Cider drinking is often associated with long hot afternoons in pub beer gardens, but just because our hopes of a barbecue summer have gone up in smoke for another year, there's no reason to put your scrumpy drinking on the back burner. There's a long tradition of matching cider with food, and many good reasons to consider drinking it in place of wine.
Back in the 17th century cider was classy, popular among the aristocracy, who had beautiful flutes made in which to serve the drink to guests as we might serve wine today.
Like wine, cider is a fruit-based drink (almost impossible to say without thinking of Al Murray) which can be sweet or dry, still or scintillatingly sparkling. In his recent book Ciderland, James Crowden claims West Country cidermakers pioneered the methode champenoise to put some fizz in their produce before Dom Perignon was even born.
Another factor in its favour is that even the strongest widely-available ciders max out at about 7% ABV, while wines are increasingly creeping up to 14%. It is also made in the UK more widely than wine, enabling you to easily cut down your drink miles.
There are also couple of things going against it. Chiefly, there's an image problem, though artisan makers are cottoning on to the potential market for their wares and making an effort to appeal to people who wouldn't go near a mass-market draught cider, let alone a bottle of Diamond White. Some ciders and perries are now packaged like wine with labels boasting that theirs is a "single orchard cider" (or, as on a bottle I bought recently, "a medium dry still table cider") and you can easily spend £7 or £8 on a bottle. However I'm not convinced there aren't people who, despite the novelty, wouldn't be slightly sniffy if you presented them with a bottle of cider when you arrived for dinner.
More of an problem, though, is that even the many of us who enjoy drinking cider on its own don't know where to start when it comes to matching it with food. While much of the wine you pick up in the supermarket comes with tasting notes suggesting what food it works nicely with, labels on cider bottles don't.
Peter Mitchell, a cider maker who offers courses in cider appreciation, suggests that for fish dishes you should look out for traditional perries that tend to have grassy and tropical fruit aromas, reminiscent of sauvignon blanc. Try Gwatkin's Thorn Perry or some of Oliver's perries. "Another new cider that could work well is Sheppy's Falstaff - really quite white wine-like," he says. But for oily fish like mackerel or even salmon, you should go for a non-woody dry cider made from dessert apples such as Mr Whitehead's Newton Discovery.
Fiona Beckett, who runs the website matchingfoodandwine.com, says broadly speaking cider goes very well with dishes based around chicken, pork (belly in particular), ham and bacon. If a dish goes well with Chardonnay, it will also sit nicely with a fruity cider.
She suggests that when looking for good matches you go for the same terroir approach as some wine drinkers favour, and try pairing food and drink from the same region. "In Normandy and Brittany you will find that the local buckwheat pancakes are fantastic with cider," she says. By the same logic, you could try pairing a Somerset cider with a dish that's strong on cheddar or some Gloucester Old Spot sausages with a Gloucestershire cider.
She's not convinced that cider works with Italian food, particularly dishes heavily based on tomatoes, and says there can be some horrendous clashes with cheese. "Cider goes fantastically well with Camembert, which is a cheese that can cause a few problems for wine, and with cheddar, but it won't go with a strong pungent blue or Roquefort." Mitchell also recommend steering clear of attempting to eat Stilton and cider in the same meal. I'd add chocolate to that list – I am yet to find a cider that tastes good with a chocolate mousse or fondue.
Here are a few things that do go:
Aspalls Dry Premier Cru or Thatcher's Cox with curry – ciders based on dessert apples cut through spicy food much better than tannin-heavy traditional ciders. Aspalls is based on Cox's and Bramleys, while Thatcher's is a single variety cider.
Sheppy's Dabinett with pork sausages and mashed potatoes (pork and apple is a classic combination and this traditional cider apple is a particularly good match).
Aspalls Peronelle's blush with apple crumble – apples and apples is a no-brainer, but the slight tartness of the drink sits well with the sweet crumble topping.
There must be many more fantastic matches out there waiting to be discovered. Are you tempted to give cider a try at the dinner table, or do you know of a pub or restaurant where cider, as well as beer and wine, gets a look-in for food matches?
