This is proper for either top or bottom dish.
301. To make ELDER WINE.
Take twenty pounds of malaga raisins, pick and chop them, then put them into a tub with twenty quarts of water, let the water be boiled and stand till it be cold again before you put in your raisins, let them remain together ten days, stirring it twice a day, then strain the liquor very well from the raisins, through a canvas strainer or hair-sieve; add to it six quarts of elder juice, five pounds of loaf sugar, and a little juice of sloes to make it acid, just as you please; put it into a vessel, and let it stand in a pretty warm place three months, then bottle it; the vessel must not be stopp’d up till it has done working; if your raisins be very good you may leave out the sugar.
302. To make GOOSEBERRY WINE of ripe GOOSEBERRIES.
Pick, clean and beat your gooseberries in a marble mortar or wooden bowl, measure them in quarts up-heap’d, add two quarts of spring water, and let them stand all night or twelve hours, then rub or press out the husks very well, strain them through a wide strainer, and to every gallon put three pounds of sugar, and a jill of brandy, then put all into a sweet vessel, not very full, and keep it very close for four months, then decant it off till it comes clear, pour out the grounds, and wash the vessel clean with a little of the wine; add to every gallon a pound more sugar, let it stand a month in a vessel again, drop the grounds thro’ a flannel bag, and put it to the other in the vessel; the tap hole must not be over near the bottom of the cask, for fear of letting out the grounds.
The same receipt will serve for curran wine the same way; let them be red currans.
303. To make BALM WINE.
Take a peck of balm leaves, put them in a tub or large pot, heat four gallons of water scalding hot, ready to boil, then pour it upon the leaves, so let it stand all night, then strain them thro’ a hair-sieve; put to every gallon of water two pounds of fine sugar, and stir it very well; take the whites of four or five eggs, beat them very well, put them into a pan, and whisk it very well before it be over hot, when the skim begins to rise take it off, and keep it skimming all the while it is boiling, let it boil three quarters of an hour, then put it into the tub, when it is cold put a little new yeast upon it, and beat it in every two hours, that it may head the better, so work it for two days, then put it into a sweet rundlet, bung it up close, and when it is fine bottle it.
304. To make RAISIN WINE.