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SOME OLD RECIPES
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indifFercnt well ; then flea his skin clean off, and
beat him flesh and bones in a stone mortar all to
mash, then slice into him half a pound of dates, two
nutmegs quartered, two or three blaids of mace,
four cloves ; and put to all this two quarts of sack
that is very good ; stop all this up very close that
no air may get to it for the space of sixteen hours;
then tun eight gallons of strong ale into your barrel
so timely as it may have done working at the sixteen
hours' end ; and then put thereinto your infusion
and stop it close for five days, then bottle it in
stone bottles ; be sure your corks are very good, and
tye them with pack-thread ; and about a fortnight
or three weeks after you may begin to drink of it;
you must also put into your infusion two pound of
raisins of the sun stoned.
Holy Moses ! What a drink !
" It is necessary," wrote a chronicler of the
day, "that our English Housewife be skilfull in
the election, preservation, and curing of all sorts
of wines, because they be usuall charges under
her hands, and by the least neglect must turne
the Husband to much losse."
This was written, I may interpolate, before
the bicycle craze had set in, and before the era
of ladies' clubs. Fancy asking the NewWoman
to elect, preserve, and cure all sorts of wines !
" Therefore," continues the same writer, " to
speak first of the election of sweete Wines she
must be careful that her Malmseys be full Wines,
pleasant, well hewed, and fine ; that Bastard be
fat, and if it be tawny it skils not, for the tawny
Bastards be always the sweetest. Muskadine
must be great, pleasant, and strong, with a swete