Pre-Pasteur Recipes

Four pounds of sugar, one pound raisins (bruised), two gallons water. Boil, then add one gallon cider. Ferment, and add one quart of spirits, three-quarters ounce white tartar, a few drops essence of lemon. Observe to shake the essence, with a little of the spirit, until it becomes milky, before adding it to the wine.

To five gallons prepared cider, add one-half ounce tartaric acid, one-half pint spirits, one-half pound loaf sugar. Let it stand ten days, draw it off carefully, fine it down, and again rack it into another cask.

Take twelve pounds of good moist sugar, two gallons of water. Boil them together two hours, skimming carefully. When the scum is all removed, and the liquor looks clear, add one-half ounce of hops, which should boil one-quarter hour or twenty minutes. When the liquor is quite cold, add to it five quarts of strong beer in the height of …

The following is a good recipe for mead: On five pounds of honey pour five quarts of boiling water; boil, and remove the scum as it rises; add one-quarter ounce of best hops, and boil for ten minutes. Then pour the liquor into a tub to cool; when all but cold, add a little yeast spread upon a slice of …

Take three gallons of spring water, make it hot, and dissolve in it three quarts of honey, and one pound of loaf sugar. Let it boil about one-half hour, and skim it as long as any scum rises. Then pour it out into a tub, and squeeze in the juice of four lemons, put in the rinds but of two. …

Take of spring water what quantity you please, make it more than blood-warm, and dissolve honey in it until it is strong enough to bear an egg, the breadth of a shilling; then boil it gently, near an hour, taking off the scum as it rises. Then put to nine or ten gallons seven or eight large blades of mace, …

Boil honey in water for an hour; the proportion is from three to four pounds to each gallon. Half an ounce of hops will both refine and preserve it, but is not commonly added. Skim carefully, draining the skimmings through a hair sieve, and return what runs through. When of a proper coolness, stir in yeast; one teacupful of solid …

Mix one and one-half barrels of water with as much honey as will cause an egg to rise a little above the water; then boil the mixture to one barrel, skimming off the surface. It will be a fine red or wine color, and clear. Then remove from the fire, and when cold, put it into a barrel, leaving the …

One ounce hops, one gallon water. Boil for ten minutes, strain, add one-pound molasses, and when lukewarm, add one spoonful yeast. Ferment.

Take six large lemons, pare off the rind, and squeeze the juice; steep the rind in the juice, and put to it one quart of brandy. Let it stand in an earthen pot close stopped three days, then squeeze six more, and mix with two quarts of water, and as much sugar as will sweeten the whole. Boil the water, …