Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines Cordials & Liqueurs 1909 by Helen S. Wright
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.
Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines is a cookbook for those who want to make their own wines & liqueurs from available ingredients, including fruits, flowers, vegetables, & shrubs from local gardens, farms, & orchards. It includes ingredients & instructions for making & fermenting spirits, from wine & ale to sherry, brandy, cordials, & even beer.
Colonial Era Cookbooks
1615, New Booke of Cookerie, John Murrell (London)
1798, American Cookery, Amelia Simmons (Hartford, CT)
1803, Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter (New York, NY)
1807, A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Eliza Rundell (Boston, MA)
1808, New England Cookery, Lucy Emerson (Montpelier, VT)
Helpful Secondary Sources
America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking/Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
Colonial Kitchens, Their Furnishings, and Their Gardens/Frances Phipps Hawthorn; 1972
Early American Beverages/John Hull Brown Rutland, Vt., C. E. Tuttle Co 1996
Early American Herb Recipes/Alice Cooke Brown ABC-CLIO Westport, United States
Food in Colonial and Federal America/Sandra L. Oliver
Home Life in Colonial Days/Alice Morse Earle (Chapter VII: Meat and Drink) New York : Macmillan Co., ©1926.
A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America/James E. McWilliams New York : Columbia University Press, 2005.
