ISSUE 66, BEVERAGES FROM PLANTS, Part 3: Early American Fruit Wines & Folk Beers
A Collection of Recipes
Fruit Wines & Folk Beers
Apricot Wine (1803)
Take three pounds of sugar, and three quarts of water, let them boil together, and skim it well; then put in six pounds of apricots pared and stoned, and let them boil till they are tender; then take them up; you may, if you please, after you have taken out the apricots, let the liquor have one boil with a sprig of flowered clary in it; the apricots make marmelade, and are very good for present spending.
Sussannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife (New York: G. & R. Waite, 1803)
Birch Beer (1833)
The birch-tree from which the sap is taken for this purpose is the black birch, but yellow or white birch will answer the purpose. The birch of either species abounds more in sap than any other tree of the American forests. An hundred gallons of sap may be taken from a good sized tree in twenty-four hours. Sixteen gallons of this sap contain about a pound of sugar. It contains a large quantity of fixed air, and is a delightful drink as it runs pure from the tree, and it may be used as freely as the Saratoga waters with safety. The drink is highly exhilarating. Beer may be made in various ways from this sap, but the best I ever drank was made in the following manner. The trees were tapped in March, as the snow was wasting away, and tubs placed under them to catch the liquor. The crochets were fixed the lug pole extended, and the large kettles swung—the sap was put in them, and the fire kindled, and the sap was boiled down to about one half of the natural quantity—an half pint of the essence of the spruce, an handful of chickenberry leaves, with a small quantity of sassafras or sarsaparilla is allotted to a barrel; and if you wish it to be super-excellent, put in as you turn it into the cask, about two quarts of maple syrup to thirty gallons. A few days after the casks are put into the cellar, give them a slight vent while it is in a gentle ferment. The casks should be in a cool place, that the fermentation should be slowly carried on; when this is over, bung it up tight, and in May it will be in the highest perfection.
Genesee Farmer 3, 14 (April 6, 1833), p. 122.
Birch Wine (1803)
Take your birch water and clear it with whites of eggs; to every gallon of water take two pounds and a half of fine sugar; boil it three quarters of an hour, and when it is almost cold, put in a little yeast; work it two or three days, then put it into the barrel, and to every five gallons put in a quart of brandy, and a half poud of stoned raisins. Before you put up your wine, burn a brimstone match in the barrel.
Sussannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife (New York: G. & R. Waite, 1803)
Blackberry Wine (1824)
Squeeze fifty pounds of blackberries, strain them, and add 25 lbs. of New Orleans, or clean white Havana sugar; put all into a ten gallon Keg, and fill it with water. As it works add water, keeping the cask full. Add three pints of good brandy. The keg, if ew, must be soaked with well distilled apple whiskey, or French Brandy.
American Farmer (March 3, 1824), p. 398.
Cherry Wine (1700)
Squeese the Juce out of the Cherrys with your hands then strain it through a Convass bagg then put to 1 Gallon Liquor 3 lbs good muscovado Sugar then put it into a Cash without boyling. Lett it stand with a Vent open till it hath done working or hissing then Stop it up Close Lett it Stand 3 weeks till it is Settled: then Bottle it off.
Unidentified cookbook, c. 1700,” Colonial Virginia’s Cooking Dynasty, Katharine E. Harbury, ed., (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2004), p. 178.
Cowslip Wine (1803)
Take five pounds of loaf sugar, and four gallon of water, simmer them all an hour to dissolve the sugar; when it is cold, put in half a peck of cowslip flowers, picked and gently bruised; then add two spoonfuls of yeast, and beat it up with a pint of syrup of lemons, and lemon-peel or two. Pour the whole into a cask, let them stand clost stopped for three days; that they may ferment; then put in some juice of cowslips, and give it room to work; when it has stood a month, draw it off into bottles, putting a little lump of loaf sugar into each.
Sussannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife (New York: G. & R. Waite, 1803)
Cowslip Mead (1823)
Put thirty pounds of honey into fifteen gallons of water, and boil till one gallon is wasted; skim it, take it off the fire, and have ready a dozen and a half of lemons quartered, pour a gallon of the liquor boiling hot upon them; put the remainder of the liquor into a tub, with seven pecks of cowslip pips; let them remain there all night, and then put the liquor and the lemons to eight spoonsful of new yeast, and a handful of sweet-briar; still all well together, and let it work for three or four days. Strain it, and put it into the cast; let it stand six months, and then bottle it for keeping.
An Experienced Housekeeper, American Domestic Cookery (New York: Evert Duyckinck, 1823), p. 276.
Currant Wine (1808)
Gather your currants when the weather is dry, and are full ripe: strip them carefully from the stalk, put them into a pan, and bruise them with a wooden pestle; let it stand about twenty hours, after which strain it through a sieve. Add three pounds fine powdered sugar to every four quarts of the liquor; and then shaking or tiring it well, fill your vessel, and put about a quart of brand to every seven gallons; as soon as it fine, bottle it off.
Lucy Emerson, p. 77.
Currant Wine (1831)
I picked the currants about the middle of July. I had seven pecks . . . smashed and pounded them in an open barrel, and instead of pressing out the juice immediately, I covered the barrel with a board and left it to stand and ferment; but instead of 12, 24, 36, or 48 hours, as Major Adlum prescribes for grape juice, by neglect I let them remain four or five days, when they had gathered some mould on the top; then pressed out the juice by hand . . . then, divided the juice into equal parts in water to make two half barrels; one with maple sugar, and the other with honey. To the one I added thirty-seven pounds of maple sugar that had not been drained of its molasses, and sufficient water to make fifteen gallons of the whole; then tested its strength by putting in a hen’s egg . . . and found that it floated the egg showing about the size of shilling piece above the surface; then put up the must into the cask. To the other I put forty-two pounds of strained honey, and water to make the quantity fifteen gallons. After the honey was dissolved, I also tested this with the egg, and found it to show a part of the shell above the surface about the size of of a pistareen—which clearly showed that honey contains as much saccharine, for its weight, as sugar. The casks were put into the cellar to ferment and make, leaving the bungs open for a few days, then put them in loosely, and ten or twelve days, bunged tight. In December it was racked off, when each cask afforded two gallons of lees in currant pulp; after racking, it was put back into the casks again, and fined with a pint of skim-milk and left to stand. The currant wine made of maple sugar has its color darkened to Tenerife by the coloring matter, and its flavor rendered slightly bitter from the impurities of the sugar, clearly showing that the liquor will be improved in proportion to the purity of the saccharine used in making it. It has a slight tinge of the Malaga flavor, and nearly equal in its quality; it is a drinkable currant wine. But that made of honey promises to become a superior article . . . . when racked . . . it has nearly the color of Madeira, perfectly fine and limpid, with a good body, and the spirit of the honey gives to it the exhilarating properties of still champagne; its flavor denotes the unadulterated purity of its ingredients.
J. Hawley, “Currant Wine,” Genesee Farmer 1, 24 (June 18, 1832).
Damson Wine (1808)
Gather your damsons dry, weight them and bruise them with your hand; put them into an earthen stein that has a faucet, and a wreath of straw before the faucet; add to every eight pounds of fruit a gallon of water; boil the water, skim, it and put it to your fruit scalding hot; let it stand two whole days; then draw it off, and put it into a vessel fit for it; and to every gallon of liquor put two pounds and an half of fine sugar; let the vessel be full and stop it close; the longer it stands the better; it will keep a year in the vessel; bottle it out. The small damsons is the best. You may put a very small lump of double refined sugar in every bottle.
Lucy Emerson, p. 78.
Dandelion Wine (1837)
Some accomplished housewife at Concord Ma, according to the Yeoman, and the editor has been persuaded to drink thereof and vouches for its excellence, has discovered that a pleasant table beer may be made of the water in which dandelions have been boiled, by adding to each gallon a tea-cup full of yeast, and a pint of molasses. As dandelions are abundant and cheap, and their medicinal qualities well known, the experiment ay be worth trying.
Southern Agriculturist (September 1837).
Elderberry Wine (1803)
When the elder-berries are ripe, pick them and put them ito a stone jar: set them in boiling water, or in a slack overn, till the jar is as warm as you can well bear to touch it with your hands; then strain the fruit through a coarse cloth, squeezing them hard, and pour the liquor into a kettle. Put it on the fire, let it boil, and to every quart of liquor add a pound of Lisbon sugar, and skim it often. Then let it settle, pour it off into a jar, and clover it lost,
Sussannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife (New York: G. & R. Waite, 1803)
p. 192.
Ginger Beer (1840)
Put into a kettle, two ounces of powdered ginger, (or more if it is not very strong,) half an ounce of cream of tartar, two large lemons cut in clices, two pounds of broken loaf-sugar, and one gallon of soft water. Simmer them over a slow fire for half an hour. When the liquor is nearly cold, stir into it a large table-spoonful of the best yeast. After it has fermented, bottle it for use. (Mrs. Leslie in MIsc. Recipes supplement p. 33).
A Boston Housekeeper, The Cook’s Own Book (Boston: Munroe and Francis, 1840).
Ginger Wine (1823)
Put into a very nice boiler ten gallons of water, fifteen pounds of lump sugar, with the whites of six or eight eggs well beaten and strained; mix all well while cold; when the liquor boils, skim it well; put in half a pound of common white ginger bruised, boil it twenty minutes. Have ready the very thin rinds of seven lemons, and pour the liquor on them; when cool, tun it with two spoonfuls of yeast; put a quart of the liquor to two ounces of isinglass shavings, while warm, whisk it well three or four times, and pour all together into the barrel. Next day stop it up; in three weeks bottle, and in three months it will be delicious and refreshing liquor, and though very cool perfectly safe.
An Experienced Housekeeper, American Domestic Cookery (New York: Evert Duyckinck, 1823), p. 273.
Gooseberry Champagne (1846)
Take large, fine gooseberries, that are full-grown, but not yet beginning to turn red; and pick off their tops and -----. Then weight the fruit, ad allow a gallon of clear, soft water to every three pounds of gooseberries. Put them into a large, clean tub; pour on a little of the water; pound and mash them, thoroughly, with a wooden beetle; add the remainder of the water and give the whole a hard stirring. Cover the tube with a cloth, and let it stand four days; stirring it frequently and thoroughly, to the bottom. Then strain the liquid, through a coarse linen cloth, into another vessel; and in each gallon of liquid add four pounds of fine loafsugar; and to ever five gallons a quart of the best and clearest French brandy. Mix the whole well together; and put it into a clean cask, that will just hold it, as it should be filled full. Place the cask on the its side, in a cool, dry part of the cellar; and lay the bung loosely on the top. Secure the cask firmly in its place, so that it cannot, by any chance be shaken or moved; so the least disturbance will injure the wine. Let it work for a fortnight or more; till the fermentation is quite over, and the hissing has ceased. Then bottle it; driving in the corks tightly. Lay the bottles no their sides. In six months it will be fit for drinking, and will be found as brisk as real champagne.
1846-Leslie Lady’s Receipt book, p. 230.
Gooseberry Wine (1803)
Take gooseberries when they are just beginning to turn ripe, bruise them well, but not so as to break their seeds; our to eery eight pounds of pulp a gallon of spring water, and let them stand in the vessel covered, in a cool place, twenty-four hours; then put them into a strong canvass or hair bag, press out all the juice that will run from them, and to every quart of it put twelve ounces of loaf sugar, stirring it about till it be melted; then put it up in a well0seasoned cask, and set it in a cool place: when it has purged and settled about twenty or thirdy days, fill the vessel full, and bung it down close. When it is well worked and settled, draw it off into bottles, and keep them in a cool place.
Sussannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife (New York: G. & R. Waite, 1803)
pp. 189-90.
Maple Beer
To every four gallons of water when boiling, add one quart of maple molasses. When the liquor is cooled to blood heat, put in as much yest as is necessary to ferment it. Malt or bran may be added to this beer, when agreeable. If a table spoonful of the essence of spruce be added to the above quantities of water and molasses, it makes a most delicious and wholesome drink.
Crter pp. 2120-11.
Mead (1827)
Let the whites of six eggs be well incorporated with twelve gallons of water, to which twenty pounds of honey are to be added. The ingredients should boil for the space of one hour; when a little ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and mace, together with a small sprig of rosemary, are to be put into the liquor. As soon as it is cook, a spoonful of yeast ought to be added, and the mead poured into a vessel which should be filled up, while it works. When the fermentation ceases, the cask ought to be closed and deposited for the space of six or eight months in a vault or cellar, of an equal temperature, and in which the liquor is not liable to be affected by the changes of the weather. At the end of that period, it may be bottled, and is then fit for use.
New England Farmer 6, 4 (August 17, 1827), p. 81.
Metheglin (1742)
Take a quart of honey and six quarts of water. Let it boyle the third part away, and boy with it 3 races (hands) of ginger. When it is cold, put it in a pot which has a spigot, and put yeast into it and let it stand three dayes, then bottle it up and put into your bottles a little leamon and a stick of cinnamon and a few raysons of the sun. And let it be a fotnight before you drink it.
Karen Hess, Martha Washington’s Book of Cookery (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), p. 390.
Metheglin (1824)
Put so much new honey into spring water, that when the honey is dissolved, an egg will not sink to the bottom. Boil the liquor for an hour. When cool, barrel it up, adding a spoonfu of yeast to ferment it. Some add ginger half an ounce to a barrel, and as much cloves and mace; but I have it very good without any spices. One hundred weight of honey will make a barrel of metheglin, as strong as good wine. I once had a barrel made with 90 pounds of honey. After fermenting and fining, it was an excellent liquor; some part of which I kept bottled several years; it loses the honey taste by age, and grows lighter colour; but on the whole it does not improve by age, like some liquors.
New England Farmer 3, 5 (August 18, 1824), p. 35.
Molasses Beer (1836)
Put five quarts of hops, and five of wheat bran, into fifteen gallons of water; boil it three or four house, strain it, and pour it into a cask with one head taken out; put in five quarts of molasses, stir it till well mixed, throw a cloth over the barrel; when moderately warm, add a quart of good yeast, which must be stirred in; then stop it closed with a cloth and board. When it has fermented and become quite clear, bottle.
Mary Randolph, The Virginia Housewife (Baltimore: Plaskitt & Fike, 1836), P. 175.
Morella Cherry Wine (1846)
Take a sufficiency of large fine Morella cherries. They must all e perfectly ripe, and free from blemish. Extract the stones; carefully saving all the juice. Return it to the cherries; put them into a clean tub; and let them stand, in a cold place, undisturbed, till next morning. Then mash and press them through a cullender, or sleve, or put them into a thin linen bag, and squeeze out all the juice; then measure it. To every quart of juice, allow a large half-pound of fine loafsugar, and mix them well together, in a lean cash. Crack the stones, tie them up in a thin bag; and suspend the bag in the cask, in the midst of the liquor. Leave it to ferment; and, when the fermentation ceases, stop it closely. Let it stand four months, leaving the bag of cherry-stones in the cask. Then bottle it, and in three months it will be fit to drink.
1846 Leslie Lady’s Receipt Book, p. 232.
Parsnip Wine (1825):
To every 4 lbs of Parsnips, cleaned and quartered, put one gallon of water; boil them till they are quite tender; drain them through a sieve, but do not bruise them, as no remedy would clear the wine afterwards. Pour the liquor into a tub, and to each gallon add 3 lbs. of loaf sugar and half an ounce of crude tartar. When cooled to the tempereature of 75 degrees, put in a little new yeast; let it stand four days in a warm rootm, then tun it.—The mixture should, if possible, be fermented in a temperature of 60 degrees. September and March and the best seasons for making the wine. When the fermentation has subsided, bung down the cask, and let the wine stand at least twelve months before bottling
“Parsnip Wine,” The American Farmer 7, 9 (May 20, 1825), p. 68.
Peach Wine (1825)
Take peaches, nectarines, &c., pare them, and take the stones out; then slice them thin, and pour over them from a gallon or two gallons of water, and a quart of white wine. Place the whole on a fire to simmer gently for a considerable time, till the sliced fruit becomes soft; pour off the liquid part into another vessel containing more peaches that have been sliced but not heated; let them stand for twelve hours, then pour out the liquid part, and press what remains through a fine hair bag. Let the whole be now put into a ask to ferment; add a loaf sugar a pound and a half to each gallon—boil well an ounce of beaten cloves in a quart of white wine, and add to it the above.
American Farmer 7, 17 (July 15, 1825), p. 135.
Perry (1870)
Let the pears be sweet and perfectly ripe, but take care that the cores have not become rotten; take them to the press or mill, and squeeze out the juice, from whence the liquor is removed to casks which must stand in the open air, in a very cool place, with the bung-holes open. The fermentation is accomplished by mixing a pint of new yeast with a little honey and flour warmed, and the whites of four eggs. Put this in a bag of thin muslin, drop it in the cask, and suspend it from the bung-hole by a string, taking care that it does not touch the bottom of the vessel. If it works well, the liquor will have cleared itself in five or six days, and may be drawn off from the lees into smaller casks, or bottled. In winter, Perry requires to be kept warm, and free from frosts or draughts of air. In summer, the vessels or bottles containing it must be moved to a cool place, otherwise they will burst.
Mrs. H. M. B. Peterson, The Young Wife’s Cook Book (Philadelphia: Peterson, 1870), pp. 497-98.
Persimmon Beer (1819)
Gather the persimmons perfectly ripe and free from any roughness, work them into large loaves with bran enough to make them consistent, bake them so thoroughly that the cake may be brown and dry throughout, but not burnt, they are then fit for use; but if you keep them any time, it will be necessary to dry them frequently, in an oven moderately warm. Of these loaves broken into a coarse powder, take eight bushels, pour on them forty gallons of cold water, and after two or three days draw it off; boil it as other beer, hop it; this makes a very strong beer. By putting 30 gallons of water to the same powder, and letting it stand two or three days longer, you may make a very fine small beer.
American Farmer 1, 3 (March 4, 1819),.p. 21.
Quince Wine (1803)
Take your quinces when they are thorough ripe, wipe off the fur very clean; then take out the cores, bruise them as you do apples for cyder, and press them, adding to every gallon of juice two pounds and a half of fine sugar; stir it together till it is dissolved; then put it in your cask, and when it has done working, stop it close; let it stand till March before you bottle it. You may keep it two or three years and it will be the better.
Sussannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife (New York: G. & R. Waite, 1803)
p. 197
Raspberry Wine (1803)
Take red raspberries when they are nearly ripe, clean the husks and stalks from them, soak them in fair water, that has been boiled and sweetened with loaf sugar, a pound and a half to a gallon; when they are soaked about twelve hours, taken them out, put them into a fine linen pressing bag; press out the juice in the water, then boil them up together, and scum them well twice or thrice over a gentle fire; take off the vessel, and let the liquor cool, and when the scum rises, take off all that you can, and pour the liquor into a well seasoned cask; or earthen vessel; then boil an ounce of mace in a pine of white wine, till the third part be consumed, strain it, and add it to the liquor, when it has well settled and fermented, draw it off into a cask or bottles, and keep it in a cool place.
Sussannah Carter, The Frugal Housewife (New York: G. & R. Waite, 1803)
191-92.
Rhubarb Wine (1870)
Cut five pounds of rhubarb into small pieces; add a gallon of cold water, and put it into a tub for eight or nine days, stirring it well two or three ties a day. Strain the liquor, and to every gallon add four pounds of sugar, the juice and half the rind of a lemon; put it in a cask, with half an ounce of isinglass dissolved in a little of the liquor. Add a gill of brandy. Bung the cask closely. Bottle it in ten or twelve months.
Mrs. H. M. B. Peterson, The Young Wife’s Cook Book (Philadelphia: Peterson, 1870), p. 484.
Sassafras Mead (1845)
Mix gradually, with two quarts of boiling water, three and a half pounds of best brown sugar, a pint and a half of good molasses, and one fourth of a pound of tartaric acid; stir it well, and when cool strain it into a large jug or pan, then mix in a quarter of an ounce of essence of sassafras; transfer it to lean bottles, (it will fill about half a dozen,) cork it tightly, and keep it in a cool place. Have ready a box containing about one fourth of a pound of carbonate of soda, to use with it. To prepare a glass of it for drinking, pour a little of the mead into a tumbler, fill three-fourths full of cold water, then stir in a small quantity of soda, and it will foam to the top.l
Mrs. E.A. Howland, The American Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book (Cincinnati: H. W. Derby, 1845), p. 69.
Spring Beer (1743)
Take 10 gallons spring water, put in two handfuls inner bark of Sassafras, two of horse radish, the like quantity of Asparagus Roots, Cinque foil, wormwood, Wlderbuds, or roots, four handfuls Watercress, a like quantity of Sporuce Pine tops boil it well, sweeten up with Muscovedo Sugar, strain it off, cool and turn it up as usual when tis clear, drink it Morning & Evening
“Jane Randolph her Cookery Book, 1743), Colonial Virginia’s Cooking Dynasty p. 408
Strawberry Wine (1879)
Mash the berries and add to each gallon of fruit a half-gallon boiling water. Let it stand twenty-four hours, then strain and add three pounds brown sugar to each gallon juice. Let it stand thirty-six hours, skimming the impurities that rise to the top. Put in a cask, reserving some to ad as it escapes from the cask. Fill each morning. Cork and seal rightly after the fermentation is over.
Mrs E. Housekeeping in Old Virginia, ed. Marion Cabell Tyree (Louisville: John P Morton, 1879(, p. 467.
Sweet Potato Mobby (1750)
The Method of making this, is to mix the raw express’d Juice of the Potatoes with a certain Quantity of Water; this in a seasoned Vessel will soon ferment, and in about four and twenty Hours be ready for Use; it tastes cool and sharp, and it is generally esteem’d a healthy Liquor. The Juice likewise of Potatoes, if fermented, will, by Distillation, yield good Spirit. Griffith Hughes, The Natural History of Barbados (Ayer Publishing, reprint 1972), p. 228.
Tomato Wine (1874)
Take ripe tomatoes; cook them enough to let the juice flow freely. To each gallon of juice, add 1 of water; then to each gallon of this mixture, put 3 pounds of loaf sugar; set it by to ferment. After the lees sink to the bottom of the vessel rack off, and add a little more sugar if necessary. Clarify after the second fermentation with isinglass, or white of an egg.
Miss Tyson, Queen of the Kitchen, a collection of ‘Old Maryland’ family receipts for cooking (Philadelphia: Peterson, 1874), p. 349-350.
Perfect!