples don't get enough love. We had a crabapple tree when I was little and I loved to eat them straight off the tree. They also make the best jelly.
I think that's because a lot of us heard that you couldn't eat crabapples, or if you had to, your stomach wouldn't like you very much.
They also make good wine
I agree 100% I have very fond memories of the crab apple tree that grew in our back yard in Chicago many years ago. I looked forward to Autumn when they were ready to eat.
I really like crabapples too!
I was literally telling my kids about fhe crab apple tree in front of my house that I grew up in and how tart amazing they were! Never got sick. 😀
Traditional applejack was actually made through freeze distillation in the winter months. It is also a separate drink from apple brandy as well. It was made quite simply, apple cider was left to freeze outside and the remaining liquid would be mostly alcohol - as alcohol does not freeze easily. Freeze distillation isn’t capable of distilling to to degree of concentration traditional is, so you’re left with a far less alcoholic beverage that tastes closer to apple cider than apple brandy. Very easy to drink in large quantities without noticing, similar to apple pie moonshine. This quality is what gave it its reputation of getting one really drunk.
You can easily get into the 30% realm with freeze distillation. I've gotten usually high 20's without excessively pushing things.
@@SlavicCelery I have to admit, my only endeavors into freeze distillation were with an awful booze I made with bakers yeast, table sugar, raisins, and coolaid mix during highschool lol. I did make a pretty penny selling that to my classmates at least. Boy was that shit disgusting
@@friendlyneighborhoodcrackh6059 A good yeast helps reduce the off flavors and headache inducing compounds.
Applejack is slightly poisonous due to the distillation method. Basically if you drink too much you will not only have a nasty headache but vicious nausea. Like a regular hangover...but worse. I'll stick to calvados.
@@robcampbell3235 That is a complete and utter myth, no method of distillation is dangerous. Anyone with more than two brain cells would know that because there is no chemical reaction that turns ethanol to methanol via evaporation then anything that is safe to drink before distilling (like fermented apple juice) is also safe to drink after.
"small sour apples"
"lots of sugar"
Sounds like a winner
As an Ohioan I can vouch for the apples (esp. of the crab variety) everywhere statement. Personally, I prefer apple moon shine to whiskey...because what else do you do in the boonies with that many apples.
@@angelabury1349 same. As an Ohioan mysef, I never thought about it but there have always been a lot of crabapple trees around
And crab apples make the most fantastic butter after the style of apple butter and pumpkin butter. They are fantastically delicious. We've got some really flavorful crabapple trees out here in Colorado. If you're up for a super intense mouthful, like all of the flavor of a good sweet tart apple condensed, they're even good for straight eating. Of course, I'm also the kids who eats lemons straight, so take that as you will.
@@adedow1333 Yes! Applebutter is fantastic, and very easy to make.
@@adedow1333 dang it, now i want both of those kinds of butter. i live in Hawaii so Lilikoi butter is popular here.
Thank you for filming and uploading this episode without dynamiting all of Burbank and reciting original poetry.
Original poetry lol Lord let the Vogons never get a hold of this stuff
Oh, dear! 🤣
Anything but that 😱😂
😂
🤣😂🤣😂🖖💕
I understood that reference!
I love the way you say “Leominster” any one from MA I’m sure they caught that too.
That’s the word we use to weed out the spies! 😆
Just poking fun. Love your channel!
"It's the poetry that will get you every time." 😆
It's worse than Vogon.
Apples are red
Applejack, brown;
It goes to your head,
And lays you right down!
@@realhorrorshow8547 But not quite as bad as Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings...
Okay, I hooted with laughter when you were reading the NY Times articles about NJ Apple Jack: "...and they were reciting poetry to all the surviving inhabitants" and also that Victor Hugo had written that he "glided into insanity". Great lines! I also hooted yet again with "that is a town that needed a bowling alley!" Great one, Max!
When I was a little girl I was OBSESSED with the Johnny Appleseed song that we learned in elementary school. I used to sing it on the swingset all the time! I wonderful memory. Thank you Max!!!
Is it this one?
Oh, the Lord is good to me,
and so I thank the Lord,
for giving me the things I need,
the rain and the sun and the appleseed.
The Lord is good to me.
Amen, amen, A-a-a-a-a-men!
DrPluton: ...minus the Amens, that's the one I know.
@@annbrookens945 My grandmother taught us that one. We had a traditional prayer, but we would sometimes sing that instead.
We used to sing that right before lunch when I was in school. Good memories.
@@DrPluton Yes thats it!!! My version didn't say amen but the rest is the same!
I live in north central Ohio and there are Johnny Appleseed named places everywhere!! There also happens to be an abundance of wild apple trees around the country side.
Fun fact: the jack in applejack refers to the process of jacking, which is distillation by means of freezing. Water freezes first and is removed, leaving a stronger proof of spirit.
and if it is destilled it aint no applejack no more
It also leaves a bunch of poisonous toxins behind like wood alcohol that can make you go blind, that is why it is outlawed for commercial production nowadays...
@@-jank-willson unlike shotty moonshine, you really wouldnt be able to concentrate it nearly enough for those other compounds to seriously harm you. It does make hang overs worse though.
@@-jank-willson
Ice distillation isn't actually illegal,
Eisbock,
And while it will make you feel like shit, won't actually make you go blind.
That happens when people ad other noxious chemicals, like terpines, to alcohol, as was common during prohibition.
You can drink pure heads/tails and you're liver/kidneys/spleen will give out long before you ever go blind.
@@averagejoe9040
Blindness from moonshine is from shiners adding other noxious chemicals to their mixes like antifreeze and turpentine
You missed a part of his history, namely that the Department of the Treasury destroyed most of the original apple trees he planted during prohibition because they could only be used for alcohol production.
Are you serious?
I LOVE hearing folks try to say New England towns. "Lemon-stir" is a little closer to "Leominster". I'm so glad you're doing cocktails, too!!!
It's a good thing that Johnny Appleseed wasn't from Scituate.
My wife saw No Doubt in Worcester sometime in the 90's, so she got to witness Gwen Stefani say "HOW ARE WE DOING WAR CHESTER?"
Now try pronouncing English and Welsh towns as a yank. Believe me, y all fail harder than he did here.
Worcestershire.
@@matthewlister3755 I flew over there for a friends' wedding once. They have a small airport there, and the first thing you see when you go out to the reception area is "It's pronounced WOOSTER!"
@@CrizzyEyes haha that's awesome. They should also have this bit of advice on a sign at the edge of town for tour buses, apparently.
*'Glided into insanity'*
I have never seen a more elegant and simple description of myself
Applejack is definitely sinfully good. Stated by someone who has survived the homemade hooch. Johnny was a clever individual finding a loophole in land management policy turning production waste into a successful land acquisition initiative. My hometown had a legendary character referred to as "the Leatherman" as his clothes were made of all animal pelts. Locals would provide handouts that helped him survive while he lived in the foothills of the town as he was a trapper by trade. Very much enjoyed this story of America's past. 🍎👍
Weird, my hometown had a campfire story of "the leatherman" who would murder and skin people. According to legend, he was supported and helped by a town on the far side of the woods.
@@elbruces there are probably many local tales of Leathermen in parts of the country as many early settlers merely lived off the land and trapping water based animals for their fur and hide was very much in demand. So, these same individuals would make their clothes essentially for free from their efforts. Our town had a benevolent leather man and there are historic photos of the individual in our town's library. Our local legend states that if you come across a black dog walking in the foothills of the town, then you are destined to die within a year. No one takes this seriously but just something to talk about when you're on the trails....
Max Miller is one of my TH-cam heroes, for sure. This channel is the perfect marriage of foodieism with history nerdism. Life is good.
"Reciting original poetry?"
THE HORROR!
On the good ship Venus
By Christ you should have seen us ...
😁😁
That review of applejack was one of the most magnificent pieces of journalism I've ever heard.
Why does the title make it sound like a Netflix documentary?
If it does go into production, you should get John Townsend hosting it with ya, all while spouting poetry to cause some chaos.
Am I the only one who thought of Vogan poetry when hearing that part?
Jon and Ryan talked about doing some 18th Century Poetry reading on the last livestream. They also talked about making up some of their own in the same style.
@@NotContinuum nope, not the only one!
just don't go blowing up any towns first, okay?
I live in the same town he was born in! We have a festival for him each year. He is pretty important to our town. Thank you for not only sharing his history but also a nice drink I can make!
I live in the town where he was buried and we also have a festival for him each year.
The best totties are with bourbon.
As a Kentuckian I can assure you there's a lot of very interesting myths and tales behind America's Whiskey. Some people say bourbon was discovered by a grocer reusing old scorched barrels, others say it was Jim Beam's experimentation.
Do a video on it Max! Maybe a Manhattan?
I raise you a rum toddy
I prefer Irish whiskey in my toddies, but to each their own.
- It was inwentedby an old lady near Leningrad...
- Alright, no more alcohol for you Mr Chekov.
Bourbon would be a very good one to do a history on! Maybe a general history of early American liquor making and why certain types of liquor were made more than others.
I can't stand the flavor of bourbon, especially if it's added to something else like beer. I'll take Irish whiskey or rum instead
I couldn't find any apple Brandy, so I improvised and bought peaches and peach Brandy. Then fried the peaches in butter and brown sugar for the fruit. It worked out really well.
Please, a moment of your time for some Vogon poetry: "Groop. I implore thee, /
my foonting turlingdromes, /
and hooptiously drangle me, /
with crinkly bindlewurdles, /
or else I shall rend thee in the gobbelwarts /
with my burglecruncheon. /
See if I don't."
I was just thinking of Vogon poetry!
@@bigred9428 ❤ 🙂
I adore baked apples, usually stuff them with walnuts, butter and maple syrup,/brown sugar. Baked pears are also a lovely treat
Fun fact. The reason applejack is “strong” despite having the same ABV as whisky was because of the traditional process it was made. Whisky was distilled with heat allowing precise removal of methanol from the spirit. Applejack was freeze distilled which did not remove the methanol so you were stuck with it in the final drink. Methanol and higher fusel alcohols are known to give some serious headaches, intoxication and downright poisoning if ingested in high amounts which traditional applejack definitely had well… when you consume a lot of it anyway.
Fruit produces more methanol than grain does when fermented, so a double-whammy.
Additional note the treatment for Methanol poisoning is giving someone the equivalent amount of ethanol.
@@pattheplanter Apples are some of the worst fruits for it too! since it's from pectin, which apples are high in. Though that does suggest currants would be the worst... (real black currants, not the dried grape kind)
@@mwater_moon2865 I suppose the Rock's Gooseberry Champagne wasn't good for methanol content. Lucky they haven't made it for a few decades. The best champagne I ever tasted and only £6 a bottle.
You can't get to 85 proof by freeze distilling. Maybe 60 proof at best.
Can't wait for the Tasting History, Drinking History cross over, the hosts seems like they would have a lot in common.
It's already happened when Max in the kitchen calls on Max on the couch. 😁😁
Watching Max work through the idea of why the apple is there is the purest, cleanest pleasure.
Loved that part
ahahah that was brilliant. 'i dunno why i'd want that apple in there. it'll just be apple soaked in flavor alcohol by the time i get to the bottom. and now i know why' XD
@@oldfrend 🤣🤣🤣
I'm so glad u did this episode! I'm from Leominster, Ma and we have a Johnny Appleseed festival every year at the end of September/ beginning of apple picking season.
As a Massachusetts resident, born and raised, I can tell you the town in question is pronounced "Lemin-ster", not matter what the spelling looks like. We have a lot of towns like that.
Um, are you from Wis-tah by any chance?
@@ShellyS2060 Nope. Bill-rickah. :)
@@wlk68 how far is that from Beverly?
You should make a people try to say Mass. town names vid like A Southern Thing did for Alabama and Texas and Mississippi town names. It's always a hoot how names look vs how they're said.
I grew up in a small town on the west coast and every year my friends and I would have an apple festival. The lore was that when Johnny Appleseed got to the coast and realized he couldn't go any farther, he had nothing left to do but have a party and get drunk on applejack. We would drink hot apple drinks and press cider and eat various apple themed foods. We even had a song about it.
In Newfoundland, you don't find many apple trees on the Southern Shore where I grew up, but now that I live in Central Newfoundland, I'm finding trees everywhere I walk. I guess it had to do with the railroad and people throwing apple cores into the woods off a train, as well as the better soil and weather here. Anyways, I found two wild apple trees along side the old rail bed, and one is a bit sour but tasty, and the other is sweeter. Both are small and hard apples. I picked many pounds to bottle applesauce, to make apple crisps and pies, and to make cakes. They're really good, but hard to peel and core as they're so small. Perhaps it's the same kinda apple that Johnny Appleseed planted?
Like you I love foraging for fruit at this time of the year . Especially along roadside verges where people have thrown apple cores from their car windows . As apples do not come true to type from seed the apples from those ' volunteer ' trees will always be a bit random . I found the best way to process them is to cut them in half and cook them in a pressure cooker or InstaPot . Cook them to a pulp and then strain out all the apple skin , pips and other bits you don't want . You can then sweeten and spice the apple puree to taste .
@@JW-yt7lr some apples come true to type. but only 'purebred' varieties.
It's cool that you're using these sorts of apples.
May I suggest that you just cut the apples in half or into chunks depending on size, cook them and then run them through a hand cranked food mill. It'll strain out the seeds, skins and smooth out the cooked apple to a beautifully smooth consistency.
@@chrisholds1 oh I did that too. I find that little bits of core still get through. I'm thinking I need a better food mill. Thanks for the tips and taking the time to help me out 😊
@@JW-yt7lr good idea of pressure cooking them. I find the puree really thick...I guess there's a lot of pectin in my apples, and I had to add water to thin it out some. Perhaps next year I can attempt making my own homemade pectin from them??
Traditionally, Apple Jack was made from hard cider, then left outside to freeze. The solution poured off from the resultant apple slush was a higher alcohol content. Distilling hard cider results in even higher ABV. Calvados, an apple brandy from Normandy is one such product. I would use the hard cider/slush method to be truer to the recipe, but it's your show.
I grew up close to the Swedenbourgian's American settlement at Bryn Athyn in PA! They have a beautiful cathedral and museum of medieval art and history.
My Grandpop (lived in NJ) was not a drinker but he used to make Apple Jack every fall. I have been tempted to make it lately.
"...by the transitive property..." Oh this is starting off very well.
Though this might be more of a distributive property kind of thing. Love(apple) + Love(cocktails) = Love (apple + cocktails). Transitive would me more like... if apple = love and love = cocktail, then apple = cocktail 🤔
I'm sorry.
- Former math teacher
but a Loveapple was an Elizabethan name for a tomato
I was so obsessed with the tale of Johnny Appleseed as a kid that when I got my first pet (a hamster) I did indeed name him that. I think it was because the little guy liked apples too. Watching this brought back memories of my little hamster buddy, who died from old age at five years old.
That warning op ed article almost sounded like a sales promotion. It probably tripled sales overnight with all of the talk about blowing up everything with dynamite.
So true. Bad and prohibited things are irresistible to many people.
Applejack in my area was home brewed hard cider, frozen and scraped of the ice. Raises the ABV.
But apple whiskey is an amazing delight as well.
I always forget that there's such a immaculate thing as this subseries so the TH-cam message is always a nice surprise - this just made my day😄
I grew up and have lived most of my life within an hour of Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Johnny Appleseed is a local legend, with a festival held in his honor every September in Johnny Appleseed Park. His grave is in Ft. Wayne, and the local minor league baseball team is called the Tin Caps in his honor.
That town doesn’t need a bowling alley, it needs a pool table (cue 76 trombones).
Needs a boys' band! 🎺
I don't know, seems like it could be trouble...
@@lindenray8970 with a capital T!
First, medicinal wine from a teaspoon, then applejack from a bottle!!!
Libertine men and scarlet women and RAGTIME!
You somehow combine charisma, knowledge and humour in a way that is always fascinating. Thank you!
I've got to say that recipe is written with the flourish I really appreciate.
It sounds perfect for a cold October day in Scotland, when the temp has already dropped to below ten degrees (Celsius), and when some place up north already has snow.
Hot apple cider with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and squeeze of lime juice is divine on a cold day.
'Time for History' comes on and my little history loving heart cheers!
0:53 - What is Applejack? Best background pony, of course.
Back then they soaked fruit in liquid for the ladies, because it was unseemly for a women to drink, so they were given alchohol soaked fruit at gatherings, ,,little add on,,, the appetizer was supposedly stronger in content with the added fermentation ! Score one for the ladies !!!!!
So that's why they thought women were so weak...we were actually plastered!
@@bigred9428 good one 👍
alcohol soaked fruit sounds like a good-ass time to me!
@@oldfrend it's fabulous. I soak cocktail cherries in 180 proof alcohol for about a year (you could probably do it sooner, but this works for me to start around Christmas time and use the next Christmas) and then drain off the now cherry flavored alcohol for mixed drinks and coat the cherries in chocolate. Takes some planning ahead and patience, but if you like chocolate and cherries, definitely worth it. Thinking about trying it with fresh pitted black cherries.
@@ThisIsATireFire girl that is way too much work. ima just go to one of your parties and mooch a little XD
Swedenborg is buried in the cathedral here in Uppsala - unfortunately at his original burial, in London, someone nicked the skull and replaced it with another. The body, and the wrong skull, came to Uppsala in the early 20th century and were only rejoined with the genuine skull in the 1970s.
How odd! History is full of weirdness, though.
My great-grandfather used to make applejack the old-fashioned way--by cold distillation. Basically, he'd put hard cider out into the snow in winter, let the cold freeze most of the water, discard the ice, and what was left was applejack. Unlike hot distillation, this concentrated the flavors rather than leaving much of them behind. This could make a big difference!
Exactly. Maxx phoned in this episode.
See, this is why you should combat global warming 🤣
All jokes aside, appearantly it is indeed the traditional way, but has some downsides. By freezing it, you don't remove the methanol. This might lead to a drink which can give you a headache. But I love the idea
We actually have a lot of land in the middle of our town that was one of Johnny's early land holdings! And it's actually across the river from where Daniel Decatur Emmett was born.
So thrilled to see this episode! Johnny appleseed is my Halloween costume!
Hey Max, great episode as always!
If I may live with a little suggestion: one should always put their other hand around the bottom of the glass when stirring a drink. Unless it's a stirring glass with a weighted, thick bottom, stirring a drink around can easily tumble the glass over, potentially breaking it and spilling everything out, especially if using a long barspoon that greatly increases leverage. At least that's what I was taught and what I think is logical. Anyway, love the show, cheers!
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
This came ust in time. We expect to have a night with sub zero temperatures.This video once again caters to three wishes: entertainment, a slice of history and an easy to follow recipe for something that seems to be tasty. Well done!
You’ve come back stocked up on fabulous Hawaiian shirts!
I remember growing up in Indiana and every year there was a Johnny Appleseed festival. Everything that was made of apples you could find there but the best things were the old fashion apple fritters that were fried in a huge cauldron over a fire. BTW my husband and I found your channel the other day and have been binge watching it ever since. We just love your channel!!
Point of spirit order!
Apple jack is different from apple brandy. Jack is made by making hard cider, then setting it outside on a cold night, and discarding the ice that would form on top, increasing the amount of alcohol in the remaining liquid. Repeat as desired to increase potency.
Apple brandy is made by distilling the hard cider.
Essentially, one is closer to wine, the other is closer to actual traditional spirit.
Yup, that is my understanding of what applejack is as opposed to apple brandy.
The problem (which is a good thing) is that there is no applejack made as it was in the 19th century. Today applejack is not made like that nor does it use 100% apple, so old fashioned apple brandy is the closest you'll get.
Though true, nobody, at least not for sale, jacks. Freeze distillation tends to leave nasty and dangerous compounds like methanol since it just involves freezing the water which solidifies first.
Heat distillation boils the alcohol and recollects it since it boils at a much lower temperature than water and can be much more controlled to not boil away things like the methanol.
@@TastingHistory
I hope I didn't come off as hostile, I still enjoyed the episode immensely. Thank you for replying, and I look forward to seeing your future videos.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher not at all! Makes me think Applejack deserves a history of its own 😁
as soon as I heard the word nutmeg, I was hoping for a Townsend reference....and at 3:23, you did not disappoint!!!
Pollan's Botany of Desire did a spectacular teardown of the John Chapman legend.
I love that quote from the NYT!!! And I got a kick out of the reference to nutmeg and John Townsend. I'm sure you're right.
& I ❤️ tasting/drinking history w/ Max Miller I said it b4 & I say it again this man needs his own show on food network
Quick correction. “Apple jack” is a spirit that was made by “freeze jacking” hard cider. Basically they would make hard cider, put it in a barrel, and when it froze, they would save the liquid(mostly alcohol, sugar, apple flavor, and some water) then throw away the ice. rinse and repeat. After a few goes, you wound up with an ABV approaching that of whiskey. Apple brandy is just that. Distilled and aged spirit made from apples.
Just a warning. By using this process, you also increase the methanol in your product( usually removed during true distillation) thus causing the worst hangovers if you got drunk on it.
"If John Townsend were here, he'd use the darn nutmeg" ...fact check true!
I went to school with one of the Lairds, the business is still in the family. Washington bought their apple jack recipe after he acquired a taste for it during the battle of monmouth, they still have the contract he signed.
Read a document on Johnny Appleseed. I remember one segment where apparently native tribes saw him as a bit of a Medicine Man (sort of like a Holy Man) and left him alone because of it.
We have a Johnny Appleseed festival in a small village near us in PA. Interesting facts! Thank you Max!
When you said Townsends would use the entire nutmeg, I almost choked on my drink laughing
Hello Volbeat on the back shelf, and hooray for apple flavored cocktails. Hard apple cider is one of my favorite (spirited) drinks, Angry Orchard being my poison of choice. Nice to see our favorite drinks getting the same attention as our food does on Tasting History, including folk stories and hearsay surrounding their cultivation.
I did remember the Johnny Appleseed Disney cartoon and it was so much fun to learn about it. This is very informative and cool.
I’m from central Virginia, you can tour the distillery there. Also you can tour all the beer distillery’s and vineyards if you enjoy that. Beautiful place and LOTS of history!
Wasn't Applejack freeze distilled cider back then, just like today? I made it once. It was apple-y, but not really for me.
Oh, the memories you brought back today...I remember learning about JA in 4th grade (1976) and all about how apples were propagated due to his efforts. I'm sure we learned the 'G' version of his history rather than the more detailed and far more interesting one you told us! Every fall, our school would take field trips to the local apple orchards (upstate NY was chock-a-block with them) to pick apples. Then there was the year we went apple picking with our family and my smart ass brother went to a tree, ate an apple and left the core hanging from the branch! A final memory--or what I can remember at least--was drinking Apfelkorn while stationed in Germany. Oh, the numbers of bottles we drank! I shall have to look for the Apple Jack to try.
I thought jacking( ice distillation) was making a spirit by freezing the water out, not distilling the spirit out of fermented must( I could well be wrong).
That's exactly what I have read. You need hard cider, and the more times you freeze it, the stronger it becomes. They show this in "June Bride" with Bette Davis.
Nope, you're absolutely correct. Applejack was discovered accidentally when most of the water in a barrel of cider had frozen around the sides, leaving just a core of applejack.
@@bando7567,
I became obsessed with applejack since I learned they stopped making it here a few years ago. I was thinking of trying to make it myself, but I don't drink, so it never went anywhere.
@@bigred9428 Maybe this is an opportunity for max to make real apple jack and tell us how its different to apple brandy?
I love your channel! I went to school to be an RN. However, my favorite subjects are history, cooking and music! You cover it all for me.
Max: and if John townsand was here he'd probably use the whole thing.
John townsand: I felt that.
Nice shout out to our fave calm speaking nutmeg nut
5:53 That's true.
The look on your face struck me so funny lol
- Our man won't marry in this world to gain a "pure wife in heaven"
- Left his orchards to his daughter
_Hmmm._ I mean, _technically..._
EDIT: Ah, nevermind, Max clarified it.
Well, you know... Theory and practice don't always match ;)
Right with you, that was an intriguing tidbit
Hey he only said he wouldn't marry.
I thought the exact same thing...guess even in his dirty and run down state, he was still able to get close enough to a woman to reproduce...
@@ZMowlcher haha,a
I used to work for the late Urbana University, in Ohio. Swedenborg founded it, or at least provided funding/land to found it. The university had its ups and downs (it's gone now). There was a museum devoted to John Chapman on the old campus. Not sure what they did with it - it was interesting, I admit. I knew a lot of the historical information, and also about Swedenborg, for obvious reasons. Swedenborg had some "interesting" ideas about divinity, philosophy, and where the prime mover actually lived. Worth a look at both Swedenborg's history and Chapman's.
The real genius is that after seven years the orchards were proved farm claims, and the land could be sold for a LOT more. Further, cider and applejack lasted and could be transported long distances, so cider apples were just fine.
if i remember correctly, Chapman basically franchised his orchards, granting local farmers usage rights in exchange for a cut of the profits. while he was a weirdo, he was a smart businessman.