Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation remain but all other spelling and punctuation remains
unchanged. Italics are represented thus _italic_.
Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines
Old-Time Recipes for
Home Made Wines
Cordials and Liqueurs
From Fruits,
Flowers, Vegetables, and Shrubs
Compiled by Helen S. Wright
BOSTON THE PAGE
COMPANY Publishers
_Copyright, 1909_ BY DANA ESTES & COMPANY
_All rights reserved_
Made in U. S. A.
Second Impression, July, 1919
Third Impression, September, 1919
Fourth Impression, January, 1922
PRINTED BY C. H. SIMONDS COMPANY
BOSTON, MASS., U.S.A.
I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the following books of
reference: “The Compleat Housewife,” “The Cook,” “The Dictionary of
Every-day Wants,” “The Household Cyclopedia,” “The Blue Grass Cook
Book,” “Two Hundred Recipes from French Cookery.”
Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines
INTRODUCTION
The idea of compiling this little volume occurred to me while on a
visit to some friends at their summer home in a quaint New England
village. The little town had once been a thriving seaport, but now
consisted of hardly more than a dozen old-fashioned Colonial houses
facing each other along one broad, well-kept street. A few blind lanes
led to less pretentious homes; and still farther back farmhouses dotted
the landscape and broke the dead line of the horizon.
For peace, contentment, and quiet serenity of life, this little village
might have been Arcadia; the surrounding country, the land of Beulah.
The ladies of the Great Houses, as the villagers called the few
Colonial mansions, were invariably spinsters or widows of uncertain
years, the last descendants of a long line of sea captains and
prosperous mariners, to whom the heritage of these old homes, rich
with their time-honored furnishings and curios, served to keep warm
the cockles of kindly hearts, which extended to the stranger that
traditional hospitality which makes the whole world kin.
The social customs of this Adamless Eden were precise and formal. As
with the dear ladies of Cranford, a call was a very serious affair,
given and received with great gravity, and had its time limit set
with strict punctuality. Cake and wine were invariably served as a
preliminary warning toward early departure. Here came in my first
acquaintance with many varieties of home-made wines, over whose wealth
of color and delicacy of flavor my eyes and palate longed to linger.
Vulgar curiosity made me bold to inquire the names of a few; imagine my
astonishment when graciously told that the gay dandelion, the modest
daisy, the blushing currant, had one and all contributed their nectar
to the joy of the occasion. Flattered by my interest, my gentle hostess
broke strict rules of etiquette and invited me to linger, showing me
rare old gardens aglow with flowers, fruits, and vegetables that in due
time would contribute to their store, and at parting various time-worn
recipes were urged upon me, with verbal instructions and injunctions
upon the best methods of putting them to test.
From this beginning I ferreted out from other sources recipes for
many curious concoctions, the very name of which fills the mind with
fantasies and pictures of the long ago. Do we not feel poignant
sympathy for the grief of the poor Widow of Malabar, whose flow of
tears has descended in spirit, through three centuries, to those still
faithful to her memory? Did we ever pause to consider what a slaughter
of the innocents went to make famous many an old English tavern whose
Sign of the Cock made the weary traveller pause and draw rein, and call
loudly for the stirrup cup of this home-brewed ale? Can we not feel
the ponderous presence, and smell the strong tobacco from the pipes
of groups of stolid Dutchmen, of the days of Wouter Van Twiller, when
we read of that one-time favorite beverage, Schiedam Schnapps? Again,
are we not back in that dull, but delightful, society of the days of
Colonel Newcome, when a quiet game of bezique was interrupted by the
tidy servant who brought in the refreshing Orgeat and delicate seed
cakes? Have not our own grandmothers boasted of the delicious flavor of
old English Cowslip wine or Noyean Cordial?
I have confined myself exclusively to home-made beverages, gathering my
fruits and flowers from old-fashioned, homely gardens. I leave to your
imagination the times, fashions, and customs they recall. The aroma
that clings to them is subtle. Age has blended and mellowed all that
was crude in those bygone days.
With a gentle hand I tie my little bunch together and present you my
bouquet.
* * * * *
The best method of making these wines is to boil the ingredients,
and ferment with yeast. Boiling makes the wine more soft and mellow.
Some, however, mix the juice, or juice and fruit, with sugar and water
unboiled, and leave the ingredients to ferment spontaneously. Your
fruit should always be prime, and gathered dry, and picked clean from
stalks, etc. The lees of wine are valuable for distillation, or making
vinegar. When wine is put in the cask the fermentation will be renewed.
Clear away the yeast as it rises, and fill up with wine, for which
purpose a small quantity should be reserved. If brandy is to be added,
it must be when the fermentation has nearly subsided, that is, when no
more yeast is thrown up at the bung-hole, and when the hissing noise is
not very perceptible; then mix a quart of brandy with a pound of honey,
pour into the cask, and paste stiff brown paper over the bung-hole.
Allow no hole for a vent peg, lest it should once be forgotten, and the
whole cask of wine be spoiled. If the wine wants vent it will be sure
to burst the paper; if not the paper will sufficiently exclude the air.
Once a week or so it may be looked to; if the paper is burst, renew it,
and continue to do so until it remains clear and dry.
A great difference of opinion prevails as to racking the wine, or
suffering it to remain on the lees. Those who adopt the former plan do
it at the end of six months; draw off the wine perfectly clear, and put
it into a fresh cask, in which it is to remain six months, and then be
bottled. If this plan is adopted, it may be better, instead of putting
the brandy and honey in the first cask, to put it in that in which the
wine is to be racked; but on the whole, it is, perhaps, preferable to
leave the wine a year in the first cask, and then bottle it at once.
All British wines improve in the cask more than in the bottle. Have
very nice clear and dry bottles; do not fill them too high. Good soft
corks, made supple by soaking in a little of the wine; press them in,
but do not knock. Keep the bottles lying in sawdust. This plan will
apply equally well to raspberries, cherries, mulberries, and all kinds
of ripe summer fruits.
COLORING FOR WINES
One pound of white sugar. Put into an iron kettle, let boil, and burn
to a red black, and thick; remove from the fire, and add a little hot
water, to keep it from hardening as it cools; then bottle for use.
FINING OR CLEARING
For fining or clearing the wine use one quarter pound of isinglass,
dissolved in a portion of the wine, to a barrel. This must be put in
after the fermentation is over, and should be added gently at the
bung-hole, and managed so as to spread as much as possible over the
upper surface of the liquid; the intention being that the isinglass
should unite with impurities and carry them with it to the bottom.
TO FLAVOR WINE
When the vinous fermentation is about half-over, the flavoring
ingredients are to be put into the vat and well stirred into the
contents. If almonds form a component part, they are first to be beaten
to a paste and mixed with a pint or two of the must. Nutmegs, cinnamon,
ginger, seeds, etc., should, before they are put into the vat, be
reduced to powder, and mixed with some of the must.
TO MELLOW WINE
Wine, either in bottle or wood, will mellow much quicker when only
covered with pieces of bladder well secured, than with corks or bungs.
The bladder allows the watery particles to escape, but is impervious to
alcohol.
TO REMOVE THE TASTE OF THE CASK FROM WINE
Finest oil of olives, one pound. Put it into the hogshead, bung close,
and roll it about, or otherwise well agitate it, for three or four
hours, then gib, and allow it to settle. The olive oil will gradually
rise to the top and carry the ill flavor with it.
TO REMOVE ROPINESS FROM WINE
Add a little catechu or a small quantity of the bruised berries of the
mountain ash.
TO RESTORE WINE WHEN SOUR OR SHARP
1. Fill a bag with leek-seed, or of leaves or twisters of vine, and put
either of them to infuse in the cask.
2. Put a small quantity of powdered charcoal in the wine, shake it, and
after it has remained still for forty-eight hours, decant steadily.
TO MAKE APPLE WINE
To every gallon of apple juice, immediately as it comes from the press,
add two pounds of common loaf sugar; boil it as long as any scum rises,
then strain it through a sieve, and let it cool. Add some good yeast,
and stir it well. Let it work in the tub for two or three weeks, or
till the head begins to flatten; then skim off the head, drain it
clear off and tun it. When made a year, rack it off and fine it with
isinglass; then add one-half pint of the best rectified spirit of wine
or a pint of French brandy to every eight gallons.
APRICOCK WINE
Take three pounds of sugar, and three quarts of water; let them boil
together and skim it well. Then put in six pounds of apricocks, pared
and stoned, and let them boil until they are tender; then take them up
and when the liquor is cold bottle it up. You may if you please, after
you have taken out the apricocks, let the liquor have one boil with a
sprig of flowered clary in it; the apricocks make marmalade, and are
very good for preserves.
BALM WINE
Take ten pounds of sugar, six quarts of water, boil it gently for two
hours; skim it well and put it into a tub to cool. Take three-quarters
pound of the tops of balm, bruise them, and put them into a barrel with
a little new yeast, and when the liquor is cold, pour it on the balm.
Stir it well together, and let it stand twenty-four hours, stirring it
often. Then close it up and let it stand six weeks. Then rack it off
and put a lump of sugar into every bottle. Cork it well, and it will be
better the second year than the first.
TO MAKE BARLEY WINE
Take one-half pound of French barley and boil it in three waters, and
save three pints of the last water, and mix it with one quart of white
wine, one-half pint of borage water, as much clary water, a little
red rose-water, the juice of five or six lemons, three-quarters pound
of fine sugar, the thin yellow rind of a lemon. Brew all these quick
together, run it through a strainer, and bottle it up. It is pleasant
in hot weather, and very good in fevers.
TO MAKE BEER AND ALE FROM PEA-SHELLS
Fill a boiler with green shells of peas, pour on water till it rises
half an inch above the shells, and simmer for three hours. Strain off
the liquor, and add a strong decoction of wood-sage, or hops, so as to
render it pleasantly bitter; ferment with yeast, and bottle.
BIRCH WINE
The liquor of the birch-tree is to be obtained in the month of March,
when the sap begins to ascend. One foot from the ground bore a hole in
each tree, large enough to admit a faucet, and set a vessel under; the
liquor will run for two or three days without hurting the tree. Having
obtained a sufficient quantity, stop the holes with pegs. To each
gallon of the liquor add one quart of honey, or two and one-half pounds
of sugar. Boil together one hour, stirring it well. A few cloves may be
added for flavor, or the rind of a lemon or two; and by all means one
ounce of hops to four and one-half gallons of wine.
Work it with yeast, tun, and refine with isinglass. Two months after
making, it may be drawn off and bottled, and in two months more will be
fit for use, but will improve by keeping.
BLACKBERRY WINE
Bruise the berries well with the hands. To one gallon of fruit, add
one-half gallon of water, and let stand overnight. Strain and measure,
and to each gallon of juice add two and one-half pounds of sugar.
Put in cask and let ferment. Tack thin muslin over top, and when
fermentation stops, pour into jugs or kegs. Wine keeps best in kegs.
BLACKBERRY WINE
(OTHER METHODS OF MAKING)
1. Having procured berries that are fully ripe, put them into a tub or
pan with a tap to it, and pour upon them as much boiling water as will
just cover them. As soon as the heat will permit the hand to be put
into the vessel, bruise them well till all the berries are broken. Then
let them stand covered till the berries begin to rise toward the top,
which they usually do in three or four days. Then draw off the clear
liquor into another vessel, and add to every ten quarts of this liquor
four pounds of sugar. Stir it well, and let it stand to work a week or
ten days; then filter it through a flannel jelly-bag into a cask. Take
now four ounces of isinglass and lay it to steep for twelve hours in
one pint of blackberry juice. The next morning boil it over a slow fire
for one-half hour with one quart or three pints more juice, and pour it
into the cask. When cool, rouse it well, and leave it to settle for a
few days, then rack it off into a clean cask, and bung it down.
2. The following is said to be an excellent recipe for the manufacture
of a superior wine from blackberries: Measure your berries, and bruise
them; to every gallon, add one quart of boiling water. Let the mixture
stand twenty-four hours, stirring occasionally; then strain off the
liquor into a cask, to every gallon adding two pounds of sugar. Cork
tight and let stand till the following October, and you will have wine
ready for use, without any further straining or boiling, that will make
lips smack, as they never smacked under similar influence before.
3. Gather when ripe, on a dry day. Put into a vessel, with the head
out, and a tap fitted near the bottom; pour on them boiling water
to cover them. Mash the berries with your hands, and let them stand
covered till the pulp rises to the top and forms a crust, in three or
four days. Then draw off the fluid into another vessel, and to every
gallon add one pound of sugar. Mix well, and put into a cask, to work
for a week or ten days, and throw off any remaining lees, keeping the
cask well filled, particularly at the commencement. When the working
has ceased, bung it down; after six to twelve months, it may be bottled.
FINE BRANDY SHRUB
Take one ounce of citric acid, one pint of porter, one and one-half
pints of raisin wine, one gill of orange-flower water, one gallon of
good brandy, two and one-quarter quarts of water. First, dissolve the
citric acid in the water, then add to it the brandy; next, mix the
raisin wine, porter, and orange-flower water together; and lastly, mix
the whole, and in a week or ten days it will be ready for drinking and
of a very mellow flavor.
AMERICAN CHAMPAGNE
Seven quarts good cider (crab-apple cider is the best), one pint best
fourth-proof brandy, one quart genuine champagne wine, one quart milk,
one-half ounce of bitartrate of potassa. Mix and let stand a short
time; bottle while fermenting. An excellent imitation.
CHAMPAGNE CUP
To two ounces of powdered loaf sugar, put the juice and rind of one
lemon pared thin; pour over these a large glass of dry sherry, and let
it stand for an hour; then add one bottle of sparkling champagne and
one bottle of soda water, a thin slice of fresh cucumber with the rind
on, a sprig of borage or balm, and pour on blocks of clear ice.
BRITISH CHAMPAGNE
To every five pounds of rhubarb, when sliced and bruised, put one
gallon of cold spring water. Let it stand three days, stirring two or
three times every day; then press and strain it through a sieve, and to
every gallon of liquor, put three and one-half pounds of loaf sugar.
Stir it well, and when melted, barrel it. When it has done working,
bung it up close, first suspending a muslin bag with isinglass from
the bung into the barrel. To eight gallons of liquor, put two ounces
of isinglass. In six months bottle it and wire the bottles; let them
stand up for the first month, then lay four or five down lengthways
for a week, and if none burst, all may be laid down. Should a large
quantity be made, it must remain longer in cask. It may be colored pink
by putting in a quart of raspberry juice. It will keep for many years.
BURGUNDY CHAMPAGNE
Fourteen pounds loaf sugar, twelve pounds brown sugar (pale), ten
gallons warm water, one ounce white tartar. Mix, and at a proper
temperature add one pint yeast. Afterwards, add one gallon sweet
cider, two or three bitter almonds (bruised), one quart pale spirit,
one-eighth ounce orris powder.
CHAMPAGNE CIDER
Champagne cider is made as follows: To five gallons of good cider put
three pints of strained honey, or one and one-eighth pounds of good
white sugar. Stir well and set it aside for a week. Clarify the cider
with one-half gill of skimmed milk, or one teaspoonful of dissolved
isinglass, and add one and one-half pints of pure spirits. After two
or three days bottle the clear cider, and it will become sparkling.
In order to produce a slow fermentation, the casks containing the
fermenting liquor must be bunged up tight. It is a great object to
retain much of the carbonic gas in the cider, so as to develop itself
after being bottled.
CHAMPAGNE CIDER, NO. 2
One hogshead good pale vinous cider, three gallons proof spirit (pale),
fourteen pounds honey or sugar. Mix, and let them remain together in
a temperate situation for one month; then add one quart orange-flower
water, and fine it down with one-half gallon skimmed milk. This
will be very pale; and a similar article, when bottled in champagne
bottles, silvered and labelled, has been often sold to the ignorant for
champagne. It opens very brisk, if managed properly.
TO MAKE ENGLISH CHAMPAGNE,
OR THE FINE CURRANT WINE
Take to three gallons of water nine pounds of Lisbon sugar; boil the
water and sugar one-half hour, skim it clean. Then have one gallon of
currants picked, but not bruised. Pour the liquor boiling hot over
them, and when cold, work it with one-half pint of balm two days; then
pour it through a flannel or sieve; then put it into a barrel fit for
it, with one-half ounce of isinglass well bruised. When it has done
working, stop it close for a month. Then bottle it, and in every
bottle put a very small lump of double refined sugar. This is excellent
wine, and has a beautiful color.
SHAM CHAMPAGNE
One lemon sliced, one tablespoon tartaric acid, one ounce of
race-ginger, one and one-half pounds sugar, two and one-half gallons
of boiling water poured on the above. When blood warm, add one gill of
distillery yeast, or two gills of home-brewed. Let it stand in the sun
through the day. When cold, in the evening, bottle, cork, and wire it.
In two days it is ready for use.
CHEAP AND AGREEABLE TABLE BEER
Take four and one-half gallons of water and boil one half, putting
the other into a barrel; add the boiling water to the cold with one
quart of molasses and a little yeast. Keep the bung-hole open until
fermentation ceases.
CHERRY BOUNCE
Four quarts of wild cherries stemmed and well washed, four quarts
of water. (I put mine in a big yellow bowl, and cover with double
cheese-cloth, and set behind the kitchen stove for two weeks.) Skim
every few days. Then strain, add three-quarters pound sugar to each
quart of liquid, and let ferment again. This takes about two weeks.
When it stops working, add rum,—about two bottles full for this
quantity. (It is good without any rum.)
CHERRY BOUNCE, NO. 2
One quart of rum to one quart of wild cherries, and three-quarters
pound of sugar. Put into a jug, and at first give it a frequent shake.
Let it stand for several months before you pour off and bottle. A
little water put on to the cherries left in the jug will make a
pleasant and less ardent drink.
CHERRY BOUNCE, NO. 3
One gallon of good whiskey, one and one-half pints of wild black
cherries bruised so as to break the stones, two ounces of common
almonds shelled, two ounces of white sugar, one-half teaspoonful
cinnamon, one-quarter teaspoonful cloves, one-quarter teaspoonful
nutmeg, all bruised. Let stand twelve to thirteen days, and draw off.
This, with the addition of one-half gallon of brandy, makes very nice
cherry bounce.
TO MAKE CHERRY WINE
Pull off the stalks of the cherries, and mash them without breaking the
stones; then press them hard through a hair bag, and to every gallon of
liquor, put two pounds of sugar. The vessel must be full, and let it
work as long as it makes a noise in the vessel; then stop it up close
for a month or more, and when it is fine, draw it into dry bottles, and
put a lump of sugar into every bottle. If it makes them fly, open them
all for a moment, and then stop them up again. It will be fit to drink
in a quarter of a year.
CHERRY WINE, NO. 2
Fifteen pounds of cherries, two pounds of currants. Bruise them
together. Mix with them two-thirds of the kernels, and put the whole
of the cherries, currants, and kernels into a barrel, with one-quarter
pound of sugar to every pint of juice. The barrel must be quite full.
Cover the barrel with vine leaves, and sand above them, and let it
stand until it has done working, which will be in about three weeks;
then stop it with a bung, and in two months’ time it may be bottled.
2. Gather the cherries when quite ripe. Pull them from their stalks,
and press them through a hair sieve. To every gallon of the liquor add
two pounds of lump sugar finely beaten; stir all together, and put it
into a vessel that will just hold it. When it has done fermenting, stop
it very close for three months, and then bottle it off for use.
GENERAL RULES FOR MAKING CIDER
Always choose perfectly ripe and sound fruit. Pick the apples by hand.
(An active boy with the bag slung over his shoulder will soon clear a
tree. Apples that have lain any time on the soil contract an earthy
taste, which will always be found in the cider.)
After sweating, and before being ground, wipe them dry, and if any
are found bruised or rotten, put them in a heap by themselves, for an
inferior cider to make vinegar.
Always use hair cloths, instead of straw, to place between the layers
of pomace. The straw when heated, gives a disagreeable taste to the
cider.
As the cider runs from the press, let it pass through a hair sieve into
a large open vessel that will hold as much juice as can be expressed in
one day. In a day, or sometimes less, the pomace will rise to the top,
and in a short time grow very thick. When little white bubbles break
through it, draw off the liquor by a spigot, placed about three inches
from the bottom, so that the lees may be left quietly behind.
The cider must be drawn off into very clean, sweet casks and closely
watched. The moment the white bubbles before mentioned are perceived
rising at the bung-hole, rack it again. When the fermentation is
completely at an end, fill up the cask with cider, in all respects like
that already contained in it, and bung it up tight, previous to which a
tumbler of sweet oil may be poured into the bung-hole.
After being made and barrelled it should be allowed to ferment until
it acquires the desired flavor, for perfectly sweet cider is not
desirable. In the meantime clean barrels for its reception should be
prepared thus: Some clean strips of rag are dipped into melted sulphur,
lighted and hung in the bung-hole, and the bung laid loosely on the
end of the rag. This is to allow the sulphur vapor to well fill the
barrel. Tie up a half-pint of mustard-seed in a coarse muslin rag and
put it into the barrel, then put your cider in. Now add the isinglass,
which “fines” the cider but does not help to keep it sweet. This is the
old-fashioned way, and will keep cider in the same condition as it
went into the barrel, if kept in a cool place, for a year. The sulphur
vapor checks the fermentation, and the sulphur in the mustard-seed
keeps it checked. We hear that professional cider dealers are now using
the bisulphite of lime instead of the mustard-seed and the sulphur
vapor. This bisulphite of lime is the same as the “preserving powder.”
It is only another form of using the sulphur, but it is more convenient
and perhaps more effectual. Another method is to add sugar, one and a
half pounds sugar to a gallon of the cider, and let it ferment. This
makes a fermented, clear, good cider, but sweet. It lasts sweet about
six months, if kept in a cool situation.
Preparatory to bottling cider it should be examined, to see whether it
be clear and sparkling. If not, it should be clarified in a similar
way to beer, and left for a fortnight. The night before it is intended
to put it into bottles, the bung should be taken out of the cask, and
left so until the next day, when it may be bottled, but not corked down
until the day after, as, if this be done at once, many of the bottles
will burst by keeping. The best corks and champagne bottles should be
used, and it is usual to wire and cover the corks with tinfoil, after
the manner of champagne. A few bottles may be kept in a warm place
to ripen, or a small piece of lump sugar may be put into each bottle
before corking, if the cider be wanted for immediate use, or for
consumption during the cooler portion of the year, but for warm weather
and for long keeping this is inadmissible. The bottled stock should be
stored in a cool cellar, when the quality will be greatly improved by
age.
TO CAN CIDER
Cider, if taken when first made, brought to the boiling heat, and
canned, precisely as fruit is canned, will keep from year to year
without any change of taste. Canned up this way in the fall, it may be
kept a half-dozen years or longer, as good as when first made. It is
better that the cider be settled and poured off from the dregs, and
when brought to boiling heat, the scum that gathers on the surface
taken off; but the only precaution necessary to preservation of the
cider is the sealing of it air tight when boiling hot. The juice of
other fruit can, no doubt, be preserved in the same way. To all tastes
not already corrupted by strong drinks, these unfermented juices are
very delicious. The juice of the grape is better than wine a century
old, and more healthy. Churches believing in literal eating and
drinking at the Lord’s supper could in this way avoid the poisonous
fermented spirits and drink the pure unfermented juice of the grape, as
was doubtless done by the primitive Christians.
BOILING CIDER
To prepare cider for boiling, the first process is to filter it
immediately on coming from the press. This is easiest done by placing
some sticks crosswise in the bottom of a barrel,—a flour barrel with
a single head is the best,—wherein an inch hole has been bored, and
covering these sticks with say four inches of clean rye or wheat straw,
and then filling the barrel to within a foot of the top with clean sand
or coal dust,—sand is the best. Pour the cider as it comes from the
press into the top of this barrel, drawing it off as soon as it comes
out at the bottom into air-tight casks, and let it stand in the cellar
until March. Then draw it out with as little exposure to the air as
possible, put it into bottles that can be tightly and securely corked,
and in two months it will be fit for use.
TO CLEAR CIDER
To clear and improve cider generally take two quarts of ground
horseradish and one pound of thick gray filtering paper to the barrel,
and either shake or stir until the paper has separated into small
shreds, and let it stand for twenty-four hours, when the cider may be
drawn off by means of a siphon or a stop cock. Instead of paper, a
preparation of wool may be taken, which is to be had in the market, and
which is preferable to paper, as it has simply to be washed with water,
when it may be used again.
CIDER, TO PRESERVE AND KEEP SWEET
1. To one barrel of cider, put in one pound of mustard-seed, two pounds
of raisins, one-quarter pound of the sticks (bark) of cinnamon. 2.
When the cider in the barrel is in a lively fermentation, add as much
white sugar as will be equal to one-quarter or three-quarters of a
pound to each gallon of cider (according as the apples are sweet or
sour); let the fermentation proceed until the liquid has the taste
to suit, then add one-quarter of an ounce of sulphite (not sulphate)
of lime to each gallon of cider, shake well, and let it stand three
days, and bottle for use. The sulphite should first be dissolved in a
quart or so of cider before introducing it into the barrel of cider.
3. When fermentation commences in one barrel, draw off the liquor into
another one, straining through a flannel cloth. Put into the cider
three-quarters of an ounce of the oil of sassafras, and the same of
the oil of wintergreen, well shaken up in a pint of alcohol. But one
difficulty is said to pertain to this preparation of cider. It is so
palatable that people won’t keep it long.
CIDER CHAMPAGNE
Five gallons good cider, one quart spirit, one and one-quarter pounds
honey or sugar. Mix, and let them rest for a fortnight, then fine with
one gill of skimmed milk. This, put up in champagne bottles, silvered,
and labelled, has often been sold for champagne. It opens very
sparkling.
CHERRY CIDER
Seven gallons of apple cider, two quarts of dried black cherries, one
pint of dried blueberries, one-half pint of elderberries, eighteen
pounds of brown sugar.
DEVONSHIRE CIDER
The apples, after being plucked, are left in heaps in the orchard for
some time, to complete their ripening, and render them more saccharine.
They are then crushed between grooved cylinders, surmounted by a
hopper, or in a circular trough, by two vertical edge-wheels of wood
moved by a horse; after passing through which, they are received into
large tubs or crocks, and are then called pomace. They are afterwards
laid on the vat in alternate layers of the pomace and clean straw,
called reeds. They are then pressed, a little water being occasionally
added. The juice passes through a hair sieve, or similar strainer, and
is received in a large vessel, whence it is run into casks or open
vats, where everything held in mechanical suspension is deposited. The
fermentation is often slow of being developed; though the juice be
set in November or December, the working sometimes hardly commences
till March. Till this time the cider is sweet; it now becomes pungent
and vinous, and is ready to be racked for use. If the fermentation
continue, it is usual to rack it again into a clean cask that has been
well sulphured out, and to leave behind the head and sediment; or two
or three cans of cider are put into a clean cask, and a match of
brimstone burned in it. It is then agitated, by which the fermentation
of that quantity is completely stopped. The cask is then nearly filled,
the fermentation of the whole is checked, the process of racking is
repeated until it becomes so, and is continued from time to time till
the cider is in a quiet state and fit for drinking.
FRENCH CIDER
After the fruit is mashed in a mill, between iron cylinders, it is
allowed to remain in a large tun or tub for fourteen or fifteen hours,
before pressing. The juice is placed in casks, which are kept quite
full, and so placed under gawntrees, or stillions, that small tubs may
be put under them, to receive the matter that works over. At the end
of three or four days for sweet cider, and nine or ten days for strong
cider, it is racked into sulphured casks, and then stored in a cool
place.
WESTERN CIDER
To one pound of sugar, add one-half ounce of tartaric acid, two
tablespoonfuls of good yeast. Dissolve the sugar in one quart of warm
water; put all in a gallon jug, shake it well, fill the jug with pure
cold water, let it stand uncorked twelve hours, and it is fit for use.
CIDER WITHOUT APPLES
To each gallon of cold water, put one pound common sugar, one-half
ounce tartaric acid, one tablespoonful of yeast. Shake well, make in
the evening, and it will be fit for use next day. Make in a keg a few
gallons at a time, leaving a few quarts to make into next time, not
using yeast again until keg needs rinsing. If it gets a little sour,
make a little more into it, or put as much water with it as there is
cider, and put it with the vinegar. If it is desired to bottle this
cider by manufacturers of small drinks, you will proceed as follows:
five gallons hot water, thirty pounds brown sugar, three-quarters pound
tartaric acid, twenty-five gallons cold water, three pints of hops or
brewers’ yeast worked into paste with three-quarters pound flour, and
one pint water will be required in making this paste. Put all together
in a barrel, which it will fill, and let it work twenty-four hours,
the yeast running out at a bung all the time, by putting in a little
occasionally to keep it full. Then bottle, putting in two or three
broken raisins to each bottle, and it will nearly equal champagne.
CIDER WINE
Let the new cider from sour apples (ripe, sound fruit preferred)
ferment from one to three weeks, as the weather is warm or cool. When
it has attained to a lively fermentation, add to each gallon, according
to its acidity, from one-half pound to two pounds of white crushed
sugar, and let the whole ferment until it possesses precisely the taste
which it is desired should be permanent. In this condition pour out one
quart of the cider, and add for each gallon of cider one-quarter ounce
of sulphite of lime, not sulphate. Stir the powder and cider until
intimately mixed, and return the emulsion to the fermenting liquid.
Agitate briskly and thoroughly for a few moments, and then let the
cider settle. Fermentation will cease at once. When, after a few days,
the cider has become clear, draw off carefully, to avoid the sediment,
and bottle. If loosely corked, which is better, it will become a
sparkling cider wine, and may be kept indefinitely long.
TO MAKE CLARY WINE
Take twelve pounds of Malaga raisins, pick them and chop them very
small, put them in a tub, and to each pound one-half pint of water. Let
them steep ten or eleven days, stirring it twice every day; you must
keep it covered close all the while. Then strain it off, and put it
into a vessel, and about one-quarter peck of the tops of clary, when
it is in blossom; stop it close for six weeks, and then bottle it off.
In two or three months it is fit to drink. It is apt to have a great
sediment at bottom; therefore it is best to draw it off by plugs, or
tap it pretty high.
TO MAKE FINE CLARY WINE
To five gallons of water put twelve and one-half pounds of sugar, and
the whites of six eggs well beaten. Set it over the fire, and let it
boil gently near an hour; skim it clean and put it in a tub, and when
it is near cold, then put into the vessel you keep it in about half a
strike of clary in the blossom, stripped from the stalks, flowers and
little leaves together, and one pint of new ale-yeast. Then put in the
liquor, and stir it two or three times a day for three days; when it
has done working, stop it up, and bottle it at three or four months
old, if it is clear.
CLOVER WINE
Three quarts blossoms, four quarts boiling water; let stand three days.
Drain, and to the flower heads add three more quarts of water and the
peel of one lemon. Boil fifteen minutes, drain, and add to other juice.
To every quart, add one pound of sugar; ferment with one cup of yeast.
Keep in warm room three weeks, then bottle.
TO MAKE COCK ALE
Take five gallons of ale, and a large cock, the older the better.
Parboil the cock, flay him, and stamp him in a stone mortar till his
bones are broken (you must craw and gut him when you flay him), then
put the cock into one quart of sack, and put to it one and one-half
pounds of raisins of the sun stoned, some blades of mace, and a few
cloves. Put all these into a canvas bag, and a little before you find
the ale has done working, put the ale and bag together into a vessel.
In a week or nine days’ time bottle it up; fill the bottle but just
above the neck, and give it the same time to ripen as other ale.
TO MAKE COWSLIP WINE
To three gallons of water put seven pounds of sugar; stir it well
together, and beat the whites of ten eggs very well, and mix with the
liquor, and make it boil as fast as possible. Skim it well, and let it
continue boiling two hours; then strain it through a hair sieve, and
set it a cooling, and when it is cold as wort should be, put a small
quantity of yeast to it on a toast, or in a dish. Let it stand all
night working; then bruise one-half peck of cowslips, put them into
your vessel, and your liquor upon them, adding three ounces of syrup
of lemons. Cut a turf of grass and lay on the bung; let it stand a
fortnight, and then bottle it. Put your tap into your vessel before you
put your wine in, that you may not shake it.
COWSLIP OR CLARY WINE, NO. 2
The best method of making these wines is to put in the pips dry, when
the fermentation of the wine has subsided. This method is preferred for
two reasons: first, it may be performed at any time of the year when
lemons are cheapest, and when other wine is making; second, all waste
of the pips is avoided. Being light, they are sure to work over if put
in the cask while the wine is in a state of fermentation. Boil fourteen
pounds of good moist sugar with five gallons of water, and one ounce
of hops. Shave thin the rinds of eight lemons or Seville oranges, or
part of each; they must be put in the boil the last quarter of an hour,
or the boiling liquor poured over them. Squeeze the juice to be added
when cool, and rinse the pulp in the hot liquor, and keep it filled
up, either with wine or new beer, as long as it works over; then paste
brown paper, and leave it for four, six, or eight months. The quantity
of flowers is one quart of flowers to each gallon of wine. Let them
be gathered on a fine, dry day, and carefully picked from every bit
of stalk and green. Spread them thinly on trays, sheets, or papers,
and turn them often. When thoroughly dry put them in paper bags, until
the wine is ready to receive them. Put them in at the bung-hole; stir
them down two or three times a day, till all the cowslips have sunk;
at the same time add isinglass. Then paste over again with paper. In
six months the wine will be fit to bottle, but will be improved by
keeping longer in the cask. The pips shrink into a very small compass
in drying; the quantity allowed is of fresh-gathered flowers. Observe,
also, that wine well boiled, and refined with hops and isinglass, is
just as good used from the cask as if bottled, which is a great saving
of time and hazard. Wine made on the above principles has been often
praised by connoisseurs, and supposed to have been bottled half a day.
CURRANT SHRUB
Take white currants when quite ripe, pick them off the stalks, and
bruise them. Strain out the juice through a cloth, and to two quarts of
the juice put two pounds of loaf sugar; when it is dissolved, add one
gallon of rum, then strain through a flannel bag that will keep in the
jelly, and it will run off clear. Then bottle for use.
CURRANT WINE
Take four gallons of currants, not too ripe, and strip them into an
earthen stein that has a cover to it. Then take two and one-half
gallons of water and five and one-half pounds of double refined sugar;
boil the sugar and water together, skim it, and pour it boiling hot
on the currants, letting it stand forty-eight hours; then strain it
through a flannel bag into the stein again, let it stand a fortnight to
settle, and bottle it out.
CURRANT WINE, NO. 2
The currants should be fully ripe when picked. Put them into a large
tub, in which they should remain a day or two, then crush with the
hands, unless you have a small patent wine-press, in which they should
not be pressed too much, or the stems will be bruised, and impart a
disagreeable taste to the juice. If the hands are used, put the crushed
fruit, after the juice has been poured off, in a cloth or sack and
press out the remaining juice. Put the juice back into the tub after
cleansing it, where it should remain about three days, until the first
stages of fermentation are over, and remove once or twice a day the
scum copiously arising to the top. Then put the juice in a vessel—a
demijohn, keg, or barrel,—of a size to suit the quantity made, and to
each quart of juice add three pounds of the best yellow sugar, and
soft water sufficient to make a gallon. Thus, ten quarts of juice and
thirty pounds of sugar will give you ten gallons of wine, and so on in
proportion. Those who do not like sweet wine can reduce the quantity of
sugar to two and one-half, or who wish it very sweet, raise to three
and one-half pounds per gallon. The vessel must be full, and the bung
or stopper left off until fermentation ceases, which will be in twelve
or fifteen days. Meanwhile, the cask must be filled up daily with
currant juice left over, as fermentation throws out the impure matter.
When fermentation ceases, rack the wine off carefully, either from the
spigot or by a siphon, and keep running all the time. Cleanse the cask
thoroughly with boiling water, then return the wine, bung up tightly,
and let it stand four or five months, when it will be fit to drip, and
can be bottled if desired. All the vessels, casks, etc., should be
perfectly sweet, and the whole operation should be done with an eye to
cleanliness. In such event, every drop of brandy or other spirituous
liquors added will detract from the flavor of the wine, and will not in
the least degree increase its keeping qualities. Currant wine made in
this way will keep for an age.
CURRANT WINE, NO. 3
To every pailful of currants, on the stem, put one pailful of water;
mash and strain. To each gallon of the mixture of juice and water add
three and one-quarter pounds of sugar. Mix well and put into your cask,
which should be placed in the cellar, on the tilt, that it may be
racked off in October, without stirring up the sediment. Two bushels of
currants will make one barrel of wine. Four gallons of the mixture of
juice and water will, after thirteen pounds of sugar are added, make
five gallons of wine. The barrel should be filled within three inches
of the bung, which must be made air tight by placing wet clay over it
after it is driven in.
2. Pick your currants when ripe on a fair day, crush them well, and
to every gallon of juice add two gallons of water and three pounds of
sugar; if you wish it sweeter, add another one-half pound of sugar.
Mix all together in some large vessel, then dip out into earthen jars.
Let it stand to ferment in some cool place, skimming it every other
morning. In about ten days it will be ready to strain off; bottle and
seal, or put in a cask and cork tight. The longer you keep it the
better it will be.
CURRANT WINE, NO. 4
Into a five gallon keg put five quarts of currant juice, fifteen pounds
of sugar, and fill up with water. Let it stand in a cool place until
sufficiently worked, and then bung up tight. You can let it remain in
the cask, and draw out as you want to use it.
CURRANT OR GOOSEBERRY WINE, WITHOUT BOILING
Take ten quarts of fruit, bruise it, and add to it five quarts of
water. Stir it well together, and let it stand twelve hours; then
strain it through a coarse canvas bag or hair sieve, add eleven pounds
of good Lisbon sugar, and stir it well. Put the pulp of the fruit into
a gallon more water; stir it about and let it stand twelve hours. Then
strain to the above, again stirring it; cover the tub with a sack. In
a day or two the wine will begin to ferment. When the whole surface is
covered with a thick, yeasty froth, begin to skim it on to a sieve.
What runs through may be returned to the wine. Do this from time to
time for several days, till no more yeast forms. Then put it into the
cask.
IMITATION OF CYPRESS WINE
To five gallons of water put five quarts of the juice of white
elderberries, pressed gently through a sieve without bruising the
seeds. Add to every gallon of liquor one and one-half pounds of sugar,
and to the whole quantity one ounce of sliced ginger, and one-half
ounce of cloves. Boil this nearly an hour, taking off the scum as it
rises, and pour in an open tub to cool. Work it with ale yeast spread
upon a toast of bread for three days. Then turn it into a vessel that
will just hold it, adding about three-quarters pound bruised raisins,
to lie in the liquor till drawn off, which should not be done till the
wine is fine.
DAISY WINE
One quart of daisy heads, one quart of cold water. Let stand
forty-eight hours. Strain and add three-quarters pound of sugar to
each quart of liquid. Let stand about two weeks, or till it stops
fermenting. Strain again and bottle. It improves with keeping.
DANDELION WINE
Four quarts of dandelions. Cover with four quarts of boiling water; let
stand three days. Add peel of three oranges and one lemon. Boil fifteen
minutes; drain and add juice of oranges and lemon to four pounds of
sugar and one cup of yeast. Keep in warm room and strain again; let
stand for three weeks. It is then ready to bottle and serve.
DAMSON WINE
Gather the fruit dry, weigh, and bruise it, and to every eight pounds
of fruit add one gallon of water; boil the water, pour it on the fruit
scalding hot. Let it stand for two days; then draw it off, put it into
a clean cask, and to every gallon of liquor add two and one-half pounds
of good sugar. Fill the cask. It may be bottled off after standing in
the cask a year. On bottling the wine, put a small lump of loaf sugar
into every bottle.
DAMSON, OR BLACK CHERRY WINE
Damson, or Black Cherry Wine may be made in the same manner, excepting
the addition of spice, and that the sugar should be finer. If kept in
an open vessel four days, these wines will ferment of themselves; but
it is better to forward the process by the use of a little yeast, as
in former recipes. They will be fit for use in about eight months.
As there is a flatness belonging to both these wines if bottled, a
teaspoonful of rice, a lump or two of sugar, or four or five raisins
will tend to enliven it.
EBULUM
To one hogshead of strong ale take a heaped bushel of elderberries, and
one-half pound of juniper-berries beaten. Put in all the berries when
you put in the hops, and let them boil together till the berries break
in pieces, then work it up as you do ale. When it has done working add
to it one-half pound of ginger, one-half ounce of cloves, one-half
ounce of mace, one ounce of nutmegs, one ounce of cinnamon, grossly
beaten, one-half pound of citron, one-half pound of eringo root, and
likewise of candied orange-peel. Let the sweetmeats be cut in pieces
very thin, and put with the spice into a bag, and hang it in the vessel
when you stop it up. So let it stand till it is fine, then bottle it
up, and drink it with lumps of double refined sugar in the glass.
ELDER-FLOWER WINE
Take the flowers of elder, and be careful that you don’t let any stalks
in; to every quart of flowers put one gallon of water, and three pounds
of loaf sugar. Boil the water and sugar a quarter of an hour, then pour
it on the flowers and let it work three days; then strain the wine
through a hair sieve, and put it into a cask. To every ten gallons of
wine add one ounce of isinglass dissolved in cider, and six whole eggs.
Close it up and let it stand six months, and then bottle it.
TO MAKE ELDER WINE
Take five pounds of Malaga raisins, rub them and shred them small; then
take one gallon of water, boil it an hour, and let it stand till it
is but blood-warm; then put it in an earthen crock or tub, with your
raisins. Let them steep ten days, stirring them once or twice a day;
then pass the liquor through a hair sieve, and have in readiness one
pint of the juice of elderberries drawn off as you do for jelly of
currants; then mix it cold with the liquor, stir it well together, put
it into a vessel, and let it stand in a warm place. When it has done
working, stop it close. Bottle it about Candlemas.
ELDERBERRY WINE
Nine quarts elderberry juice, nine quarts water, eleven and one-half
pounds white sugar, two ounces red tartar. These are put into a cask,
a little yeast added, and the whole is fermented. When undergoing
fermentation, one ounce ginger root, one ounce allspice, one-quarter
ounce cloves are put into a bag of clean cotton cloth, and suspended
in the cask. They will give a pleasant flavor to the wine, which will
become clear in about two months, and may be drawn off and bottled.
Add some brandy to this wine, but if the fermentation is properly
conducted, this is not necessary.
ELDER WINE, NO. 2