Elder Wine. No. 1.
Take elderberries, when ripe; pick them clean from the stalk; press out the juice through a hair sieve or canvas-bag, and to every gallon of juice put three gallons of water on the husks from which the juice has been pressed. Stir the husks well in the water, and press them over again; then mix the first and second liquor together, and boil it for about an hour, skimming it clean as long as the scum rises. To every gallon of liquor put two pounds of sugar, and skim it again very clean; then put to every gallon a blade of mace and as much lemon-peel, letting it boil an hour. After the sugar is put in, strain it into a tub, and, when quite cold, put it into a cask; bung it close down, and look frequently to see that the bung is not forced up. Should your quantity be twelve gallons or more, you need not bottle it off till about April, but be sure to do so on a clear dry day, and to let your bottles be perfectly dry; but if you have not more than five or six gallons, you may bottle it by Christmas on a clear fine day.
Elder Wine. No. 2.
To a gallon of water put a quarter of a peck of berries, and three pounds and a half of Lisbon sugar. Steep the berries in water forty hours; after boiling a quarter of an hour, strain the liquor from the fruit, and boil it with the sugar till the scum ceases to rise. Work it in a tub like other wines, with a small quantity of yest. After some weeks, add a few raisins, a small quantity of brandy, and some cloves. The above makes a sweet mellow wine, but does not taste strong of the elder.
Elder Wine. No. 3.
Take twenty-four pounds of raisins, of whatever sort you please; pick them clean, chop them small, put them into a tub, and cover them with three gallons of water that has been boiled and become cold. Let it stand ten days, stirring it twice a day. Then strain the liquor through a hair sieve, draining it all from the raisins, and put to it three pints of the juice of elderberries and a pound of loaf-sugar. Put the whole into the cask, and let it stand close stopped, but not in too cold a cellar, for three or four months before you bottle it. The peg-hole must not be stopped till it has done working.
The best way to draw the juice from the berries is to strip them into an earthen pan, and set it in the oven all night.
Elder Wine. No. 4.
Mash eight gallons of picked elderberries to pieces, add as much spring water as will make the whole nine gallons, and boil slowly for three quarters of an hour. Squeeze them through a cloth sieve; add twenty-eight pounds of moist sugar, and boil them together for half an hour. Run the liquor through your cloth sieve again; let it stand till lukewarm; put into it a toast with a little yest upon it, and let it stand for seven or eight days, stirring it every day. Then put it into a close tub, and let it remain without a bung till it has done hissing. Before you bung up close, you may add one pint of brandy at pleasure.