Never throw away the dregs of any kind of wine, but have what is called a cooking bottle : the dregs of sherry when mixed together will settle down, and do for flavouring gravies, such as salmi sauce or mock-turtle soup. The dregs, too, of port wine do for jugged hare, venison, kc. Some sherry, especially of a very light, delicate colour, will occasionally have a slight taste of sulphur. I believe this is owing to the wine originally being carried on mules' backs in. Spain in skins, which skins have been rubbed with sidphur. Ixxxiv cassell's Dictionary of cookery. This peculiar flavour, though slightly impairing the delicacy of the wine, is not, however, unwholesome. In selecting sherry, of course everything depends upon the. palate of the taster. It is, however, often best to leave this selection to the wine merchant, always bearing in mind that it is impossible to get a fine wine for 18s. a dozen. The chief point to be avoided in sherries is spirit. Some of the very cheap sherry contains a great deal of an exceedingly unwholesome spirit — wood spirit, in fact, wliich is very injurious. These fiery sherries are almost the worst form of stimulant in which persons can indulge. Remember, therefore, in buying sherry that there is no such thing as a bargain, save at sales by auction. When any person ofiers you three sixpences for a shilling, you may depend upon it that at least two out of the three must be bad ones. It is tjuite impossible to get a pure, wholesome wine at Is. 3d. a bottle ; and it is to be regi-etted that such large quantities of injurious wine are allowed to be sold in this country, as well as had spirits. Indeed, many of the unfortunate poor who are charged with drunkenness are in reality more poisoned than drunk, and many of those shocking outbvirsts of wild ferocity that too often appear in the police reports are the results of the brain being maddened temporarily by j^oisonous liquors. We will next proceed to discuss port — probably still the most really popular Avine in this country. Much that has been said of cheap sherry applies equally to cheap port, the only difierence being that port is a somewhat dearer wine than shei-ry. When the consumption of wine in a house is large, it will be found advisable to draw the port for every -day drinking from the wood, i.e., if you feel sure you will finish the cask within twelve months. When port is kept in the wood too long it is apt to lose colour and deteriorate in flavovir. The minimum price at which I should say a fairly sovmd palatable port can be bought would be about £18 for a quarter cask, i.e., twenty-eight gallons, or between thirteen and fourteen dozen of wine. Port varies very much witli the year and also with the time of bottling. The most famous vintages are 1820, 18.34, 1840, 1847, 1863, and 1870. The 1840 port is a splendid dry wine that still retains its colour in perfect integrity, and when authenticated will fetch a guinea a bottle. The 1847 port varies immensely, some being rather sweet. It is still a very rich wine, and wlien bottled early is nearly equal to the 1840, though not so dry. Very few vintages promise better than the 1870, the wine already fetching 48s. a dozen. Port wine throws a crust on the bottle, which crust should be transparent. Great care should be taken in decanting the wine not to break this crust.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Never throw away the dregs of any kind of wine, but have what is called a cooking bottle : the dregs of sherry when mixed together will settle down, and do for flavouring gravies, such as salmi sauce or mock-turtle soup. The dregs, too, of port wine do for jugged hare, venison, kc. Some sherry, especially of a very light, delicate colour, will occasionally have a slight taste of sulphur. I believe this is owing to the wine originally being carried on mules' backs in. Spain in skins, which skins have been rubbed with sulphur. Ixxxiv cassell's Dictionary of cookery. This peculiar flavour, though slightly impairing the delicacy of the wine, is not, however, unwholesome. In selecting sherry, of course everything depends upon the. palate of the taster. It is, however, often best to leave this selection to the wine merchant, always bearing in mind that it is impossible to get a fine wine for 18s. a dozen. The chief point to be avoided in sherries is spirit. Some of the very cheap sherry contains a great deal of an exceedingly unwholesome spirit — wood spirit, in fact, which is very injurious. These fiery sherries are almost the worst form of stimulant in which persons can indulge. Remember, therefore, in buying sherry that there is no such thing as a bargain, save at sales by auction. When any person ofiers you three sixpences for a shilling, you may depend upon it that at least two out of the three must be bad ones. It is quite impossible to get a pure, wholesome wine at Is. 3d. a bottle ; and it is to be regretted that such large quantities of injurious wine are allowed to be sold in this country, as well as had spirits. Indeed, many of the unfortunate poor who are charged with drunkenness are in reality more poisoned than drunk, and many of those shocking outbursts of wild ferocity that too often appear in the police reports are the results of the brain being maddened temporarily by poisonous liquors. We will next proceed to discuss port — probably still the most really popular wine in this country. Much that has been said of cheap sherry applies equally to cheap port, the only difference being that port is a somewhat dearer wine than sherry. When the consumption of wine in a house is large, it will be found advisable to draw the port for every -day drinking from the wood, i.e., if you feel sure you will finish the cask within twelve months. When port is kept in the wood too long it is apt to lose colour and deteriorate in flavour. The minimum price at which I should say a fairly sound palatable port can be bought would be about £18 for a quarter cask, i.e., twenty-eight gallons, or between thirteen and fourteen dozen of wine. Port varies very much witli the year and also with the time of bottling. The most famous vintages are 1820, 1834, 1840, 1847, 1863, and 1870. The 1840 port is a splendid dry wine that still retains its colour in perfect integrity, and when authenticated will fetch a guinea a bottle. The 1847 port varies immensely, some being rather sweet. It is still a very rich wine, and when bottled early is nearly equal to the 1840, though not so dry. Very few vintages promise better than the 1870, the wine already fetching 48s. a dozen. Port wine throws a crust on the bottle, which crust should be transparent. Great care should be taken in decanting the wine not to break this crust.

Cassell's dictionary of cookery