Take of good cider (crab-apple cider is best) seven gallons, best fourth proof brandy one quart, genuine champagne wine five quarts, milk one gill, bitartrate of potash 2 oz. Mix and let it stand a short time; bottle while fermenting. This makes an excellent imitation of champagne with age.
75. CURRANT AND OTHER FRUIT WINES
For currant, cherry, raspberry, elderberry, strawberry, whortleberry, and wild grape wines, any one can be used alone, or in combination of several of the different kinds; to make a variety of flavours, or suit persons who have some and not the other kinds of fruits, to every gallon of expressed juice, add 2 galls. of soft water, put in 6 or 8 lbs. of brown sugar, and 1-1/2 oz. of cream of tartar, have them dissolved; put 1 quart of brandy to every 6 galls. Some prefer it without brandy. After fermentation, take 4 oz. isingla.s.s, dissolved in a pint of the wine, put to each barrel, and it will refine and clear it; then it must be drawn off into clear casks, or bottled, which is far the best. Give these wines age and they are most delicious.
76. DINNER WINE OR ENGLISH PATENT WINE
From garden rhubarb, which will not lend to intemperance. An agreeable and healthy wine is very frequently made from the expressed juice of the garden rhubarb. To each gallon of juice add 1 gallon of soft water, in which 7 lbs. of brown sugar have been dissolved; fill a keg or barrel with this proportion, leaving the bung out, and keep it filled with sweetened water as it works off until clear. Any other vegetable extract may be added, if this flavour is not liked. Then bung down, or bottle, as you desire.
These stalks will furnish about 3/4 their weight in juice; fine and settle with isingla.s.s, as in the fruit wines. This has been patented in England.
77. VARIOUS WINES
Take 28 gallons of clarified cider; 1 gallon good brandy, 1 lb.
crude tartar, (this is what is deposited by grape wines) 5 gallons of any wine you wish to represent, 1 pint of sweet milk to settle it; draw off in 24 or 36 hours after thoroughly mixing.
78. BLACKBERRY AND STRAWBERRY WINES
These are made by taking the above wine when made with port wine; and for every 10 gallons, form 4 to 6 quarts of the fresh fruit, bruised and strained, are added, and let it stand till the flavour is extracted; more or less may be used to suit the tastes of different persons. In bottling any of those wines 3 or four broken raisins put into each bottle will add to their richness and flavour.
79. FRENCH BRANDY
Take of pure spirit 1 gallon, best French brandy, or any kind you wish to imitate, even Otard, 1 quart; loaf sugar 2 oz., sweet spirits of nitre 1/2 oz., a few drops of tincture of catechu, or oak bark, to roughen the taste if desired; colour to suit your taste, and bottle.
80. BRANDY FROM OIL COGNAC
Take of pure spirits 10 gallons, New England rum 2 quarts, or Jamaica rum 1 quart, and oil cognac from 30 to 40 drops, put in half a pint of alcohol, colour with tincture of kino, or burned sugar, which is generally preferred. Mix well and bottle.
81. PALE BRANDY
This is made as the French brandy, using pale instead of the French, and using 1 oz. of tincture of kino for colour, only for 5 gallons.
82. CHERRY BRANDY
To every 10 gallons of brandy add 3 quarts of wild black cherries, stones and all bruised, and crushed sugar 2 lbs. Let it stand until the strength and flavour is obtained, and draw from it as wanted for use. Never attempt to use oil of bitter almonds for this purpose, instead of the cherries, for it is a most deadly poison.
83. BLACKBERRY BRANDY
Take of brandy 10 gallons, nice rich blackberries mashed from 4 to 6 quarts, according to the degree of flavour you wish. Mix and add a little sugar to overcome the acidity of the berries, according to their ripeness will the amount vary from one to 4 oz. to each gallon.
84. STRAWBERRY BRANDY
This is made as the above, using very nice ripe strawberries, and only about half the quant.i.ty of sugar.
[There are no entries for receipts 85, 86 and 87 in the original.]
88. HOLLAND GIN
Take of pure spirits 1 gallon, best Holland gin, schnapps, or any kind desired, 1 quart, oil of juniper 2 scruples, oil of anise 1/4 oz.; mix all well together.
89. COLOURING
Take of white sugar 1 lb., put it into an earthen kettle, moisten a little, let boil, and burn red, black and thick, remove from the fire and put in a little hot water to keep it from hardening as it cools. Use this to colour any liquors, needing colour, to your taste, or as near the colour of the liquor you imitate as you can.
Tincture of kino is a good colour, and is made by dissolving 1 oz.
of kino in a pint of alcohol. For a cherry red use tincture of saffron; for light amber to deep brown use sugar colouring; for brandy colour, sugar; for red use beet root or saunders; for port wine colour use extract of rhatany.
90. TO KEEP SWEET AND SWEETEN SOUR CIDER
To keep cider sweet take a keg, put several holes in the bottom of it, and a piece of woollen cloth at the bottom, then fill with pure sand closely packed, then pa.s.s your cider through this, and put up in clean barrels that have had a piece of cotton or linen cloth 2 by 6 inches, dipped in sulphur, and burned in them, then keep in a cool place and add 1/2 lb. of white mustard seed to each barrel. If cider is souring, about 1 quart of hickory ashes, (or a little more of other hard wood ashes), stirred into each barrel, will sweeten and clarify it, nearly equal to rectifying; but if it is not rectified it must be racked off to get clear of pomace, for while this is in it, it will remain sour. Oil or whiskey barrels are best to put up cider in, or 1/2 pint of sweet oil, or a gallon of whiskey, or both may be added to a barrel with decidedly good effects. Isingla.s.s 4 oz. to each barrel helps to clarify and settle cider that is not going to be rectified.
91. SCHRUB
Take of lemon juice 1 pint, white sugar 2 pints, rum 3 pints, water 4 pints; mix and colour ready for use.
92. STOUGHTON BITTERS
Take of gentian 4 oz., orange peel 4 oz., columbo 4 oz., chamomile flowers 4 oz., qua.s.sia 4 oz., burned sugar 1 lb., whiskey 2-1/2 galls., water 2-1/2 galls,; mix and let stand one week, then bottle the clear liquor.
93. TO IMPROVE THE FLAVOUR OF NEW WHISKEY
Take of whiskey 1 gall., add tea 4 oz., allspice 4 oz., caraway seed 4 oz., cinnamon 2 oz., shake occasionally for a week and use one pint to a barrel. Keep this mixture in a jug.
94. CHERRY BOUNCE OR BRANDY
Take 10 galls. of good whiskey, put into it from 4 to 6 quarts of wild black cherries with the stones broken, common almonds sh.e.l.led 1 lb., white sugar 1-1/2 lb., cinnamon 1/2 oz., nutmeg 1/2 oz., all bruised. Let stand 12 or 13 days and draw off; this, with the addition of 2 galls. of brandy, make very nice cherry brandy.
95. MONONGAHALE
Take of good common whiskey 36 gall., dried peaches 2 quarts, rye, burned and ground as coffee, 1 quart, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, bruised, of each 1 oz., loaf sugar 5 lbs., sweet spirits of nitre 2 oz., put all these articles into 4 galls. of pure spirits, and shake every day for a week, then draw off through a woollen cloth, and add the whole to the 36 galls. of whiskey.