Virginia Cookery-book

Express the juice from the blackberries ; to the squeezed pulp add as much water as it has yielded juice, and stir for half an hour ; then strain, and mix with the juice. To every gallon of this mixture add two pounds and a half, or three pounds, of white sugar; place the cask in the cellar while the process of fermentation is going on, and cover the mouth with grease, so as to admit air but exclude insects. To ascertain if there is saccharine matter enough in the juice and water to make good wine, drop an egg in, and if it floats all is right ; otherwise, add more sugar. Rack off and bottle in November, after fermentation has entirely ceased. A few observations may not be amiss on blackberry wine-making in general. All of the three recipes given above have been tested and approved by good judges, and we believe either of the three will produce satisfactory results. Dewberries, or low-berries, as they are called in some sections of the country, answer just as well for wine-making as the high, or shrub-growing variety; possessing the same astringent properties, so valuable for checking some diseases. Whether the sugar be the commonest brown or purest white, let there be enough of it to float an egg — three pounds to the gallon being the a]>- proximate weight allowed in all cases to the gallon, if success is to be sure. A cellar affords the most favorable temperature for the keeping of this and all other wines. There seems to be a great diversity of opinion as to the relative proportions of water and juice — ^authorities varying from one pint of juice to three quarts and one pint of water to nearly the converse, viz., one quart of water to three quarts of juice. It would seem that if the quantity of sugar is right to the gallon, wine is sure to result in either case, and the color is prettier where there is less of the fruit juice. Some say dark-brown sugar containing a quantity of alcohol makes the wine have more body ; others insist that whUe sugar is indispensable ; while yet others, again, come between the two, and prescribe fair-brown sugar. we have seen good wine made by persons holding these diverse opinions, and mention them to show the house-keeper that a large margin may be allowed for variations that circumstances sometimes enforce, and yet her wine not be spoiled. There is room, too, for those who love experiment to try and bring more certainty into a manufacture about which there seems to be so much as yet undecided. A third of an ounce of alum to each gallon of wine, put in when the juice is set to ferment, is thought by some to be a great improvement. Wine from Catawba Gbapbs. Gather the grapes, and strip them from their stalks, leaving out all decayed ones ; put them into a large china bowl or wooden tub ; with a masher break the skins and express the juice; cover, so that gnats may not be attracted, and leave for several days, or until decided fermentation sets in ; then strain, and to each gallon of the juice put one pound of white sugar. A delicious lady's sweet wine is thus furnished — ^such as would be very reviving to a delicate or feeble person. Gbapb Wine. Mash the grapes, and strain them through a cloth ; put the skins in a tub after squeezing them, with barely enough water to cover them; strain the juice thus obtained into the first portion ; put three pounds of sugar to one gallon of the mixture ; let it stand in an open tub to ferment, and for a period of from three to seven days skim off what rises every morning. Put the juice in a cask, and leave it open for twenty-four hours ; then bung it up, and put clay over the bung to keep the air out. Let your wine remain in the cask until March, when it should be drawn off and bottled. Currant Wink