Gooseberry Wine

The Experienced English Housekeeper · Elizabeth Raffald · 1784
Source
The Experienced English Housekeeper
Time
Cook: 15 min Total: 15 min
Status
success · extracted 12 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (8)
For the wine base
For fining the wine
For bottling
Instructions (15)
  1. Put three pounds of lump sugar into a gallon of water.
  2. Boil it for a quarter of an hour, and scum it very well.
  3. Let it stand until it is almost cold.
  4. Bruise four quarts of full-ripe gooseberries in a marble mortar and put them in your vessel.
  5. Pour the liquor over the gooseberries.
  6. Let it stand for two days, stirring it every four hours.
  7. Steep half an ounce of isinglass in a pint of brandy for two days.
  8. Strain the wine through a flannel bag into a cask.
  9. Beat the steeped isinglass in a marble mortar with five whites of eggs.
  10. Whisk them together for half an hour.
  11. Add the isinglass and egg mixture to the wine and beat them all together.
  12. Close up the cask and put clay over it.
  13. Let it stand for six months.
  14. Bottle it off for use.
  15. Put a lump of sugar and two raisins of the sun into each bottle.
Original Text
TO a gallon of water put three pounds of lump ſugar, boil it a quarter of an hour, and ſcum it very well, then let it ſtand till it is almoſt cold, and take four quarts of gooſeberries when full ripe, bruiſe them in a marble mortar, and put them in your veſſel, then pour in the liquor, and let it ſtand two days, and ſtir it every four hours; ſteep half an ounce of iſinglaſs in a pint of brandy two days, ſtrain the wine through a flannel bag into a caſk, then beat the iſinglaſs in a marble mortar with five whites of eggs, then whiſk them together half an hour, and put it in the wine and beat them all together, cloſe up your caſk and put clay over it, let it ſtand fix months, then bottle it off for uſe, put in each bottle a lump of ſugar and two raiſins of the ſun: this is a very rich wine, and when it has been kept in the bottles two or three years will drink like champagne.
Notes
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