Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Raspberry Wine (another way).— Bruise fine ripe raspberries with the back of a wooden spoon, put them into a stone jar, and pour over them an equal quantity of cold spring water. Leave them until the next day, strain off the liquor, and press the fruit. Dissolve in a small portion of the liquor one pound of loaf sugar for each quart of wine. Stir this into the rest, put the wine into a cask, and stir every day. When fermentation ceases, close the cask. In three months it will be ready for use. Raspberry Wine (another way).— Take forty-two quarts of sound ripe red raspberries, gathered in fine weather, pick them, and clear them from the stalks. Put them into a tub, and pour upon them ten gallons of boiling soft water, cover the vessel up close, and let the raspberries stand until the next day. Then take off the scum, press the fruit through a fine sieve, and when the liquid has stood to settle three or four hours, draw it off clear, and put it into your cask, filter the thick perfectly clear, and add that. Stir in by degrees twenty-five pounds of good moist sugar, and work it with six table- spoonfuls of fresh ale yeast, mixed well with two quarts of the liquor. Put paper and a tile over the bung- hole, keep the cask full, and let it work over. When fermentation has ceased, stop it up for a month, then rack it off into a clean vessel, filter the lees well, and put the wine again into the cask with an ounce of dissolved isinglass and three pints of French brandy. Secure the bung well, and let the wine remain in a cool cellar twelve months; you may then bottle it, and, sealing the corks, keep it until two years old. Ratafia. - - This is the name given to spirituous liquor when flavoured with the kernels of various fruits, like peaches, apricots, and cherries. It should be dropped into any preparation with great care, as, though very delicious when sparingly used, it is poisonous as well as most unpleasant when moderation is not exercised. Small biscuits flavoured with sweet and bitter almonds are named ratafias. Distilled peach or apricot leaves, when cut in the spring, may be used mstead of ratafia for flavouring puddings. One way of making ratafia is as follows : — Take tlie stones from two pounds of morella cherries, and pound them well with one ounce of blanched apricot kernels and a spoonful of brandy. Put them into a large stone jar with a "quart of fine brandy, and cover closely. Let the jar remain for six weeks, and shake it twice a day. BAT (714) BAT Strain the liquor through a sieve with blottingpaper laid in it, and add half a pound of white sugar-candy dissolved in a quarter of a pint of cold water. Taste the ratatia, and if not sufficiently sweet add a little more sugar-candy. Put the preparation into small bottles, cork these closely, and store for use. If apricot kernels cannot easily be obtained, blanched bitter almonds may be used instead. Sufficient for nearly three pints of ratafia.