Take ripe juicy peaches—wash and wipe them, to get off the down—gash them to the stone. Put to each peck of peaches a gallon of French brandy, and cover them up tight. Let the whole remain a couple of months, then drain the brandy free from the peaches—add sufficient cold water to render it of the strength of good white wine, and to every three gallons of it put four pounds of sugar. Stir it up well—let it remain a couple of days, stirring it up well each day, then turn it into a wine cask, and close it tight.
Take young sprouts of smallage—wash and drain them till perfectly dry. Cut them in small pieces, put them in a bottle, with seeded raisins, having an alternate layer of each. When the bottle is two-thirds full of the smallage, turn in French brandy, till the bottle is full. Let it remain three or four days, to have the smallage absorb the brandy—then put in as much more brandy as the bottle will hold. It will be fit for use in the course of eight or ten days. This is an excellent family medicine.
To a pint of strained currant juice, put a pound of sugar. Boil the sugar and juice gently together, eight or ten minutes, then set it where it will cool. Add, when lukewarm, a wine glass of French brandy to every pint of syrup—bottle and cork it tight—keep it in a cool place.
To three quarts of fresh, ripe raspberries, put one of good vinegar. Let it remain a day—then strain it, and put to each pint a pound of white sugar. Boil the whole together for half an hour, skim it clear. When cool, add a wine glass of French brandy to each pint of the shrub. A couple of table-spoonsful of this, mixed with a tumbler two-thirds full of water, is a wholesome and refreshing drink in fevers.
Procure nice fresh lemons—pare the rind off thin, then squeeze out the juice of the lemons, and strain it. To a pint of the juice put a pound of white sugar, broken into small pieces. Measure out for each pint of the syrup three table-spoonsful of French brandy, and soak the rind of the lemons in it. Let the whole remain a day, stirring up the lemon-juice and sugar frequently. The next day turn off the syrup, and mix it with the brandy and lemon rinds—put the whole in clean bottles, cork and seal them tight, and keep them in dry sand, in a cool place.