Beverages, Past and Present; An Historical Sketch of Their Production, Together with a Study of the Customs Connected with Their Use Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... luxuriant profusion and it was not long before the people recognised their value in a wine-making capacity. Fruits, however, were not the only thing these people exerted their ingenuity upon: flowers and vegetables had to play their parts as well in allaying the thirst, while trees of various sorts were also replevined in order to extract from them a beverage more or less intoxicating. Several writers have classified these wines under the title "home wines" and perhaps no better name could be bestowed upon them, for while they are undoubtedly made in goodly quantities yet the amount has never been sufficient to warrant their being put upon the market as a staple article of commerce. Some of these home wines call for and receive far more attention than would be bestowed on the ordinary wines of the grape. For an example we append a recipe taken form an old cook book for the making of rhubarb wine. Take it says fifty pounds of rhubarb and thirty-seven pounds of good moist sugar. Have ready a tub that holds from fifteen to twenty gallons. Bore a hole near the bottom for a tap. In this tub bruise the rhubarb, add four gallons of clear cold water, stir well; cover with a blanket and let stand for twenty-four hours; then draw off the liquor through the tap; add one or two more gallons of water to the pulp, let it be well stirred, and allowed to remain an hour or two to settle, then draw off; mix the two liquors together and in it dissolve the thirty-seven pounds of sugar. Let the tub be made clean and return the liquor to it, cover with a blanket and place in a room the temperature of which is not below 60 Fahr. Here it is to remain twenty-four, forty-eight, or more hours until there is an appearance of fermentation having begun, when it should be...