Part 4
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