Measure the berries and bruise them; to every gallon adding one quart of boiling water. Let it stand twenty-four hours, stirring occasionally; then strain off the liquor into a cask, adding two pounds sugar to every gallon. Cork tight and let it stand till the following October, when it will be ready for use without further boiling or straining.
Blackberry Wine.
One bushel very ripe berries makes ten gallons wine. Mash the berries as fine as possible and pour over them a water-bucket of clear spring water. Cover it and let it stand twenty-four hours to ferment. Next day strain through a cloth, and to every three quarts juice add two quarts clear cold water and five pounds common brown sugar. Pour in a demijohn or runlet, reserving some to fill the vessel as fermentation goes on. After six or eight days, put to every ten gallons one-half box gelatine. After two weeks, cover the bung-hole with a piece of muslin. Two or three weeks later, cork tightly and then leave undisturbed for six months. After that time, bottle and seal. Superior currant wine may be made by this recipe.—Mrs. F.
Blackberry Wine.
Fill a large stone jar with the ripe fruit and cover it with water. Tie a cloth over the jar and let them stand three or four days to ferment; then mash and press them through a cloth. To every gallon of juice add three pounds of brown sugar. Return the mixture to the jar and cover closely. Skim it every morning for more than a week, until it clears from the second fermentation. When clear, pour it carefully from the sediment into a demijohn. Cork tightly, set in a cool place, When two months old it will be fit for use.—Mrs. Gen. R. E. Lee.
[Copied from a recipe in Mrs. Lee's own handwriting.]
Grape Wine.
Take any convenient quantity of perfectly ripe grapes. Mash them so as to break all the skins, and put them in a tub or other clean vessel, and let them remain twenty-four hours; with a cider-press or other convenient apparatus, express all the juice, and to each gallon of juice thus obtained add from two to two and a half pounds of white sugar (if the grapes are sweet, two pounds will be enough), put the juice and sugar in a keg or barrel, and cover the bung-hole with a piece of muslin, so the gas can escape and dust and insects cannot get in; let it remain perfectly quiet until cold weather, then bung up tightly. This wine will need no clarifying; if allowed to rest perfectly still it can be drawn off perfectly clear.—Mr. W. A. S.
Grape Wine.
Pick the grapes from the bunch, mash thoroughly, and let them stand twenty-four hours. Then strain and add three pounds of sugar to every gallon of juice. Leave in a cask six months, and then bottle, putting three raisins in each bottle.—Mrs. R. L.