The Complete Confectioner (1800)/English Wines
When the vines are well grown, so as to bring full clusters, be careful to disencumber them of some part of their leaves that too much shade the grapes, but not so much in a hot season, as that the sun may too swiftly draw away their moisture, and wither them: stay not till they are all ripe at once, for then some will be over-ripe, or burst, or incline to rot before the underlings are come to perfection; but every two or three days pick off the choice and ripest grapes, and spread them in dry shady places sideways, that they contract not a heat and must; by which means, those that remain on the clusters, having more juice to nourish them, will grow bigger, or be sooner ripe; and when you have got a sufficient quantity, put them into an open vessel, and bruise them well with your hands; or if the quantity be too large, gently press them with a flat wooden beater, that is, a thick board fastened at the end of a staff; for treading them with the feet, as practiced in France, and other countries, is a very slovenly way. Take care you break the stones as little as possible, for that will make the wine have a bitterish twang.
Having bruised the grapes well, so that they are become pulp, or mash, provide a tap at the bottom of your cask, tie a hair-cloth over your fosset, and let out that which will run voluntarily of itself, as the best wine; then take out the pulp, and gently press it by degrees in a cyder-press, till the liquor is sufficiently drained out; provide a new cask, well seasoned, and aired with a lighted rag dipped in brimstone, till it becomes dry, pour the liquor in through a sieve funnel to stop the dregs, and let it stand with only a pebble stone lightly laid on the bung-hole to ferment, and refine itself, ten or twelve days; then draw it gently off into another cask, well seasoned, that the lees or dregs may remain in the first cask, and stop it no other way then before till it has quite passed over its ferment, which you may know by it coolness and pleasant taste, and thus of ordinary white grapes you may make a good sort of white wine; of the red grapes claret; and if it should want colour, heighten it with a little brazil, boiled in about a quart of it, and strained very clear. The white grapes not too ripe give a good rhenish taste,and are wonderfully cooling.
There is a sort of muscadel grapes, growing in many parts of England, which may be brought, by he help of a little loaf sugar to feed on, to produce a curious sweet wine, little differing from Canary, and altogether as wholesome and pleasant.
If the wine requires racking, the best time to do it is when the wind is in the north, and the weather temperate and clear; in the increase of the moon, and when she is underneath the earth, and not in her full height.
If the wine ropes, take a coarse linen cloth, and when you have set the cask a broach, set it before the bore, then put in the linen, and rack it in a dry cask; put in five or six ounces of alum in powder, and shake them so that they may mix well. On settling, it will be fined down, and become very clear and pleasant wine.
Take gooseberries just beginning to turn ripe, not those that are quite ripe; bruise them as well as you did the grapes, but not so as to break their stones, then pour to every eight pounds of pulp a gallon of clear spring water, or rather their own distilled water, made in a cold still, and let them stand in the vessel covered, in a cool place, twenty-four hours; then put them into a strong canvas or hair bag, and press out all the juice that will run from them, and to every quart of it put twelve ounces of loaf or other fine sugar, stirring it till it be thoroughly melted; then put it into a well seasoned cask, and set it in a cool place; when it has purged and settled about twenty or thirty days, fill the vessel full, and bung it down close, that as little air as possible may come at it. When it is well wrought and settled, then is your time to draw it off into smaller casks or bottles, keeping them in cool places, for there is nothing damages any sort of wines more than heat.
When the weather is dry, gather your gooseberries about the time they are half ripe; pick them clean, and put the quantity of a peck in a convenient vessel, and bruise them with a piece of wood, taking as much care as possible to keep the seeds whole; when you have done this, put the pulp into a canvas of hair bag, and press out all the juice; add to every gallon of gooseberries and about three pounds of fine loaf sugar; mix it all together by stirring it with a stick, and as soon as the sugar is quite dissolved, pour it into a convenient cask, that will hold it exactly; and according to the quantity let it stand, viz if about eight or nine gallons, it will take a fortnight; if twenty gallons, forty days, and so in proportion; taking care the place you set it in be cool: after standing the proper time, draw it off from the lees, and put it into another sweet, vessel of equal size, or into the same, after pouring the lees out, making it clean; let a cask of ten or twelve gallons stand about three months, and twenty gallons five months; after which will be fit for bottling off.
It is a cooling drink taken with great success in all hot disease, as fevers, small-pox, and the hot fit of the ague; it stops laxation, is good in the bloody-flux, cools the heat of the liver and stomach, stops bleeding, and mitigates inflammations; it wonderfully, abates flushings and redness of the face, after hard drinking or the like; provokes urine, and is good against the stone; but those that are of a very phlegmatic constitution should not make use of it.
Take four gallons of cooling spring or conduit water, let it gently simmer over a moderate fire, scum it well, and stir into it eight pounds of the best virgin-honey; when that is thoroughly dissolved, take off the water, and stir it well about to raise the scum; which take clean off, and cool. When it is thus prepared, press out the like quantity of juice of red currants moderately ripe, without any green ones among them; which being well strained, mix it well with the water and honey, put them in a cask, or large earthen vessel, and let them stand upon the ferment twenty-four hours; to every gallon add two pounds of loaf or other fine sugar, stir them well to raise the scum, and when well settled, take it off, and add half an ounce of cream of tartar, with a little fine flour, and the whites of two or three eggs, which will refine it; when it is well settled and clear, draw it off into a small vessel, or bottle it up, keeping it in a cool place.
Of white currants, a wine may be made after the same manner, that will equal in strength and pleasantness many sorts of white wine.
After gathering the currants, which must be done when the weather is dry, and take are full ripe, strip them carefully from the stalk, so as not to bruise them with your fingers; put them into a pan, and bruise them with a wooden pestle; then let it stand about twenty hours, (according to the quantity) after which strain it through a sieve; add three pounds of fine powder sugar to every four quarts of the liquor, and then shaking or stirring it well, fill your vessel, and put about a quart of good brandy to every six or seven gallons; as soon as it is fine, which will be in four or five weeks, bottle it off: if it should not prove quite clear, draw it off into another vessel, and let it stand about ten days, and then bottle it off.
These wines allay the burning eagerness of thirst, are cooling in fevers, resist putrefaction, stay vomiting, corroborate the heart, and fortify the stomach. Currant wine is drank with success by those that have the fits of the mother; it diverts epilepsy, and is very useful in many complaints incident to the female sex.
To two hundred weight of raisins put about forty-four gallons of water, wine measure; stir it up well three or four times a day; let it stand about three weeks, then take it off the raisins, and tun it up; when you put it into the cask, add about two quarts of brandy to it, which will keep it from fretting; let it stand about ten or twelve months, then draw it off from the lees, rince your cask, and put it in again; then fine it down with three ounces of isinglass and a quarter of a pound of sugar-candy, dissolved in some of the wine. There are many ways used to retrieve this wine, if it should chance to sour, which seldom happens if properly made; in this case the most successful method is to replenish it with a farther addition of raisins.
Put two hundred weight of raisins, with the stalks, into a hogshead, and fill it almost with spring water; let it steep about twelve days, frequently stirring them about, and after pouring the juice off, dress the raisins: the liquor should then be put together in a very clean vessel that will exactly contain it; it will hiss or sing for some time, during which it should not be stirred; but when the noise ceases, it must be stopped close, and stand for about six or seven months; and then, if you peg it, and it proves fine and clear, rack it off into another vessel of the same size; stop it up, and let it remain twelve or fourteen weeks longer, then bottle it off. The best way, when you use it, is to take a decanter, and rack it off.
The virtues of raising wine are too well known to require a particular description. There are few constitutions but what it will agree with; it strengthens and comforts the heart, revives the faded spirits, and conduces greatly to health, if used with moderation.
Take what quantity you please of red raspberries, when they are nearly ripe, for if they grow over ripe; they will lose much of their pleasant scent; and after clearing the husks and stalks from them, soak them in the like quantity of fair water, that has been boiled and sweetened with fine loaf sugar, a pound and an half to a gallon; when they are well soaked about twelve hours, take them out, put them into a fine linen pressing bag, press out the juice into the water, then boil them up together, over a gentle fire, and scum them well twice or thrice; take off the vessel, and let the liquor cool, and when the scum arises take off that you can, and pour off the liquor into a well-seasoned cask, or earthen vessel; then boil an ounce of mace quite down if possible, in a pint of white wine, till a third part of the wine be consumed: strain it, and add it to the liquor; let it settle two days, and when it has well settled and fermented, draw it off into a cask, or bottles, and keep it in a cool place.
Steep two gallons of raspberries in a gallon of sack, twenty-four hours; then strain them, and put to them three quarters of a pound of raisins of the sun, well stoned, and let them continue four or five days, sometimes stirring them well; then pour it off gently, that the clearest may be taken away, and only the dregs and settlings remain, and bottle that up your pour off. If you find it not sweet enough for the palate you may add some sugar, about half a pound to a gallon will be sufficient; keep it in a cool place.
Gather the raspberries quite dry, when ripe, and bruise them; strain them through a woollen bag into a jar; put to it about a pound of the best double refined sugar, mix the whole well together, and stop it close; pour it off as clear as possible, after it has stood four days. The common method is to put two quarts of white wine to one quart of the raspberry juice; but that is too much, as it overpowers the rich flavour of the fruit; three pints will be enough; bottle it off, and it will be fit to drink in ten days. The juice mixed with brandy is a fine dram. Put about two quarts of brandy to three quarts of raspberry juice, and it will drink well in ten days.
Your raspberries must be dry, full ripe, and used just after they are gathered, in order to preserve their flavour; to every quart of fruit put three pounds of fine powder sugar, and a little better than a gallon of clear water; stir it five or six times a day, to mix the whole well together, and let it ferment for three or four days; put it in two whole eggs, taking care they are not broke in putting it; it must stand at least three months before you bottle it. Your water should be of a good flavour, for in the choice of that principally depends the making of good or bad taste wines.
These wines, either way, are a great cordial; they cleanse the blood, prevent pestilential air, comfort the heart, ease pains in the stomach, dispel gross vapours from the brain, cause a free breathing, by removing obstructions from the lungs, and are successfully taken in apoplexies.
Take mulberries, when they are just changed from their redness to shining black, gather them on a dry day, when the sun has taken off the dew, spread them thinly on a fine cloth on a floor or a table for twenty-four hours, and boil up a gallon of water to each gallon of juice you can get out of them; scum the water well, and add a little cinnamon slightly bruised; put to every gallon six ounces of white sugar-candy finely beaten; scum and strain the water when it is taken off and settled, and put to it the juice of mulberries, and to every gallon the mixture of a pint of white or rhenish wine; let them stand in a cask to purge or settle five or six days, then draw off the wine, and keep it cool.
This is a very rich cordial; it gives vigour to consumptive bodies, allays the heat of the blood prevents qualms and sickness in women, makes the body soluble, helps digestion, and eases distempers in the bowels.
Take two gallons of white wine, and twenty pounds of morella cherries; take away the stalks, and so bruise them that the stones may be broken; then press the juice into the wine; put mace, cinnamon, and nutmeg, each an ounce, well bruised, in a bag, hang it in the wine when you have put it up in a cask, and it will be a rich drink.
Take elder-berries, when pretty ripe, plucked from the green stalks, what quantity you please, and press them that the juice may freely run from them, which may be done in a cyder-press, or between two weighty planks, or for want of this opportunity, you may mash them,and then it will run easily; put the juice in a well-seasoned cask, and to every barrel put three gallons of water strong of honey boiled in it, and add some ale yeast to make it ferment, and work out the grossness of its body; then to clarify it, add flour, whites of eggs, and a little fixed nitre; when it has well fermented and grows fine, draw it from the settlings, and keep it till spring; then to every barrel add five pounds of its own flowers, and as much loaf sugar, and let it stand seven days; at the end of which it will grow very rich, and have a good flavor.
When the elder-berries are ripe, pick them, and put them in a stone jar; then set them in boiling water, or rather in an oven not over hot, till the jar is as warm as you can well bear to touch it with your hand; take the berries and strain them through a sieve or coarse cloth, squeezing them hard, and pour the liquor into a kettle; put it on the fire; let it boil, and put in as many pounds of Lisbon sugar as there are quarts of juice, and scum it often; then let it settle, pour it off into a jar, and cover it close. Many people mix it with raisin wine, by putting half a pint of the elder syrup to every gallon of wine; it gives the raisin wine an exquisite fine flavour, equal to any foreign wine whatsoever.
It is an excellent febrifuge, cleanses the blood of acidity, venom and putrefaction; it is good in measles, small-pox, swine-pox, and pestilential diseases; it contributes to rest, and takes away the heat that afflicts the brain.
To six gallons of spring water put six pounds of raisins of the sun cut small, and twelve pounds of fine powder sugar; boil the whole together about an hour and an half; then take elder-flowers, when pretty ripe, about half a peck; when the liquor is cold, put in the flowers, about a gill of lemon juice, and half the quantity of ale yeast; cover it up, and after standing three days, strain it off, pour it into a cask that is quite sweet, and that will hold it with ease; when this is done, put about a wine quart of rhenish to every gallon of wine, and let the bung be lightly put in for twelve or fourteen days; then stop it down fast, and put it in a cool dry place for four or five months, till it is quite settled and fine, and bottle it off.
Take of the berries, in their proper season and moderately ripe, what quantity you please; press them as other berries; then boil up water and honey, or water and fine sugar, agreeable to your palate, to a considerable sweetness; when it is well scummed, put the juice in and let it simmer to incorporate it well with the water; then take it off, let it cool, scum it again, and put it up in a barrel, or rather a close glazed vessel, to ferment and settle: to every gallon put half a pint of Malaga, draw it off as clear as possible, bottle it up, and keep it cool for use.
These liquors are good in fevers, afflictions of the lungs, prevent the infection of pestilential airs, beget a good appetite, and help digestion; are excellent in surfeits, and purify the blood.
Apples must be made first into good cyder, by beating and pressing, and other methods, as directed in treating of those sort of liquors; and to good cyder, when you have procured it, put the herb scurlea, the quintessence of wine, a little fixed nitre, and a pound of the syrup of honey, to a barrel of this cyder; let it work and ferment at spurge holes in the cask ten days, or till you find it clear and well settled; then draw it off, and it will be little inferior to rhenish in clearness, colour, and taste.
To make wine of pears, procure the tartest perry, but by no means that which is tart by sowering, or given that way, but such as is naturally so; put into a barrel about five ounces of the juice of the herb clary, and the quintessence of wine, and to every barrel a pound or pint of the syrup of blackberries; and, after fermentation and refining, it will be of a curious wine taste, like sherry, and not easily distinguishable, but by such as have a very fine taste, or who deal in it.
These wines have the nature of cyder and perry, though in a higher degree, by the addition and alteration; being cooling, restorative, easing pains in the liver, or spleen, cleansing the bowels, and creating a good appetite.
Take two pounds of brown sugar and one pound of honey to every gallon of water; boil them half an hour, skim it and put in the tub to every gallon a handful of leaves, pour the liquor on, and let it stand all night; then take out the leaves, and put in half a pint of yeast, and let it work fourteen days, which will take off the sweetness; then stop it up in a cask, and let it stand about seven months.
It is an excellent occasional drink for consumptive persons.
Take cherries, just beginning to be ripe, of the red sort, clear them of the stalks and stones, put them into an earthen glazed pan, and with your clean hands squeeze them to a pulp, or with a wooden ladle or presser, and let them continue twelve hours to ferment; then put them into a linen cloth, not too fine, and press out the juice with a pressing board, or any other convenience; let the liquor stand till the scum arise, and with your ladle take it clean off; then pour out the clearer part, by inclination, into a cask, where to each gallon put a pound of the best loaf sugar, and let it ferment and purge seven or eight days; when you find it clear, draw it off into lesser casks, or bottles; keep it cool, as other wines, and in ten or twelve days it will be ripe.
This drinks very pleasant and cool in hot weather; chears the heart, and much enlivens nature in its decay; it is also good against violent pains in the head, and swooning fits.
Take peaches, nectarines, &c. when they are full of juice, pare them, and take the stones out, then slice them thin, and put about a gallon to two gallons of water, and a quart of white wine; put them over a fire to simmer gently for a considerable time, till the sliced fruit become soft; then pour off the liquid part to other peaches that have been so treated and bruised, but not heated; let them stand twelve hours; stirring them sometimes, and then pour out the liquid part, press what remains through a fine hair bag, and put them together into a cask to ferment; then add a pound and an half of loaf sugar to each gallon; boil well an ounce of cloves in a quart of white wine, and add to it, which will give it a curious flavour.
Wine of apricots may be made with only bruising, and pouring the hot liquor on, not requiring so much sweetening, by reason they are of a more dulcid or luscious quality; to give it a singular flavour, boil an ounce of mace, and half an ounce of nutmeg, in a quart of white wine; and when the wine is on the ferment, pour the liquid part in hot, and hang a bunch of fresh burrage, well-flowered, into the cask, by a string at the bung, for three days; draw it off, and keep it in bottles, which are most proper to preserve these sort of wines.
They are moderately warming and restorative, very good in consumptions, to create an appetite, and recover decayed and wasting bodies; they loosen the hardness of the belly, and give ease to pains of the stomach.
Gather the quinces when pretty ripe, on a dry day, rub off the down with a clean linen cloth, and lay them in hay or straw for ten days to sweat; cut them in quarters, take out the core, bruise them well in a mashing-tub with a wooden beetle, and squeeze out the liquid part, by pressing them in a hair bag gradually in a cyder press; strain this liquor through a fine sieve, warm it gently over a fire, and scum it, but do not let it boil; sprinkle into it loaf sugar reduced to powder, then a gallon of water, and a quart of white wine, and boil a dozen or fourteen large quinces thinly sliced; add two pounds of fine sugar; then strain out the liquid part, and mingle it with the natural juice of the quinces, put it into a cask not to fill it, and shake them well together; let it stand to settle; put in juice of clary half a pint to five or six gallons, and mix it with a little flour and white of eggs; then draw it off, and if it be not sweet enough, add more sugar, and a quart of a pound of stoned raisins of the sun, and a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon, in a quart of the liquor, to the consumption of a third part, and straining the liquor, put it into the cask when the wine is upon the ferment.
This wine is a good pectoral, cooling and refreshing the vital parts; it is good, moderately taken, in all hot diseases; allays the flushing of the face, and St. Anthony's fire; take away inflammations, and is very beneficial in breakings out, blotches, biles, or sores.
This being a liquor but little known, we shall be as particular as possible in the directions for it. The season for getting the liquor from birch trees, sometimes happens the latter end of February or beginning of March, before the leaves shoot out, as the sap begins to rise; and this is according to the mildness or rigour of the weather; and if the time is delayed, the juice will grow too thick to be drawn out, which should be as thin and clear as possible. The method of procuring the juice is by boring holes in the trunk of the tree, and fixing fossets made of elder; but care should be taken not to tap it in too many places at once, for fear of hurting the tree. If the tree is large, it may be bored in five or six places at once, and place bottles to let it drop in. When you have extracted a proper quantity, three, four, or five gallons from different trees, cork the bottles very close, and rosin or wax them till you begin to make your wine, which should be as soon as possible after you have got the juice. As soon as you begin, boil the sap as long as you can take off any scum; and put four pounds of fine loaf sugar to every gallon of the juice, and the peel of a lemon cut thin; then boil it again for near an hour, scumming it all the while, and pour it into a tub; when it is almost cold, work it with a toast spread with yeast, and let it stand five or six days, stirring it twice or three times a day; then take a cask that will contain it, and put a lighted match dipped well in brimstone into the cask; stop it till the match is burnt out, and then tun your wine into it, putting the bung lightly in till it has done working; bung it very close for about three months, and bottle it off for use; it will be ready in a week after it is put in the bottles.
It is a very wholesome, pleasant, and rich cordial, and very serviceable in curing consumptions, and particularly useful in scorbutic disorders.
Take what plumbs you please, mix those of a sweet taste with an allay of those that are somewhat sour, though the must be all inclining to ripeness; slit them in halves, so that the stones may be taken out, then mash them gently, and add a little water and honey; the better to moisten them, boil to every gallon of your pulp a gallon of spring water, and put in a few bay leaves and cloves; add as much sugar as will sweeten it, scum off the froth, and let it cool, then press the fruit, squeezing out the liquid part; strain all through a fine strainer, and put the water and juice all together into a cask; let it stand and ferment it three or four days, fine it with white sugar, flour, and whites of eggs, draw it off into bottles, and cork it up, that the air may not injure it; in twelve days it will be ripe, and taste like sherry, or rather a nearer flavour of Canary.
Damsons may be ordered as other plumbs, though they produce a tarter wine, more clear and lasting; but do not put so much water to them as to luscious plumbs, unless you mix some sweet wine with it, as Malaga, Canary, or the like; or infuse raisins of the sun in it, which will give it a rich mellow taste.
These, as other wines made of English fruit, are moderately cooling, purify the blood, and cleanse the reins; cause a freeness of urine, and contribute much to soft slumbers, and a quiet rest, by sending up gentle refreshing spirits to the brain, which dispel heat and noxious vapours, and put that noble part in a right temperature.
Take the large blue figs, pretty ripe, steep them in a 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 fair water till they are reduced to a kind of pulp, strain out the water, pressing the pulp hard, and pour it as hot as possible to those figs that are infused in the wine; let the quantity be near equal, the water somewhat more than the wine and figs; having infused twenty-four, mash them well together, and draw off all that will run voluntarily, then press the rest, and if it proves not pretty sweet, add loaf sugar to render it so; let it ferment, and add a little honey and sugar-candy to it, then fine it with whites of eggs and a little isinglass, draw it off, and keep it for use.
It is clearly appropriated to defects of the lungs, helping shortness of breath, removing colds or inflammations of the lungs; it also comforts the stomach, and eases the pains of the bowels.
Get a glass bason or body, or for want of it, a well-glazed earthen vessel, and put into it three gallons of rose water, drawn with a cold still; put into it a convenient quantity of rose leaves; cover it close, and put it for an hour in a kettle or cauldron of water, heating it over the fire to take out the whole strength and tincture of the roses, and when cold, press the rose leaves hard into the liquor, and steep fresh ones in, repeating it till the liquor has got a full strength of roses; then to every gallon of liquor add three pounds of loaf sugar; stir it well, that it may melt and disperse in every part, then put it into a cask, or other convenient vessel, to ferment; and to make it do so the better, add a little fixed nitre and flour, with two or three whites of eggs; let it stand to cool about thirty days, and it will be ripe, and have a curious flavour, having the whole strength and scent of the roses in it; and you may add, to meliorate it, some wine and spices, as your taste or inclination leads you.
By this way of infusion, wine of carnations, clove-gillyflowers, violets, primroses, or any flower having a curious scent, may be made; to which, to prevent repetition, you are referred.
Wines thus made, are not only pleasant in taste, but rich and medicinal, being excellent for strengthening the heart refreshing the spirits, and gently cooling the body, making it lenitive, and so purges the first digestion of phlegm, and even choler; it abates the heat of the fever, quenches thirst, mitigates the inflammation of the intrails, and on many occasions, serves for a good counter poison.
Put five pounds of loaf sugar to four gallons of fair water, simmer them over a fire half an hour, to well dissolve the sugar, and when it is taken off, and cold, put in half a peck of cowslip flowers, clean picked and gently bruised; then put in two spoonfuls of new ale yeast, and a pound of syrup of lemons beaten with it, with a lemon peel or two; pour the whole into a well-seasoned cask or vessel, let them stand close stopped for three days, that they may ferment well; then put in some juice of cowslips, and give it a convenient space to work; when it has stood a month, draw it off into bottles, putting a little lump of loaf sugar into each, by which means you may keep it well the space of a year. In like manner you may make wine of such other flowers as are of a pleasant taste and seent, as oxlips, jessamine, peach blooms, comfry, scabeons, feather-few, fumitory, and many more, as your fancy and taste may lead you.
This wine, moderately drank, much helps the palsy, cramp, convulsions, and all other diseases of the nerves and sinews; also eases pains of the joints, and gout, and greatly contributes to the curing of ruptures.
Take the best large scurvy-grass tops and leaves, in May, June, or July, bruise them well in a stone mortar, put them in a well-glazed earthen vessel and sprinkle them over with some powder of chrystal of tartar, then smear them over with virgin honey, and being covered close, let it stand twenty-four hours; then set water over a gentle fire, putting to every gallon three pints of honey, and when the scum rises take it off, and let it cool; put your bruised scurvy-grass into a barrel, and pour the liquor to it, setting the vessel conveniently end-ways, with a tap at the bottom, and when it has been infused twenty-four hours, draw off the liquor, and strongly press the juice and moisture out of the herb into the barrel or vessel, and put the liquor up again; then put a little new ale yeast to it, and let it ferment three days, covering the place of the bung or vent with a piece of bread spread over with mustard-seed, downward, in a cool place, and let it continue till it is fine, and drinks brisk, then draw off the finest part, leaving only the dregs behind; add more herb, and ferment it with whites of eggs, flour, and fixed nitre verjuice, or the juice of green grapes, if they are to be had; to which add six pounds of the syrup of mustard, all mixed and well beaten together, to refine it down, and it will drink brisk, but not very pleasant.
It helps digestion, warns cold stomachs, caries off phlegm, purifies the blood, purges out salt, watery humours, cleanses the bowels from cold sliminess, eases pains in the limbs, head, heart, and stomach, especially those proceeding from scorbutic humours, &c.
Distill the herb in the cold still, add honey to it, work as in scurvy-grass; then refine it, and work it down by a due porportion of its own syrup; by this means the wine will become very fragrant, and contain the whole virtue of the herb. Wormwood wine, wine of rue, carduus, and such strong physical herbs, may be made by infusion only, in small white wines, cyder, perry, or the like, adding a little sweets to them, that they may be more agreeable to the taste. That of black currants may be made as of other currants, and is very useful in all families.
Wines made of mint, balm, wormwood, rue, &c. resist pestilential air, are good in agues, and cold diseases, prevent fits of the mother, and agues; ease pains in the joints and sinews, cleanse the blood, and frequently prevent apoplexies, epilepsies, and the like; they are not only contain the virtues of the herbs, but greatly strengthen and revive the decay of nature.
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, scumming it all the time; take it off, and when it is pretty cool, put in the juice of fifty Seville oranges, and six spoonfuls of good ale yeast, and let it stand two days; then put it in another 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 into the vessel to your orange wine, and scum off the seeds before you put in. The lemon peels must be put in with the oranges; half the rinds must be put into the vessel; and it must stand ten or twelve days before it is fit to bottle.
Boil twenty-six quarts of spring water a quarter of an hour, and when it is blood-warm; put into it twenty-five pounds of Malaga raisins, picked, rubbed and shred, with near half a bushel of red sage shred, and a porringer of ale yeast; stir all well together, and let it stand in a tub, covered warm, six or seven days, stirring it once a day; then strain it off, and put it in a runlet; let it work three or four days, and then stop it up; when it has stood six or seven days, put in a quart or two of Malaga sack; and when it is fine, bottle it.
Take two gallons of the sap of sycamore, and boil it half an hour, then add to it four pounds, of fine powder sugar; beat the whites of three eggs to a froth, and mix them with the liquor, but if it be too hot it will poach the eggs; scum it well, and boil it half an hour, then strain it through a hair sieve, and let it stand till next day; then pour it clear from the sediment, put half a pint of good yeast to every twelve gallons, cover it close up with blankets till it is white over, after which put it into the barrel, and leave the bung hole open till it has done working, close it well up, let it stand three months, and bottle it: the fifth part of the sugar must be loaf, and if you like raisins, they are a great addition to the wine.
Take a good number of turnips, pare them, put them into a cyder press, and squeeze out all the juice; to every gallon of juice take three pounds of lump sugar; have a vessel ready, just big enough to hold the juice, and put your sugar into a vessel; to every gallon of juice add half a pint of brandy; pour in the juice, and lay something over the bung for a week to see if it works; if it does you must not bring it down till it has done working, then stop it close for three months, and draw it off into another vessel; when it is fine, bottle it off.
To nine gallons of water, put nine quarts of the juice of white elder-berries, which has been pressed gently from the berries with the hand, and passed through a sieve, without bruising the kernels of the berries; add to every gallon of liquor three pounds of Lisbon sugar, to the whole quantity put an ounce and an half of ginger sliced, and three quarters of an ounce of cloves; then boil this near an hour, taking off the scum as it rises, and pour the whole to cool in an open tub, and work it with ale yeast, spread upon a toast of white bread for three days, and then tun it into a vessel that will just hold it, adding about a pound and an half of raisins of the sun split, to lie in liquor till you draw it off, which should not be till the wine is fine, which you will find in January. It is so much like the fine rich wine brought from Cyprus, in its colour and flavours, that it has deceived the best judges.
To three gallons of water put six pounds of the best powder sugar, boil the sugar and water together for the space of half an hour, keep scumming it as the scum rises; let it stand to cool, beat up three ounces of syrup of betony, with a large spoonful of ale yeast, put it into the liquor, let them infuse and work together three days, covered with a cloth; strain it, put it into a cask, and let it settle for three or four weeks, when bottle it.
Take fine Malaga raisins, pick all the stalks out, chop them very small, and put ten pounds of them to every two gallons of spring water; let them steep three weeks, stirring them often; them squeeze out the liquor, and put it into a vessel that will just hold it, but do not stop it till it has done hissing; then bung it up close, and it will be fit for use in six months.
Take thirty pounds of new Malaga raisins, pick them clean, and chop them small; then take twenty large Seville oranges, ten of which pare as thin as for preserving; boil about eight gallons of soft water, till a third part be consumed; let it cool a little, then put five gallons of it hot upon your raisins and orange peel; stir it well together, cover it up, and when it is cold, let it it stand five days, stirring it up once or twice every day; then pass it through a hair sieve, and with a spoon press it as dry as you can; put it in a rundlet fit for it, and add to it the rinds of the other ten oranges, cut as thin as the first; then make a syrup of the juice of twenty oranges, with a pound of white sugar; it must be made the day before you turn it up; stir it well together and stop it up close; let it stand two months to clear, then bottle it up. It will keep three years, and is better for keeping.
Put twenty-four gallons of water to a hundred pounds of raisins; after letting it stand about fourteen days, put it into your cask; when it has remained there six months, put a gallon of brandy to it; and when it is fine, bottle it.
Take currants, both red and white, gooseberries, red and green, mulberries, raspberries, strawberries, of different sorts, cherries; but not little black ones, and grapes, red and white; all the fruits must be full ripe, and take an equal quantity of each; throw them into a tub, and bruise them lightly; take golden pippins and nonpareils, chop and bruise them well, and mix them with the others; to every two gallons of fruit put one gallon of spring water, and boil it all together twice a day for a fortnight; then press it through a hair bag into a vessel, and have ready a wine hogshead, put into it an hundred raisins of the sun with their stalks, fill it with the strained juice, lay the bung on lightly, and when it has done hissing and working, put in a gallon of the best French brandy, and stop the vessel close; let it stand six months, then peg it and see if it be fine, if it is, bottle it, if not, stop it for six months longer, and then bottle it: the longer it is kept the better it will be: it is necessary you put in bay leaves with your brandy.
Take two quarts of strong white wine, infuse in it one drachm of rhubarb, a drachm and an half of gentian root, Roman wormwood, tops of carduus, centaury, and camomile flowers, of each three drachms; yellow peel of oranges, half an ounce; nutmegs, mace, and cloves, of each one drachm; infuse all forty-eight hours, strain it, and drink a glass an hour before dinner.
Having got thirteen gallons of water, put thirty pounds of honey to it, boil and scum it well; then take rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, and sweet briar, one handful all together, boil it an hour; then put it into a tub, with two or three handfuls of ground malt; stir it till it is blood-warm; then strain it through a cloth, and put it into a tub again; cut a toast round a quartern loaf, and spread it over with good ale yeast, and put it into your tub; and when the liquor is quite over with the yeast, put it into your vessel; then take of cloves, mace and nutmegs, an ounce and an half; of ginger sliced, an ounce; bruise the spice, tie it up in a rag, and hang it in the vessel; then stop it up close for use.
Take a gallon of honey, eight gallons of water, a quarter of a pound of ginger sliced, and six whites of eggs beat with the shells; put all these into a convenient vessel, and let them boil till a fourth part of the liquor be wasted, scumming it all the time; to each gallon of water put a handful of rosemary; when your liquor is sufficently boiled, put in the remainder of your ingredients; and when all is boiled, strain your liquor through a hair sieve, and let it stand till it is thoroughly cold; then put a pint of ale yeast into the vessel, and put in the liquor; if the weather be cold, let it stand two or three days before you bottle it.
Take the honey out, and add as much water to the honeycombs as they will sweeten; let it stand to mix, boil it well, and scum it; when an egg will swim at the top it will be sufficiently boiled; then put it into a wooden vessel, let it stand till cold, and bottle it in stone bottles; you may boil it either with lemon thyme, rosemary, or cowslips.
Take fifty pounds of honey, fifty pounds of Belvidere raisins, and fifty gallons of water; boil these about fifteen minutes, keeping it well scummed; put it into the working tub, and put to it a pint of ale yeast, letting it work till the yeast begins to fall; when taken clear off, tun it, with the raisins, and throw into the cask a quart of white elder flowers: take care to attend it in change of weather; let it continue in the cask twelve months, and then fine it down with wine fining, and bottle it off.
Take fifteen gallons of water, and thirty pounds of honey, and boil them together till one gallon is wasted; skim it, and take it off the fire; have ready sixteen lemons cut in halves, put a gallon of the liquor to the lemons, and the rest into a tub with seven packs of cowslips; let them stand all night, then put in the liquor with the lemons, eight spoonfuls of new yeast, and a handful of sweet-briar; stir them all well together, and let it work three or four days; then strain it, and put in in your cask, and in six months time you may bottle it.
Your vessel should be quite dry, and previously rinsed with brandy, and well bunged or closed up as soon as the wines have done fermenting.
As it greatly depends on the flavour of the water you use, in order to have good tasted wines, you must be careful to get the best; the water in London will not be proper, unless put for some time in earthen vessels, to settle itself. Fine spring water is most proper if it can be readily got.
Be careful not to let it stand too long before you get it cold, and remember to put in the yeast in time, or else your wine will fret in the cask, and be prevented fining.
If you let it stand too long in the tub, while working, it will lose the natural sweetness and flavour of the fruits and flowers it is made from.
Lastly, Let your fruit, berries, &c. be always gathered quite dry, and in general when full ripe.