Bruise with a potato beetle five quarts of ripe, wild cherries, and stir into them four cupfuls of granulated sugar. Turn into a stone crock, cover, and set in the cellar for twenty-four hours. Now, add a quart and a cupful of brandy—stirring it in well. Let the mixture alone for six weeks—stirring every few days—before straining off the liquor through double cheese cloth. Bottle and seal. When ready for use, fill liquor glasses with crushed ice and pour the crimson cordial into them. It is an excellent tonic, and also good for a cough.
Homemade grape wine (No. 1)
Put the grapes, stems and all, into an open cask, and mash them. Cover your cask with cheese-cloth to prevent anything from falling in, as one crumb of bread will change the contents into vinegar. When the grapes have fermented, pass through a fruit press; turn the juice that has been extracted into a clean, close cask, and let it remain on its side for a month, when your wine will be ready to be bottled. By no means disturb the cask, or the wine will not be clear. Keep the wine in a dark, cool place, and lay the bottles containing it on their sides. When the grapes are fermenting, stir every day.
Grape wine (No. 2)
Crush out the juice of ripe grapes, after having picked them from the stems. A large quantity could be crushed in a cider press, but when only a few are to be used they can be mashed in a crock, or clean tub, with a potato beetle. Strain, then, through a bag, squeezing or pressing this so as to get all the juice possible. To each quart of the juice add half a pound of white sugar, and put away in a clean cask, or big jar to ferment. Cover the top, or the bung-hole, with a piece of netting. Let the juice and sugar ferment for three or four weeks, until it is clear and still. Pour it off the lees carefully, and bottle.
Matzoon
Take one and a half ounces of prepared matzoon, which you can get at drug stores, and one quart of fresh milk. Stir well and place in a pitcher at a temperature of from 70 to 90 degrees, for from nine to twelve hours, until it begins to thicken like junket; then beat it for ten minutes. Bottle in patent-stoppered bottles, and put on ice. Fresh matzoon may be made from that which you have prepared in this way. You have to buy but one bottle to start with. This quantity makes three bottles, not quite full, as it effervesces like koumiss.
Strawberry wine
Mash and strain six quarts of ripe strawberries. To every quart of juice add a quart of water and a pound of sugar. Stir well, and turn into a crock to ferment. When fermentation ceases, rack off carefully, bottle and seal.