ARTICLE I.
_On Wines._
Presuming this work may be rendered more desirable to farmers, from the
introduction of some receipts for making domestic wine from the common
hedge grapes, or such as are common on fence rows and on high rich
grounds, and which are pleasantly flavored after receiving frost, and
also for making cider in the best mode for preservation. I have
extracted a few from various author's.
_Receipt for making Domestic Wine from the Autumn Blue Grape._
About the latter end of September or about the first white frosts,
gather the grapes which with us grow along old fences and hedges--pick
all the grapes from the stems that are juicy, allowing two bushels thus
picked a little heaped, to the barrel. Mash them well between your hands
in small parcels, either in earthen pans, or some convenient small
vessels--put them when mashed into a tub together, and add a little
water so as to soak the pumice.... After stirring them well together,
squeeze the pumice out from the liquor with your hands, as clean as you
can--then strain the juice through a hair sieve. If the juice seems not
all extracted from the pumice at one soaking and squeezing, put water to
the pumice and squeeze them over again; take care not to add too much
water, lest there should be more than the cask will hold. If after all
the ingredients are added, the cask is not full, it may then be filled
up with water. To the liquor thus prepared, add two pounds of good,
clean, rich low priced brown sugar, per gallon, stirring it in the tub
till all the sugar be dissolved; let it remain in the tub, and in a day
or two it will ferment, and the scum rise to the top, which must be
carefully skimmed off--then put the wine into a clean nice barrel--do
not bung it up tight. There is generally a fermentation in it the spring
following, when the grape vines are in blossom, but racking it off just
before that season will prevent its working too much. If it is wanted to
be soon ripe for use, put a quart of good old brandy after it is racked
off, to the barrel, and give it air by leaving the bung quite loose.
This mode of manufacturing wine for domestic use, is convenient and not
expensive to those who have it in their power to manufacture maple
sugar. But the nice housewife or husbandmen of ingenuity, will, I fancy,
devise some more neat mode of compressing the juice from the grape--as
pressing it by the hand, would seem less cleanly, though the
fermentation generally cleanses sufficiently.
_Currant Wine_
Is managed in the same way. The same quantity of sugar is presumed to
answer--The juice is generally well strained thro' cloths, and when well
stirred, &c. with the sugar, and neatly racked off, is put by in a loft
to ripen, in sweet casks.
ART. II.
_Directions for making Cider, British mode._
The apples after being thrown into a heap should always be covered from
the weather. The later the cider is made the better, as the juice is
then more perfectly ripened, and less danger to be feared from
fermentation. Nothing does more harm to cider than a mixture of rotten
apples with the sound. The apples ought to be ground so close as to
break the seeds which gives the liquor an agreeable bitter. The pumice
should be pressed through hair bags, and the juice strained through two
sieves, the uppermost of hair, the lower of muslin. After this the cider
should be put into open casks, when great attention is necessary to
discover the exact time in which the pumice still remaining in the
juice, rises on the top, which happens from the third to the tenth day,
according as the weather is more or less warm. This body does not remain
on top more than two hours; consequently, care should be taken to draw
off the cider before it sinks, which may be done by means of a plug.
When drawn off, the cider is put into casks. Particular attention is
again required to prevent the fermentation, when the least inclination
towards it is discovered. This may be done by a small quantity of cider
spirits, about one gallon to the hogshead. In March the cider should be
again drawn off, when all risque of fermentation ceases. Then it should
be put into good sweet casks, and in three years from that time, it will
be fit for bottling. Old wine casks are to be preferred; those which
contain rum are ruinous to cider. Large earthen vessels might be made
with or without glazing, which would be preferable to any wooden vessel
whatever. When we compare this with the hasty American mode of making
cider, it is not to be wondered at that the English cider so infinitely
excels ours.
ART. III.
_The following is a very highly approved American mode of making Cider._
Take care to have every necessary utensil to be made use of in the whole
process, perfectly clean and free from every foreign smell. For this
purpose, before you begin your work, let your mill, trough and press be
made perfectly clean, by thoroughly washing, and if necessary, with
scalding water. The casks are another material object, and if musty, or
any other bad smell, one end should be taken out, and with shavings burn
the inside; then scrub them clean, and put in the head, scald them well
afterwards, and drain them perfectly; when dry, bung them tight and keep
them in a cool shady place until wanted for use.--The apples should be
quite ripe, and all the unripe and rotten ones, leaves, and every other
thing that can tend to give the cider any disagreeable taste, carefully
separated from them. I have found from careful attention and many
experiments, that it is a great advantage to the cider to be separated
from the gross parts as soon as possible; for this purpose, I tried
several methods: that which I found succeeded the best, I shall now
relate, as by following it, I was able to preserve my cider in a sound
state, though made in the early part of the season. I took a large pipe,
of about 150 gallons, had one of the heads taken out, and on the inside
of the other laid on edge, four strips of boards, two inches wide, and
on these strips placed a false bottom, filled with gimlet holes, three
inches a part. On this false bottom, I put a hair cloth, (old blanket or
swingline tow will do) so as to prevent any sand from washing into the
space between the true and false bottoms; I procured a quantity of
coarse sand, which was carefully washed in repeated waters, until it
would not discolor the clean water--then dried the sand, put it in the
pipe, on the hair cloth, (coarse blanket or swingline tow,) about 9
inches thick.
Thus having every thing in readiness, I went through the process of
making, as quick as possible, by having the apples ground fine early in
the morning, putting them in the press as fast as they were ground; and
then in sufficient quantities pressed out the juice, and put it over the
sand in the cask, (having previously bored a gimlet hole in the side of
the cask), between the true and false bottoms, in which I introduced a
large goose-quill, stopped with another. The pipe was placed so high, as
to admit of a cask under it, to receive the liquor as it ran from the
quill, which, if rightly managed, will be perfectly fine, and being put
away in a cool cellar, and stopped close, will keep well, and prove of
an excellent quality.
This process is easy, and in every person's power to execute, as the
liquor, by being cleared, from its gross feculences, will not run into
that violent fermentation, so destructive to the fine vinous flavor,
which renders good cider so pleasing a drink.
_Query._ Would not a quart of good apple brandy to each barrel of cider,
made in this way, prevent any fermentation?
But it is generally believed that cider is the better for having
undergone a fermentation, becoming then more active and light; cider
that has undergone condensation, or has been boiled down until strong,
has been found to keep sound some length of time, but it is too heavy
and destructive to the appetite, cloying the digesting powers.--And by
too frequent use, I fancy, will ultimately produce ague and fevers; and
I fear, cider made according to the foregoing receipt, would have a
similar effect, but in a lesser degree.
I would recommend after a due attention to cleanliness, in the apple
mill, trough, press and casks, that the apples be assorted, and having
been exposed to the air, under a roof or shed some time, selecting the
sound only, that they be ground fine, and let stand soaking in the
pumice twelve hours, and then pressed off, through a clean rye straw
cheese (being the most common and convenient in the country,) and when
flowing from the press, a vessel should be provided, with the bottom
full of gimlet holes, in the style of a riddle, on which lay a coarse
cloth, then a layer of clean sand, over which a parcel of coarse rye
straw, and suffer it to filter thro' this vessel into the large
receiving tub; the rye straw will intercept the coarser pieces of
pumice, and may be changed frequently--This mode will rid the liquor of
all the coarser pieces of pumice--then I would recommend that the cider
should be placed in open hogsheads, such as are used for mashing grain
in distilleries; those being raised about two feet and an half high on
logs or a scaffolding, under a shade or covering--a spile hole bored
near the bottom of each, so as to admit a barrel to stand under the
spile--in this state, I would recommend it to stand until it undergoes a
fermentation, carefully watching the top, and when the pumice is found
to have risen, to skim it off carefully, then having previously provided
sweet barrels, draw it off by the spile hole, adding from a pint to a
quart of apple brandy to each barrel of strong cider, bung it up tight,
and store it where the frost will not injure it. In this way, I presume
it will keep well--and if the party be so disposed, I would recommend
any bottling to be done in April, and during clear weather, though it is
safe to bottle immediately after having undergone a thorough
fermentation.
_The following Receipt to make an excellent American Wine,_
Was communicated to the Burlington Society for promoting domestic
manufactures, by Joseph Cooper, Esq. of Gloucester county, state of New
Jersey, and ordered to be published;--which, from its extreme
simplicity, and economy, shewing the convenience with which a very
pleasant, healthful beverage, may be kept by every family in our
country, is published in this work. And moreover, as it may have, in
some degree, the happy effects of correcting the baneful and pernicious
effects of coffee, which is so commonly used for breakfast in our state
at present.
Coffee, when first introduced, was used as a medicine only, and given
only in a well clarified state, and sparingly--both from its soothing
and pleasant effect, it become common, and now it is almost the only
beverage used at breakfast by the farmers of Pennsylvania, and indeed,
people suppose the morning repast is not genteel, unless the board is
decorated with this foreign beverage. If it was used in a moderately
strong well clarified state, it would be less injurious, but it is too
frequently set down in a non descript state, difficult to be named, mixed
with the grounds, and so far from clear, as to be entitled to the epithet
of muddy, and sweetened with bad sugar, carrying with it to the simply
ignorant family, using it in this state, the cause in a great measure of
destroying the tone of the stomach, overloading it, and by and by, the
introduction of a kind of dumb ague, or chill, followed with a fever, and
often creating intermitting and remitting fevers--consequences arising
out of the free use of bad provisions--which diseases are oftentimes kept
up by the use of this infamously prepared coffee, for when the country
people get sick, coffee is too frequently used as the only diet.
It is particularly injurious to bilious habits--souring on the stomach,
becoming acid, creating acidity, and preventing the glandular juicy
supplies from producing the usual fermentation of the food in the
stomach--rendering the chyle vitiated, which in its usual route,
imparts from the intestines, nourishment to the blood. Thus conveying
its baneful properties by this active vehicle, chyle to the blood,
rendering it foetid, discoloured and by and by, often as difficult to
be named in its adulterated state as the composition which gave rise to
it. Had we not very many instances of new diseases--complaints which the
most eminent of the medical faculty can with difficulty name, or treat
with judgment, without first having made many essays and experiments
fatal to the lives of hundreds, which are increasing with every
approaching season, and all since the adoption of coffee. (True, the
free use of ardent spirits and other luxuries operating on the effects
of indolence--of habits, produced by the wealth and independence of our
agricultural and commercial people, and growing out of an imitation of
the elevated, affluent of society, born to fortune, and the successful
professional characters;) a doubt might present itself as to the
propriety of attributing many of those new complaints to coffee ... but
to a too plentiful use of bad provisions, and an indulgence of bad
habits, we must attribute to them. And as badly made coffee is among the
most pernicious kinds of food, and particularly when taken in the
morning on an empty stomach, and that too made from very green coffee,
(dreadfully poisonous when used too frequently before it acquires age
and a whiter colour,) it may be condemned with greater propriety. And
whilst this beverage is condemned and so highly to be disapproved of, it
is well if we can invent a light, pure, active and healthful beverage to
be taken freely, between or at meals, calculated in its nature to
correct in some degree, the unhappy effects of bad provisions--it is
therefore I mention the
_Receipt for making Honey Wine._
I put a quantity of the comb from which the honey had been drained, into
a tub, to which I add a barrel of cider, immediately from the press;
this mixture was well stirred, and left to soak for one night. It was
then strained before a fermentation took place, and honey was added
until the weight of the liquor was sufficient to bear an egg. It was
then put into a barrel, and after the fermentation commenced, the cask
was filled every day for three or four days, with water, that the filth
might work out of the bung hole. When the fermentation moderated, I put
the bung in loosely, lest stopping it tight, might cause the cask to
burst.--At the end of five or six weeks the liquor was drawn off into a
tub, and the white of eight eggs well beaten up, with a pint of clean
sand, were put into it--I then added a gallon of cider spirit, and after
mixing the whole well together, I returned it into the cask, which was
well cleaned, bunged it tight and placed it in a proper situation for
racking it off when fine. In the month of April following, I drew it off
for use, and found it equal in my opinion, to almost any foreign
wine--in the opinion of many good judges it was superior.
This success has induced me to repeat the experiments for three years,
and I am persuaded that by using the clean honey, instead of the comb,
as above described; such an improvement might be made as would enable
the citizens of the United States, to supply themselves with a truly
federal and wholesome wine, which would not cost more than twenty cents
per gallon, were all the ingredients procured at the market prices, and
would have the peculiar advantage over all other wines, hitherto
attempted in this country, that it contains no foreign mixture
whatever, but is made from ingredients produced on our own farms.
[_Columbian Magazine, November_ 1790.
Doubtless the foregoing wine will be found strong, and if not well
clarified, or rather fined, may be heavy--and therefore will be found
excellent when diluted freely with water, and when about to be drank,
two thirds of water will be found necessary, and an improvement.
Bottling the foregoing wine in April, will certainly render it more
excellent, and I fancy it ought to be drank mixed with water, during
warm weather, and between meals, as in its pure state it may be found
heavy. The gentleman who made the foregoing experiments, drew it off in
kegs--this we presume was done to prevent its souring--as cider will
suffer, and become hard after broaching the cask, whereas whilst full it
remained sound. All American vinous liquors are liable to sour, because
we rarely understand or practice the proper mode of manufacturing.
Complete cleansing and fermentation is absolutely necessary--and when
fermented, it must be well fined, and then drawn off in nice casks, or
bottled--bottling is certainly the most effectual, and if a farmer
procures as many as three dozen of black bottles, they with three kegs
of seven and an half gallons each, will hold the barrel.--The kegs well
bunged, will preserve the wine sound, and when a keg is broached, it
must be immediately drawn off and bottled. The bottles when emptied,
ought to be rinsed and stood up in an airy closet to drain.
_To make Elderberry Wine._
_The editor is happy in introducing the following receipts which he is
confident is hardly known in America. The great quantities of the
Elderberry, which yearly goes to waste, might with very little trouble
be manufactured into one of the most wholesome and agreeable wines ever
introduced into America._
To every two quarts of berries, add one gallon of water, boil it half an
hour, then strain it, and add to every gallon of liquor, two and an
half pounds of sugar, then boil it together for half an hour, and skim
it well; when cool (not cold) put in a piece of toasted bread, spread
thick with brewer's yeast, to ferment. When you put this liquor into the
barrel, which must be done the next day, add to every gallon of liquor,
one pound of raisins, chopped, and stir all together in the barrel, once
every day, for a week, then stop it close. It will not be fit to tap
'till the spring following the making; and the older the better.
_To make Elderberry Wine, to drink, made warm, as a Cordial._
Equal quantities of berries and water boiled together, till the berries
break, then strain off the liquor, and to every gallon thereof, put
three pounds of sugar, and spice, to your palate, boil all up together,
let it stand till it becomes cool, (not cold); then put in a piece of
toasted bread, spread thick with brewer's yeast, to ferment, and in two
or three days, it will be fit to put in the barrel, then stop it close.
This will be fit to drink at Christmas, but the older the better.