Glossary · Milling and pressing
Pomace
Also written pommace, pulp, must (in some regional usage). Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
Milled fruit — flesh, skin, pips and stalk fragments — before pressing, and the spent solids left in the press afterwards. Both senses are in everyday use and context distinguishes them.
- Subject
- Milling and pressing
- Also written
- pommace, pulp, must (in some regional usage)
In more detail
What happens to pomace between mill and press decides a great deal. Left to stand, it browns as polyphenol oxidase acts on its phenolics, releases pectin, softens, and yields more juice; pressed immediately, it gives a paler, more aromatic and more astringent juice. This is why maceration time is a deliberate choice rather than a delay.
Spent pomace is not waste. It has been fed to stock, spread as a soil conditioner, distilled into marc, and processed for pectin. It also carries a real acetic-bacteria load, so a heap next to a cider house is a hazard to the cider house.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Production
Milling
Reducing whole fruit to a pulp so that the press has cell walls it can drain, rather than intact apples it can only bruise.
Production
Pomace handling
What is done with the pressed cake once the juice is off it — feed, pectin extraction, composting, digestion or orchard spreading — and why a wet acidic heap beside the press is a problem.
Production
Maceration
Holding milled pomace before pressing so that phenolics, aroma precursors and pectin have time to move out of the solid tissue and into the juice.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Milling and pressing
Milling
Breaking fruit down into pomace so that its cells rupture and its juice can be pressed out. It is the step that determines pressing yield more than any other.
Milling and pressing
Cheese
The stack of pomace built up in a traditional press: alternating layers of pomace wrapped in cloth, or bound with straw, forming a squat block that juice runs out of under pressure.
Milling and pressing
Maceration
Holding milled pomace before pressing so that enzymes soften it and phenolic and aromatic material moves from the skins into the juice. Times range from an hour to a full day.
Milling and pressing
Marc
French for pressed pomace, and by extension the spirit distilled from it. *Marc de cidre* and *marc de pomme* are pomace brandies distinct from Calvados, which is distilled from cider itself.
Milling and pressing
Ciderkin
A weak drink made by soaking pressed pomace in water and pressing it again, historically supplied to farm workers and to households as an everyday beverage of low strength.
Milling and pressing
Pressing yield
The proportion of fruit weight recovered as juice, usually expressed as litres per tonne or as a percentage. It depends on the fruit, the mill setting, the press type and the pressure profile.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
The New Cider Maker’s Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide for Craft Producers
Claude Jolicoeur, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013. ISBN 9781603584739 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against the Open Library union catalogue: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013, ISBN 9781603584739, one edition recorded. That establishes the citation points at a real book in a stated edition, which is what a citation needs and is all it establishes. No copy was opened and nothing is quoted from it. The book itself is in print and not digitised in any open collection; where CiderHQ needs a figure from this territory it uses an accessible research source instead and says so.
Cider and perry production technical training material
Peter Mitchell / Cider and Perry Academy · reference work · registered as competent for this subject
Searched again on 2026-08-25 and it remains the one printed source here that a bibliographic check cannot fix, because it is not a published work with an edition. It is course material issued to participants of a training programme, so there is no catalogue record to verify, no ISBN, and no lawful public copy. Its state stays `registered` for that reason rather than through inattention.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.