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HOME BREWED WINES, BEERS, MQUEURS, ETC.
WINE FROM MIXED FRUIT.
To 1 gallon water allow 1 lb. black
currants, 1 lb. red and white currants
mixed, 1 lb. cherries, and 1 lb. rasp
berries, and to each gallon of liquor
allow 3 lbs. Lisbon sugar and 1 gill of
brandy.
Bruise the fruit well and add the
water. Steep 3 or 4 days in an open
vessel, stirring frequently. Then strain
through a fine sieve or jelly-cloth until
the pulp is pressed to dryness. Meas
ure and add good Lisbon sugar in the
above proportion. Let this stand again
for 3 days, stirring often. Then skim
off the top, put the liquor into a cask,
reserving some for filling up. Leave to
ferment about two weeks and keep the
cask full. Add the brandy when the
hissing has stopped, and close up.
Gooseberries, too, can be used in the
mixture, but they should be bruised
separately.
DEAD FOR LIOUOR.
The best bead is the orange-flower
water bead (oil of neroil), 1 drop In
each gallon of brandy.
ANOTHER METHOD.—To every 40
drops of sulphuric acid, add 60 drops
purest sweet oil in a glass vessel; use
immediately. This quantity is generally
sufficient for 10 gallons spirit.
ANOTHER.—Take 1 oz. of the pur
est oil sweet almonds; 1 oz. of sulphur
ic acid; put them in a stone mortar
add by degrees, 2 oz. white lump sug
ar, rubbing it well with the pestle till
it becomes a paste; then add small
quantities of spirits of wine till it
comes into a liquid. This quantity is
sufficient for 100 gallons. The first is
Strongly recommended as the best.
COLORING FOR LIOUORS.
Take 2 lbs. cruslied or lump sugar
put it into a kettle that will hold 4 to
6 qts., with % tumbler of water. Boil
it until it is black, then take it off and
cool with water, stirring it as you put
in the water.
WAX PUTTY FOR LEAKY CANS,
BUNGS, ETC.
Spirits turpentine, 2 lbs.; tal'ow 4
lbs.; solid turpentine, 12 lbs. Melt the
wax and solid turpentine together over
a Slow fire, then add the tallow. When
melted, remove far from the fire, then
stir the spirits turpentine, and let it
cool.
CEMENT FOR THE MOUTHS OF
CORKED BOTTLES.
Melt together % of a pound of rosin
a couple of ounces of beeswax. When
it froths stir it with a tallow candle
As soon as it melts, dip the mouths of
the corked bottles into it. This is an
excellent thing to exclude the air from
such things as are injured by being
exposed to it.
TO CORRECT A BAD TASTE AND
SOURNESS IN WINE.
Put in a bag the root of wild horse
radish cut in bits. Let it down in the
wine, and leave it there two days; take
this out, and put another, repeating the
same till the wine is perfectly restored.
Or fill a bag with wheat; it will have
the same effect.
TO REMOVE ROPINESS FROM WINE.
Add a little catechu or a small quan
tity of the bruised berries of the moun
tain ash.
TO RESTORE FLAT WINE.
Add 4 or 5 lbs. of white sugar, honey
or bruised raisins, to every hundred
gallons, and bung close. A little spirits
may also be added.
TO RESTORE WINE THAT HAS
TURNED SOUR OR SHARP.
Pill a bag with leek-seed, or of
leaves or twisters of vine, and put
either of them to infuse in the cask.
HOW TO MAKE MEAD. '
The following is a good recipe for
mead. On 20 lbs. of honey pour five
gallons of boiling water, boil, and re
move the scum as it rises; add 1 oz.
of best hops, and boil for 10 minutes;
then put 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 set up, put the mixture
into a cask, and fill up from time to
time as the yeast runs out of the bung-
hole; when the 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.
FRUIT SYRUPS AND
FRUIT VINEGARS
Many delightful and wholesome
drinks can be made with a fruit syrup
or a fruit vinegar as the foundation.
They can be used both in summer and
in winter, and their refreshing flavor
makes them popular ingredients at the
soda fountain and refreshment buffet.
Almost any kind of fruit can be used
for making these syrups and vinegars,
but the soft summer fruits are, per
haps, the best suited to the purpose,
Only fruit that is perfectly sound must
be employed, and pure cane sugar,
either loaf or granulated.