Pick the currants from the stalks; bruise them in a marble mortar; run the juice through a flannel bag. Then take two quarts of the clear juice; dissolve in it one pound of double-refined sugar, and add one gallon of rum. Filter it through a flannel bag till quite fine.
Spruce Beer.
For one quarter cask of thirty gallons take ten or twelve ounces of essence of spruce and two gallons of the best molasses; mix them well together in five or six gallons of warm water, till it leaves a froth; then pour it into the cask, and fill it up with more water. Add one pint of good yest or porter grounds; shake the cask well, and set it by for twenty-four hours to work. Stop it down close. Next day, draw it off into bottles, which should be closely corked and set by in a cool cellar for ten days, when it will be as fine spruce-beer as ever was drunk. The grounds will serve instead of yest for a second brewing.
In a hot climate, cold water should be used instead of warm.
Bittany Wine.
Take six gallons of water and twelve pounds of sugar; put your sugar and water together. Let it boil two hours; then, after taking it off the fire, put in half a peck of sage, a peck and a half of bittany, and a small bunch of rosemary; cover, and let it remain till almost cold; then put six spoonfuls of ale yest; stir it well together, and let it stand two or three days, stirring two or three times each day. Then put it in your cask, adding a quarter of a pint of lemon-juice; when it has done working, bung it close, and, when fine, bottle it.
Sham Champagne.
To every pound of ripe green gooseberries, when picked and bruised, put one quart of water; let it stand three days, stirring it twice every day. To every gallon of juice, when strained, put three pounds of the finest loaf sugar; put it into a barrel, and, to every twenty quarts of liquor add one quart of brandy and a little isinglass. Let it stand half a year; then bottle it. The brandy and isinglass must be put in six weeks before it is bottled.
Cherry Wine.
Pound morella cherries with the kernels over-night, and set them in a cool place. Squeeze them through canvas, and to each quart of juice put one pound of powdered sugar, half an ounce of coarsely-pounded cinnamon, and half a quarter of an ounce of cloves. Let it stand about a fortnight in the sun, shaking it twice or three times every day.