Pre-Pasteur Recipes

Heat four cups milk; cool; when lukewarm, add one-fourth yeast cake dissolved in one-fourth cup lukewarm water, and two tablespoons sugar. Pour into bottles with patent stoppers, fill two-thirds full, cork tightly. Shake; let stand in kitchen six hours, then on ice for twenty-four hour; serve ice cold.

Take a quantity of fresh mare’s milk, add to it one-sixth part water, pour the mixture into a wooden bowl. Use as a ferment one eighth part of skimmed milk; but at any future preparation, a small portion of old koumiss will answer better. Cover the vessel with a thick cloth and set in a moderately warm place for twenty-four …

Take four and one-half gallons of cold soft water, seven pounds Malaga or Smyrna raisins, two and one-quarter quarts juniper-berries, one-half ounce red tartar, one-half handful wormwood, one-half handful sweet marjoram, one pint whiskey or more. Ferment for ten or twelve days.

Turn five quarts of water on six ounces of hops; boil three hours. Strain off the liquor; turn on four quarts more of water, and twelve spoonfuls of ginger, and boil the hops three hours longer. Strain and mix it with the other liquor, and stir in two quarts of molasses. Brown, very dry, one-half pound of bread and put …

Crush the grapes and let them stand one week. Drain off the juice, strain; add one quart of water and three pounds of sugar to each gallon. Put in a barrel or cask with a thin piece of muslin tacked over the bung-hole, and let stand until fermentation stops. Put in a cask and seal securely, and let stand six …

The larger the proportion of juice and the less of water, the nearer it will approach to the strength and richness of foreign wine. There ought not to be less than one-third juice pure. Squeeze the grapes in a hair sieve, bruising them with the hand rather than any heavier press, as it is better not to crush the stones. …

Two quarts of grape juice, two quarts of water, four pounds of sugar. Extract the juice of the grape in any simple way; if only a few quarts are desired, we dot it with a strainer and a pair of squeezers; if a large quantity is desired, put the grapes into a cheese-press made particularly clean, putting on sufficient weight …

Wash and take form the stems ten pounds ripe Concord grapes. Add two quarts water and bring them to a boil. Use a potato masher. When the seeds separate, strain through double cheese-cloth. Add two pounds of granulated sugar and strain again. Bring again to a boil and bottle directly, boiling hot, cork and seal, or put into patent bottles. …

Take four and one-half gallons cold soft water and fifteen quarts of white gooseberries. Ferment. Now mix six pounds refined sugar, four pounds honey, one ounce white tartar in fine powder. Put in one ounce dry orange and lemon peel, or two ounces fresh, and add one-half gallon white brandy. This will make nine gallons.

Take one and one-half gallons cold soft water, three quarts red gooseberries, two quarts white gooseberries. Ferment. Now mix two and one-half pounds raw sugar, three-quarters pound honey, one-half ounce tartar in fine powder. Afterwards put in one ounce bitter almonds, a small handful sweet briar, two quarts brandy or less.