Chapter II: Part 2

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

Take spring-water, and let it boil half an hour; then measure two and one-half gallons, and let it stand to cool. Then have in readiness ten pounds of raisins of the sun well picked and rubbed in a cloth, and hack them so as to cut them, but not too small; then put them in, the water being cold, and let them stand nine days, stirring them two or three times a day. Then have ready three pints of the juice of elderberries full ripe, which must be infused in boiling water, or baked three hours; then strain out the raisins, and when the elder liquor is cold, mix that with it, but it is best to boil up the juice to a syrup, one-half pound of sugar to every pint of juice. Boil and skim it, and when cold mix it with your raisin liquor, and two or three spoonfuls of good ale yeast. Stir it well together; then put it into a vessel fit for it, let it stand in a warm place to work, and in your cellar five or six months.

ELDER WINE, NO. 3

The quantity of fruit required is one gallon of ripe elderberries, and one quart of damsons or sloes, for every two gallons of wine to be produced. Boil them in water till the damsons burst, frequently breaking them with a flat stick; then strain and return the liquor to the copper. The quantity of liquor required for nine gallons of wine will be ten gallons; therefore if the first liquor proves short of this, add water to the pulp, rub it about and strain to the rest. Boil two hours with twenty-three pounds of coarse moist sugar; three-quarters of a pound of ginger bruised, one-half a pound of allspice, and one ounce of cinnamon, loosely tied in a muslin bag, and two or three ounces of hops. When quite cool work on the foregoing plan, tun in two days, drop in the spice, and suspend the bag by a string not long enough to let it touch the bottom of the cask; fill it up for a fortnight, then paste over stiff brown paper. It will be fit to tap in two months; will keep for years, but does not improve by age like many other wines. It is never better than in the first year of its age.

ELDER WINE (FLAVORED WITH HOPS)

The berries, which must be thoroughly ripe, are to be stripped from the stalk, and squeezed to a pulp. Stir and squeeze this pulp every day for four days; then separate the juice from the pulp by passing through a cane sieve or basket. To every gallon of juice, add one-half gallon of cold water. Boil four and one-half gallons with three ounces of hops for one-half hour; then strain it and boil again, with one and one-half pounds of sugar to the gallon, for about ten minutes, skimming all the time; pour it into a cooler, and, while luke-warm, put a piece of bread with a little balm on it to set it working. Put it into a cask as soon as cold; when it has done working, cork it down, and leave it six months before it is tapped. It is then drinkable, but improves with age exceedingly.

TO MAKE ELDER WINE AT CHRISTMAS

Take five pounds of Malaga or Lipara raisins, rub them clean, and shred them small. Then take five quarts of water, boil it an hour, and when it is near cold put it in a tub with the raisins; let them steep ten days, and stir them once or twice a day. Then strain it through a hair sieve, and by infusion draw one pint of elder-juice, and one-quarter of a pint of damson juice. Make the juice into a thin syrup, a pound of sugar to a pint of juice, and not boil it much, but just enough to keep. When you have strained out the raisin liquor, put that and the syrup into a vessel fit for it, and one-half a pound of sugar. Stop the bung with a cork till it gathers to a head, then open it, and let it stand till it has done working; then put the cork in again, and stop it very close, and let it stand in a warm place two or three months, and then bottle it. Make the elder and damson juice into syrup in its season, and keep it in a cool cellar till you have convenience to make the wine.

TO MAKE ELDER-FLOWER WATER

Take two large handfuls of dried elder-flowers, and ten gallons of spring-water; boil the water, and pour it scalding hot upon the flowers. The next day put to every gallon of water five pounds of Malaga raisins, the stalks being first picked off, but not washed; chop them grossly with a chopping-knife, then put them into your boiled water, and stir the water, raisins, and flowers well together, and so do twice a day for twelve days. Then press out the juice clear, as long as you can get any liquor out. Then put it in your barrel fit for it, and stop it up two or three days till it works, and in a few days stop it up close, and let it stand two or three months, till it is clear; then bottle it.

ENGLISH FIG WINE

Take the large blue figs when pretty ripe, and steep them in white wine, having made some slits in them, that they may swell and gather in the substance of the wine. Then slice some other figs and let them simmer over a fire in water until they are reduced to a kind of pulp. Then strain out the water, pressing the pulp hard and pour it as hot as possible on the figs that are imbrued in the wine. Let the quantities be nearly equal, but the water somewhat more than the wine and figs. Let them stand twenty-four hours, mash them well together, and draw off what will run without squeezing. Then press the rest, and if not sweet enough add a sufficient quantity of sugar to make it so. Let it ferment, and add to it a little honey and sugar candy, then fine it with white of eggs, and a little isinglass, and draw it off for use.

TO MAKE FRONTIGNAC WINE

Take three gallons of water, six pounds of white sugar, and three pounds of raisins of the sun cut small; boil these together an hour. Then take of the flowers of elder, when they are falling, and will shake off, the quantity of half a peck; put them in the liquor when it is almost cold. The next day put in three spoonfuls of syrup of lemons and two spoonfuls of ale-yeast, and two days after put it in a vessel that is fit for it, and when it has stood two months, bottle it off.

GINGER BEER

The proportions of this may vary. Loaf sugar is preferable to moist; some say a pound to a gallon, others a pound and a half. Some allow but half an ounce of ginger (sliced or bruised) to a gallon, others an ounce. A lemon to a gallon is the usual proportion, to which some add a quarter of an ounce or half an ounce of cream of tartar. The white of an egg to each gallon is useful for clarifying, but not absolutely necessary. Some people put a quarter of a pint of brandy to four gallons of beer by way of keeping it; half an ounce of hops boiled in it would answer the same purpose. Boil the sugar, and shaved rind of lemons; let it boil half an hour. Clear the lemons of the white pith and put them in the wine. When cool, stir in the yeast (two tablespoonfuls to a gallon), put it in the barrel without straining, and bung close. In a fortnight draw off and bottle. It will be ready for use in another fortnight, and will keep longer than ginger pop. If cream of tartar is used, pour the boiling liquor over it, but do not boil it.

GINGER BEER, NO. 2

Seven pounds crushed white sugar, eight gallons water, one-half cup of yeast, four ounces best powdered ginger, a few drops of essence of lemon, one-half teaspoonful essence of cloves. To the ginger pour one pint of boiling water and let it stand fifteen or twenty minutes. Dissolve the sugar in two quarts of warm water, pour both into a barrel half-filled with cold water, then add the essence and the yeast; let it stand one-half hour, then fill up with cold water. Let it ferment six to twelve hours and bottle.

GINGER WINE

Take four gallons of water, ten pounds of loaf sugar, one and one-quarter pounds of bruised ginger, one ounce of hops, the shaved rinds of five lemons or Seville oranges. Let these boil together for two hours, carefully skimming. Pour it, without straining, on to two pounds of raisins. When cool, put in the juice of the lemons or oranges; rinse the pulp in a pint or two of the wine, and strain it to the rest. Ferment it with yeast; mix one-half cup of solid yeast with a pint or two of the wine, and with that work the rest. Next day tun it, raisins, hops, ginger, and all together, and fill it up for a fortnight either with wine or with good new beer; then dissolve one ounce of isinglass in a little of the wine, and return it to the rest to fine it. A few days afterward bung it close.

This wine will be in full perfection in six months. It may be bottled, but is apt to fly; and if made exactly by the above directions, and drawn from the cask, it will sparkle like champagne.

TO MAKE GOOSEBERRY WINE

Boil four gallons of water, and one-half pound of sugar an hour, skim it well, and let it stand till it is cold. Then to every quart of that water, allow one and one-half pounds of gooseberries, first beaten or bruised very well; let it stand twenty-four hours. Then strain it out, and to every gallon of this liquor put three pounds of sugar; let it stand in the vat twelve hours. Then take the thick scum off, and put the clear into a vessel fit for it, and let it stand a month; then draw it off, and rinse the vessel with some of the liquor. Put it in again, and let it stand four months, and bottle it.

GOOSEBERRY WINE

Take to every four pounds of gooseberries one and one-quarter pounds of sugar, and one quart of fair water. Bruise the berries, and steep them twenty-four hours in the water, stirring them often; then press the liquor from them, and put your sugar to the liquor. Then put in a vessel fit for it, and when it is done working stop it up, and let it stand a month; then rack it off into another vessel, and let it stand five or six weeks longer. Then bottle it out, putting a small lump of sugar into every bottle; cork your bottles well, and three months’ end it will be fit to drink. In the same manner is currant and raspberry wine made; but cherry wine differs, for the cherries are not to be bruised, but stoned, and put the sugar and water together, and give it a boil and a skim, and then put in your fruit, letting it stew with a gentle fire a quarter of an hour, and then let it run through a sieve without pressing, and when it is cold put it in a vessel, and order it as your gooseberry or currant wine. The only cherries for wine are the great bearers, Murray cherries, Morelloes, Black Flanders, or the John Treduskin cherries.

GOOSEBERRY WINE, NO. 2

Pick and bruise the gooseberries, and to every pound of berries put one quart of cold spring water, and let it stand three days, stirring it twice or thrice a day. Add to every gallon of juice three pounds of loaf sugar. Fill the barrel, and when it is done working, add to every ten quarts of liquor one pint of brandy and a little isinglass. The gooseberries must be picked when they are just changing color. The liquor ought to stand in the barrel six months. Taste it occasionally, and bottle when the sweetness has gone off.

GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT WINE

The following method of making superior gooseberry and currant wines is recommended in a French work.

For currant wine four pounds of honey, dissolved in seven gallons of boiling water, to which, when clarified, is added the juice of four pounds of red or white currants. It is then fermented for twenty-four hours and one pound of sugar to every one gallon of water is added. The preparation is afterward clarified with whites of eggs and cream of tartar.

For gooseberry wine, the fruit is gathered dry when about half-ripe, and then pounded in a mortar. The juice when properly strained is mixed with sugar in the proportion of three pounds to every two gallons of juice. It is then left in a quiet state for fifteen days, at the expiration of which it is carefully poured off and left to ferment for three months, when the quantity is under fifteen gallons, and five months when double that quantity. It is then bottled and soon becomes fit for drinking.

PEARL GOOSEBERRY WINE

Take as many as you please of the best gooseberries, bruise them, and let them stand all night. The next morning press or squeeze them out and let the liquor stand to settle seven or eight hours; then pour off the clear from the settling, and measure it as you put it into your vessel, adding to every three pints of liquor one pound of double refined sugar. Break your sugar into fine lumps, and put it in the vessel with a bit of isinglass, stop it up, and at three months’ end bottle it out, putting into every bottle a lump of double refined sugar. This is the fine gooseberry wine.

RED GOOSEBERRY WINE

Take five gallons cold soft water, five and one-half gallons red gooseberries, and ferment. Now mix eight pounds raw sugar, one pound beet root sliced, one-half ounce red tartar in fine powder. Afterward put in one-half pound sassafras chips, one-half gallon brandy or less. This will make nine gallons.

RED AND WHITE GOOSEBERRY WINE

Take one and one-half gallons cold soft water, three quarts red gooseberries, two quarts white gooseberries. Ferment. Now mix two and one-half pounds raw sugar, three-quarters pound honey, one-half ounce tartar in fine powder. Afterwards put in one ounce bitter almonds, a small handful sweet briar, two quarts brandy or less.

WHITE GOOSEBERRY OR CHAMPAGNE WINE

Take four and one-half gallons cold soft water and fifteen quarts of white gooseberries. Ferment. Now mix six pounds refined sugar, four pounds honey, one ounce white tartar in fine powder. Put in one ounce dry orange and lemon peel, or two ounces fresh, and add one-half gallon white brandy. This will make nine gallons.

UNFERMENTED GRAPE JUICE

Wash and take from the stems ten pounds ripe Concord grapes. Add two quarts water and bring them to a boil. Use a potato masher. When the seeds separate, strain through double cheese-cloth. Add two pounds of granulated sugar and strain again. Bring again to a boil and bottle directly, boiling hot, cork and seal, or put into patent bottles. Serve with cracked ice in the glass or diluted with about one-third ice water.

GRAPE WINE

Two quarts of grape juice, two quarts of water, four pounds of sugar. Extract the juice of the grape in any simple way; if only a few quarts are desired, we do it with a strainer and a pair of squeezers; if a large quantity is desired, put the grapes into a cheese-press made particularly clean, putting on sufficient weight to extract the juice of a full hoop of grapes, being careful that none but perfect grapes are used, perfectly ripe and free from blemish. After the first pressing, put a little water with the pulp and press a second time, using the juice of the second pressing with the water to be mixed with the clear grape juice. If only a few quarts are made, place the wine as soon as mixed into bottles, filling them even full, and allow to stand in a warm place until it ferments, which will take about thirty-six hours usually; then remove all the scum, cool, and put into a dark, cool place. If a few gallons are desired, place in a keg, but the keg must be even full, and after fermentation has taken place and the scum removed, draw off and bottle, and cork tight.

GRAPE WINE, NO. 2

The larger the proportion of juice and the less of water, the nearer it will approach to the strength and richness of foreign wine. There ought not to be less than one-third juice pure. Squeeze the grapes in a hair sieve, bruising them with the hand rather than any heavier press, as it is better not to crush the stones. Soak the pulp in water until a sufficient quantity is obtained to fill up the cask. As loaf sugar is to be used for this wine, and it is not easily dissolved in cold liquid, the best plan is to pour over the sugar, three pounds in every gallon required, as much boiling water as will dissolve it, and stir till it is dissolved. When cold, put it in the cask with the juice, fill up from water in which the pulp has been steeped. To each gallon of wine, put one-half ounce of bitter almonds, not blanched, but cut small.

The fermentation will not be very great. When it subsides, proceed with brandy and papering.

GRAPE WINE, NO. 3

Crush the grapes and let them stand one week. Drain off the juice, strain; add one quart of water and three pounds of sugar to each gallon. Put in a barrel or cask with a thin piece of muslin tacked over the bung-hole, and let stand until fermentation stops. Put in a cask and seal securely, and let stand six months. Then bottle and seal and keep in cool place.

HOP BEER

Turn five quarts of water on six ounces of hops; boil three hours. Strain off the liquor; turn on four quarts more of water, and twelve spoonfuls of ginger, and boil the hops three hours longer. Strain and mix it with the other liquor, and stir in two quarts of molasses. Brown, very dry, one-half pound of bread, and put in,—rusked bread is best. Pound it fine, and brown it in a pot, like coffee. After cooling to be about luke-warm, add one pint of new yeast that is free from salt. Keep the beer covered, in a temperate situation, till fermentation has ceased, which is known by the settling of the froth; then turn it into a keg or bottles, and keep it in a cool place.

JUNIPER-BERRY WINE

Take four and one-half gallons of cold soft water, seven pounds Malaga or Smyrna raisins, two and one-quarter quarts juniper-berries, one-half ounce red tartar, one-half handful wormwood, one-half handful sweet marjoram, one pint whiskey or more. Ferment for ten or twelve days.

KOUMISS, A TARTAR WINE

Take a quantity of fresh mare’s milk, add to it one-sixth part water, pour the mixture into a wooden bowl. Use as a ferment one-eighth part of skimmed milk; but at any future preparation, a small portion of old koumiss will answer better. Cover the vessel with a thick cloth and set in a moderately warm place for twenty-four hours, at the end of which time the milk will have become sour, and a thick substance gathered at the top. Now, with a churn-staff, beat it till the thick substance above mentioned be blended intimately with the adjacent fluid. Leave it to rest twenty-four hours more; after which pour it into a higher and narrower vessel resembling a churn, where the agitation must be repeated as before. In this state it is called koumiss. The taste should be a pleasant mixture of sweet and sour. It should always be well shaken before used.

KOUMISS

Heat four cups milk; cool; when luke-warm, add one-fourth yeast cake dissolved in one-fourth cup luke-warm water, and two tablespoons sugar. Pour into bottles with patent stoppers, fill two-thirds full, cork tightly. Shake; let stand in kitchen six hours, then on ice for twenty-four hours; serve ice cold.

TO MAKE LEMON WINE

Take six large lemons, pare off the rind, and squeeze out the juice; steep the rind in the juice, and put to it one quart of brandy. Let it stand in an earthen pot close stopped three days, then squeeze six more, and mix with two quarts of water, and as much sugar as will sweeten the whole. Boil the water, lemons, and sugar together, letting it stand till it is cool; then add one quart of white wine, and the other lemon and brandy, and mix them together, and run it through a flannel bag into some vessel. Let it stand three months and bottle it off; cork your bottles very well, and keep it cool. It will be fit to drink in a month or six weeks.

LEMON WINE, NO. 2

Four pounds sugar, one pound raisins (bruised), two gallons water. Boil, then add one gallon cider. Ferment, and add one quart of spirits, three-quarters ounce white tartar, a few drops essence of lemon. Observe to shake the essence, with a little of the spirit, until it becomes milky, before adding it to the wine.

MADEIRA WINE

To five gallons prepared cider, add one-half ounce tartaric acid, one-half pint spirits, one-half pound loaf sugar. Let it stand ten days, draw it off carefully, fine it down, and again rack it into another cask.

MALT WINE, OR ENGLISH SHERRY

Take twelve pounds of good moist sugar, two gallons of water. Boil them together two hours, skimming carefully. When the scum is all removed, and the liquor looks clear, add one-half ounce of hops, which should boil one-quarter hour or twenty minutes. When the liquor is quite cold, add to it five quarts of strong beer in the height of working; cover up and let it work forty-eight hours; then skim and tun. If none remains for filling up, use new beer for that purpose. This method may be adopted with all boiled wines, and will be found to improve their strength and promote their keeping. In a fortnight or three weeks, when the head begins to sink, add two and one-half pounds raisins (free from stalks), one ounce of sugar candy, one ounce of bitter almonds, one-half cup of the best brandy; brown paper, as in former articles. It may be bottled in one year; but if left three years in the wood, and then bottled, it will be found equal in strength and flavor to foreign wine.

MEAD

The following is a good recipe for mead: On five pounds of honey pour five quarts of boiling water; boil, and remove the scum as it rises; add one-quarter ounce of best hops, and boil for ten minutes. Then pour the liquor into a tub to cool; when all but cold, add a little yeast spread upon a slice of toasted bread. Let it stand in a warm room. When fermentation is finished, bung it down, leaving a peg-hole which can afterwards be closed, and in less than a year it will be fit to bottle.

SMALL WHITE MEAD

Take three gallons of spring water, make it hot, and dissolve in it three quarts of honey, and one pound of loaf sugar. Let it boil about one-half hour, and skim it as long as any scum rises. Then pour it out into a tub, and squeeze in the juice of four lemons, put in the rinds but of two. Twenty cloves, two races of ginger, one top of sweet briar, and one top of rosemary. Let it stand in a tub till it is but blood-warm; then make a brown toast, and spread it with two or three spoonfuls of ale yeast. Put it into a vessel fit for it, let it stand four or five days, then bottle it out.

TO MAKE STRONG MEAD

Take of spring water what quantity you please, make it more than blood-warm, and dissolve honey in it until it is strong enough to bear an egg, the breadth of a shilling; then boil it gently, near an hour, taking off the scum as it rises. Then put to nine or ten gallons seven or eight large blades of mace, three nutmegs quartered, twenty cloves, three or four sticks of cinnamon, two or three roots of ginger, and one-quarter ounce of Jamaica pepper; put these spices into the kettle to the honey and water, a whole lemon, with a sprig of sweet briar, and a sprig of rosemary. Tie the briar and rosemary together, and when they have boiled a little while, take them out and throw them away; but let your liquor stand on the spice in a clear earthen pot till the next day. Then strain it into a vessel that is fit for it, put the spice in a bag, hang it in the vessel, stop it, and at three months draw it into bottles. Be sure that it is fine when it is bottled. After it is bottled six weeks it is fit to drink.

MEAD, METHEGLIN, OR HONEY WINE

Boil honey in water for an hour; the proportion is from three to four pounds to each gallon. Half an ounce of hops will both refine and preserve it, but is not commonly added. Skim carefully, draining the skimmings through a hair sieve, and return what runs through. When of a proper coolness, stir in yeast; one teacupful of solid yeast will serve for nine gallons. Tun it, and let it work over, filling it up till the fermentation subsides. Paste over brown paper and watch it. Rich mead will keep seven years, and afford a brisk, nourishing, and pleasant drink. Some people like to add the thinly shaved rind of a lemon to each gallon while boiling, and put the fruit, free from pith, into the tub. Others flavor it with spices and sweet herbs, and mix it with new beer or sweet wort; it is then called Welsh Braggart.

METHEGLIN

Mix one and one-half barrels of water with as much honey as will cause an egg to rise a little above the water; then boil the mixture to one barrel, skimming off the surface. It will be a fine red or wine color, and clear. Then remove from the fire, and when cold, put it into a barrel, leaving the bung-hole open for several days, until fermentation be over; then stop it close and put into a cold cellar.

MOLASSES BEER

One ounce hops, one gallon water. Boil for ten minutes, strain, add one pound molasses, and when luke-warm, add one spoonful yeast. Ferment.

MORELLO WINE

Take the juice of Morello or tame cherries, and to each quart of the juice, put three quarts of water, and four pounds of coarse brown sugar. Let them ferment, and skim until worked clear. Then draw off, avoiding the sediment at the bottom. Bung up or bottle, which is best for all wines, letting the bottles lie always on the side, either for wines or beers.

TO MAKE MORELLO CHERRY WINE

Let your cherries be very ripe, pick off the stalks, and bruise your fruit without breaking the stones. Put them in an open vessel together; let them stand twenty-four hours, then press them, and to every gallon put two pounds of fine sugar; then put it up in your cask, and when it has done working, stop it close. Let it stand three or four months and bottle it; it will be fit to drink in two months.

MOUNTAIN WINE

Pick out the big stalks of your Malaga raisins; then chop them very small, five pounds to every gallon of cold spring water. Let them steep a fortnight or more, squeeze out the liquor, and barrel it in a vessel fit for it. First fume the vessel with brimstone; don’t stop it up till the hissing is over.

MULBERRY WINE

On a dry day gather mulberries, when they are just changing from redness to a shining black; spread them thinly on a fine cloth, or on a floor or table for twenty-four hours, and then press them. Boil a gallon of water with each gallon of juice, putting to every gallon of water one ounce of cinnamon bark and six ounces of sugar candy finely powdered. Skim and strain the water when it is taken off and settled, and put in the mulberry juice. Now add to every gallon of the mixture one pint of white or Rhenish wine. Let the whole stand in a cask to ferment for five or six days. When settled drain it off into bottles and keep cool.

NOYAN

Take six ounces of peach kernels, and one ounce of bitter almonds. Break them slightly. Put them into a jug with three pints of white French brandy. Let them infuse three weeks, shaking the jug every day. Then drain the liquor from kernels, and strain it through a line bag. Melt three-quarters of a pound of best loaf sugar in one pint of rose-water; mix it with the liquor, and filter it through a sieve, the bottom of which is to be covered on the inside with blotting paper. Let the vessel which is placed underneath to receive the liquor be entirely white, that you may be better enabled to judge of its clearness. If it is not clear the first time, repeat the filtering. Then bottle for use.

TO MAKE ORANGE WINE

Put twelve pounds of fine sugar and the whites of eight eggs well beaten into six gallons of spring water; let it boil an hour, skimming it all the time. Take it off and when it is pretty cool, put in the juice and rind of fifty Seville oranges, and six spoonfuls of good ale yeast, and let it stand two days. Then put it into your vessel, with two quarts of Rhenish wine, and the juice of twelve lemons. You must let the juice of lemons and wine and two pounds of double refined sugar stand close covered ten or twelve hours before you put it in the vessel to your orange wine, and skim off the seeds before you put it in. The lemon peels must be put in with the oranges; half the rinds must be put into the vessel. It must stand ten or twelve days before it is fit to bottle.

ORANGE, OR LEMON WINE, BOILED

Take five gallons of water, fourteen pounds of loaf sugar, three eggs, the whites and shells, one ounce of hops. Boil together the sugar, water, and eggs; when it has boiled an hour, and become quite clear, add the hops and the thinly shaved rinds of six or eight of the fruit,—more or less, according as the bitter flavor is desired. Let it boil in all two hours; meanwhile remove all the peel and white pith of the fruit, and squeeze the juice. Pour a gallon or two of the hot liquor on the pulp; stir it well about, and when cool strain to the rest, and add the juice. Some people strain off the hops, rind, and eggs; others prefer their remaining. It is by no means important which mode is adopted. Work it with yeast, as the foregoing article, and refine with isinglass dissolved in a quart of brandy. This wine should be one year in wood and one in bottles, when it will be found excellent.

ORANGE OR LEMON WINE WITHOUT BOILING

Take one-half chest of Seville oranges; they are most juicy in March. Shave the rinds of one or two dozen (more or less, according as the bitter flavor is desired, or otherwise). Pour over this one or two quarts of boiling water; cover up, and let it stand twelve hours; then strain to the rest. Put into the cask fifty-six pounds of good Lisbon sugar. Clear off all the peel and white pith from the oranges, and squeeze through a hair sieve. Put the juice into the cask to the sugar. Wash the sieve and pulp with cold water, and let the pulp soak in the water twenty-four hours. Strain, and add to the last, continually stirring it; add more water to the pulp, let it soak, then strain and add. Continue to do so till the cask is full, often stirring it with a stick until all the sugar is dissolved. Then leave it to ferment. The fermentation will not be nearly so great as that of currant wine, but the hissing noise will be heard for some weeks; when this subsides, add honey and brandy, and paste over with brown paper. This wine should remain in the cask a year before bottling.

TO MAKE ORANGE WINE WITH RAISINS

Take seven and one-half pounds of new Malaga raisins, pick them clean, and chop them small. You must have five large Seville oranges; two of them you must pare as thin as for preserving. Boil about two gallons of soft water till a third part be consumed; let it cool a little. Then put five quarts of it hot upon your raisins and orange peel; stir it well together, cover it up, and when it is cold, let it stand five days, stirring it up once or twice a day. Then pass it through a hair sieve, and with a spoon press it as dry as you can, and put it in a runlet fit for it, and put to it the rinds of the other three oranges, cut as thin as the first; then make a syrup of the juice of five oranges with one-quarter pound of white sugar. It must be made the day before you tun it up; stir it well together, and stop it close. Let it stand two months to clear, then bottle it up; it will keep three years, and is better for keeping.

ORGEAT

Boil two quarts of milk with one stick of cinnamon, and let it stand to be quite cold, taking out the cinnamon. Blanch four ounces of the best sweet almonds, pound them well (in a marble mortar) with a little rose-water; mix them well with the milk; sweeten to your taste. Let it boil again for a few minutes; strain through a fine sieve till quite smooth and free from almonds. Serve either cold or warm in handled glasses.

TO MAKE PALERMO WINE

Take to every quart of water one pound of Malaga raisins, rub and cut the raisins small, and put them to the water, and let them stand ten days, stirring once or twice a day. You may boil the water an hour before you put it to the raisins, and let it stand to cool. At ten days’ end strain out your liquor, and put a little yeast to it; and at three days’ end put it in the vessel, with one sprig of dried wormwood. Let it be close stopped, and at three months’ end bottle it off.

TO MAKE PARSNIP WINE

To six pounds of parsnips, cut in slices, add two gallons of water; boil them till they become quite soft. Squeeze the water out of them, run it through a sieve, and add to every gallon three pounds of loaf sugar. Boil the whole three-quarters of an hour, and when it is nearly cold, add a little yeast. Let it stand ten days in a tub, stirring it every day from the bottom, then put it in a cask for twelve months; as it works over, fill it up every day.

PARSNIP WINE, NO. 2

Take one pound of parsnips cleaned and sliced. When the water boils, put in the parsnips, and boil till they are perfectly tender; drain through a sieve or colander without pressing. Immediately return it to the copper with fourteen pounds of loaf sugar; it will soon boil, being already hot, and what drips from the sieve may be added afterwards; one and one-half ounces of hops, and boil it two hours. Ferment with yeast; let it stand four days to work in a warm place; and tun and paste paper over. It is most likely it will work up and burst the paper, which must be renewed. It may be cleared with isinglass, but will not require any brandy.

PARSNIP WINE, NO. 3

Take seven and one-half pounds of sliced parsnips, and boil until quite soft in two and one-half gallons of water; squeeze the liquor well out of them, run it through a sieve, and add three pounds of coarse lump sugar to every gallon of liquor. Boil the whole for three-quarters of an hour. When it is nearly cold, add a little yeast on toast. Let it remain in a tub for ten days, stirring it from the bottom every day, then put it into a cask for a year. As it works over, fill it up every day.

TO MAKE PEACH WINE

Take three gallons cold soft water, four and one-quarter pounds refined sugar, one pound honey, one-third ounce white tartar in fine powder, ten or fourteen peaches. Ferment; then add six quarts of brandy. The first division is to be put into a vat, and the day after, before the peaches are put in, take the stones from them, break these and the kernels, then put them and the pulp into a vat and proceed with the general process.

PERRY OR PEAR CIDER

Make this according to directions for apple cider. Among the caricatures of the day (just after Perry’s victory on Lake Erie, 1813) was one representing John Bull, in the person of the King, seated, with his hand pressed upon his stomach, indicating pain, which the fresh juice of the pear, called perry, will produce. This caricature is entitled “Queen Charlotte and Johnny Bull got their dose of Perry.”

PINEAPPLE RUM

To three gallons rum, made by the fruit method, add two pineapples sliced, and one-half pound white sugar. Let it stand two weeks before drawing off.

PLUM WINE

Take five pounds of Malaga raisins, pick, rub, and shred them, and put them into a tub; then take one gallon of water, boil it an hour, and let it stand till it is blood-warm; then put it to your raisins. Let it stand nine or ten days, stirring it once or twice a day; strain out your liquor, and mix it with one pint of damson juice. Put it in a vessel, and when it has done working stop it close; at four or five months bottle it.

POP, OR GINGER BEER

The principal difference between ginger pop and ginger beer is that the former is bottled immediately, the other is first put in a barrel for a few days. It is also usual to boil the ingredients for ginger beer, which is not done for pop. Both are to be bottled in stone bottles, and the corks tied or wired down. If properly done the corks and strings will serve many times in succession; the moment the string is untied the cork will fly out uninjured. The bottles as soon as empty should be soaked a few hours in cold water, shaken about, and turned down, and scalded immediately before using. The corks also must be scalded. On one pound of coarse loaf or fine moist sugar, two ounces of cream of tartar, one ounce of bruised ginger, pour one gallon of boiling water; stir it well and cover up to cool, as the flavor of the ginger is apt to evaporate. It is a good way to do thus far the last thing at night; then it is just fit to set working the first thing in the morning. Two large tablespoonfuls of yeast, stir to it one teacupful of the liquor. Let it stand a few minutes in a warmish place, then pour it to the rest; stir it well and cover up for eight hours. Be particular as to time. If done earlier the bottles are apt to fly; if later, the beer soon becomes vapid. Skim, strain, bottle, cork, and tie down. The cork should not touch the beer. It will be fit for use next day. Lemon rind and juice may be added, but are not necessary.

PORTER

Eight quarters pale malt, six quarters amber malt, two quarters brown malt. Mash it twice, with fifty-five and forty-eight barrels of water, then boil with one hundredweight of Kent hops, and set with ten gallons yeast, seven pounds salt, two pounds flour. Twenty barrels of good table beer may be had from the grains. If deficient in color, add burnt malt.

PORTER, FOR BOTTLING

Five quarters pale malt, three quarters amber malt, two quarters brown malt, burnt malt to color if required. Mash with twenty-four, fourteen and eleven barrels of water, then boil with one hundredweight Kent hops, and set with seven gallons yeast, three pounds salt. Mash the grains for table beer.

PORT WINE

To ten gallons prepared cider, add one and one-half gallons good port wine, two and one-half quarts wild grapes (clusters), two ounces bruised rhatany root, three-quarters ounce tincture of kino, three-quarters pound loaf sugar, one-half gallon spirits. Let this stand ten days; color if too light, with tincture of rhatany, then rack it off and fine it. This should be repeated until the color is perfect and the liquid clear.

PORT WINE (BRITISH)

1. Two gallons damson juice, two gallons cider, three-quarters ounce sloe juice, one pound sugar, one pound honey. Ferment, then add one quart spirit, one gallon red cape, a little over one ounce of red tartar (dissolved), the same of powder of catechu, one-tenth ounce bruised ginger, one-tenth ounce cassia, a few cloves. Mix well with two tablespoonfuls of brandy coloring.

2. Two pounds bullace, ten pounds damsons, one and one-half gallons water. Boil the water, skim it, and pour it boiling hot on the fruit; let it stand four or six days at least. During that time bruise the fruit or squeeze it with your hands. Then draw or pour it off into a cask, and to every gallon of liquor, put two pounds and a half of fine sugar, or rather more; put some yeast on a slice of bread (warm) to work it. When done working, put a little brandy into the cask and fill it up. Bung it up close, and let it stand six or twelve months; then bottle it off. This wine is nearer in flavor to port than any other. If made with cold water, it will be equally as good, but of a different color.

3. Five gallons cider, one gallon elder juice, one gallon port wine, one and one-quarter pint brandy, one and one-fifth ounces red tartar, one-fifth ounce catechu, one gill finings, one ounce logwood. Mix well and bung close.

TO MAKE QUINCE WINE

Take your quinces when they are thoroughly ripe, wipe off the fur very clean; then take out the cores, bruise them as you do apples for cider, and press them, adding to every gallon of juice two and one-half pounds of fine sugar. Stir it together till it is dissolved; then put it into your cask, and when it has done working stop it close. Let it stand till _March_ before you bottle it. You may keep it two or three years; it will be the better.

QUINCE WINE, NO. 2

Twelve sliced quinces. Boil for quarter of an hour in one gallon water; then add two pounds lump sugar. Ferment, and add one gallon lemon wine, one pint spirit.

RAISIN WINE

There are various modes of preparing this wine, which is, perhaps, when well made, the best of English wines. The following recipes are considered good:

For raisin wine without sugar, put to every gallon of soft water eight pounds of fresh Smyrna or Malaga raisins; let them steep one month, stirring every day. Then drain the liquor and put it into the cask, filling it up as it works over; this it will do for two months. When the hissing has in a great measure subsided, add brandy and honey, and paper as in the former articles. This wine should remain three years untouched; it may then be drank from the cask, or bottled, and it will be found excellent. Raisin wine is sometimes made in large quantities, by merely putting the raisins in the cask, and filling it up with water, the proportion as above; carefully pick out all stalks. In six months rack the wine into fresh casks, and put to each the proportion of brandy and honey. In cider countries and plentiful apple years, a most excellent raisin wine is made by employing cider instead of water, and steeping in it the raisins.

RAISIN WINE, NO. 2

Five pounds of raisins, four gallons of water. Put them into a cask. Mash for a fortnight, frequently stirring, and leave the bung loose until the active fermentation ceases; then add one and one-half pints brandy. Well mix, and let it stand till fine. The quantity of raisins and brandy may be altered to suit.

RAISIN WINE, NO. 3

Take two gallons of spring water, and let it boil half an hour; then put into a stein pot two pounds of raisins stoned, two pounds of sugar, the rind of two lemons, and the juice of four lemons; then pour the boiling water on the things in the stein, and let it stand covered four or five days. Strain it out and bottle it up; in fifteen or sixteen days it will be fit to drink. It is a very pleasant drink in hot weather.

RAISIN WINE WITH SUGAR

To every gallon of soft water four pounds of fresh raisins; put them in a large tub; stir frequently, and keep it covered with a sack or blanket. In about a fortnight the fermentation will begin to subside; this may be known by the raisins remaining still. Then press the fruit and strain the liquor. Have ready a wine cask, perfectly dry and warm, allowing for each gallon one or one and one-half pounds of Lisbon sugar; put this into a cask with the strained liquor. When half full, stir well the sugar and liquor, and put in one-half pint of thick yeast; then fill up with the liquor, and continue to do so while the fermentation lasts, which will be a month or more.

RAISIN WINE IN IMITATION OF FRONTIGNAC

For every gallon of wine required allow two pounds of raisins; boil them one hour in water. Strain the boiling liquor on loaf sugar, two pounds for every gallon; stir it well together. When cool put it in the cask with a moderate quantity of yeast (as last article). When the fermentation subsides, suspend in the cask a muslin bag containing elder-flowers, in the proportion of one quart to three gallons of wine. When perfectly clear, draw off the wine into bottles.

TO MAKE RASPBERRY WINE

Take your quantity of raspberries and bruise them, put them in an open pot twenty-four hours; then squeeze out the juice, and to every gallon of the juice put three pounds of fine sugar, two quarts of canary. Put it into a stein or vessel, and when it has done working stop it close; when it is fine, bottle it. It must stand two months before you drink it.

RASPBERRY WINE, NO. 2

Take three pounds of raisins, wash, clean, and stone them thoroughly. Boil two gallons of spring water for half an hour; as soon as it is taken off the fire pour it into a deep stone jar, and put in the raisins, with six quarts of raspberries and two pounds of loaf sugar. Stir it well together, and cover them closely and set it in a cool place; stir it twice a day, then pass it through a sieve. Put the liquor into a close vessel, adding one pound more of loaf sugar; let it stand for a day and a night to settle, after which bottle it, adding a little more sugar.

RASPBERRY WINE, NO. 3

Pound your fruit and strain it through a cloth; then boil as much water as juice of raspberries, and when it is cold put it to your squeezings. Let it stand together five hours, then strain it and mix it with the juice, adding to every gallon of this liquor two and one-half pounds of fine sugar. Let it stand in an earthen vessel close covered a week, then put it in a vessel fit for it, and let it stand a month, or till it is fine; bottle it off.

RASPBERRY WINE, NO. 4

Take two gallons of raspberries, and put them in an earthen pot; then take two gallons of water, boil it two hours, let it stand till it is blood-warm, put it to the raspberries, and stir them well together; let it stand twelve hours. Then strain it off, and to every gallon of liquor put three pounds of loaf sugar. Set it over a clear fire, and let it boil till all the scum is taken off. When it is cold, put it into bottles and open the corks every day for a fortnight, and then stop them close.

RASPBERRY VINEGAR

This may be made either by boiling down the juice with an equal weight of sugar, the same as for jelly, and then mixing it with an equal quantity of distilled vinegar, to be bottled with a glass of brandy in each bottle; or, in a china bowl or stone jar (free from metallic glaze) steep a quart of fresh-gathered raspberries in two quarts of the best white wine vinegar. Next day strain the liquor on an equal quantity of fresh fruit, and the next day do the same. After the third steeping of fruit, dip a jelly-bag in plain vinegar, to prevent waste, and strain the flavored vinegar through it into a stone jar. Allow to each pint of vinegar one pound of loaf sugar powdered. Stir in the sugar with a silver spoon, and, when dissolved, cover up the jar and set it in a kettle of water. Keep it at boiling heat one hour; remove the scum. When cold, add to each pint a glass of brandy, and bottle it. This is a pleasant and useful drink in hot weather, or in sickness; one pint of the vinegar to eight of cold water.

RHUBARB WINE

To each gallon of juice add one gallon of soft water, in which seven pounds of brown sugar have been dissolved. Fill a keg or a barrel with this proportion, leaving the bung out, and keep it filled with sweetened water as it works over until clear; then bung down or bottle as you desire. These stalks will furnish about three-fourths their weight in juice, or from sixteen hundred to two thousand gallons of wine to each acre of well cultivated plants. Fill the barrels and let them stand until spring, and bottle, as any wine will be better in glass or stone.

RHUBARB WINE, NO. 2

Cut in bits and crush five pounds of rhubarb; add the thin yellow rind of a lemon, and one gallon of water, and let stand covered two days. Strain off the liquid and add four pounds of sugar. Put this into a small cask with the bung-hole covered with muslin, and let it work two or three days.

ROOT BEER

Take one and one-half gallons of molasses, add five gallons of water at 60° Fahr. Let this stand two hours; then pour into a barrel, and add one-quarter pound powdered or bruised sassafras bark, one-quarter pound powdered or bruised Wintergreen bark, one-quarter pound bruised sarsaparilla root, one-half pint yeast, water enough to fill the small barrel. Ferment for twelve hours and bottle.

ROSE WINE