Currant Water

Ingredients

• a quart of red currants
• a cupful of raspberries
• two quarts of cold water
• half a pound of loaf sugar

Method

1. 1

   Bruise the currants and raspberries well, pour cold water over them, and add sugar.

2. 2

   Simmer, then strain through a jelly-bag.

3. 3

   Adjust sugar to taste and serve in glass jugs.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 12 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 446. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Currant Water (a refreshing summer di-ink). — Mix a quart of red currants and a cupful of raspberries. Bruise them well ; jiour over them two quarts of cold water, and add half a i^ound of loaf sugar. Put them into a preser- ving-pan, and when they begin to simmer, take them off, put with them a little writing-paper soaked in water till it is reduced to a pulp, to assist the clearing, and strain the liquid through a jelly-bag. Add as much sugar as is agreeable to the taste, and serve in glass jugs. Time, half an hour. Probable cost of currants, 4d. to 6d. per quart. Sufficient for three quarts of water. Currant Water (another way).— Dis- solve a dessert-spoonful of red or white currant jelly in a tumblerful of wai-m water. Let the liquid get quite cold, then add about ten gi-ains of tartaric acid. This and other cooling summer drinks should be taken in moderation, as they are by no means wholesome. Time, a few minutes. Probable cost, ■2d. per glass. Currant Water Ice.— Get the juice from a pint of red currants, to which have been added a few raspberries to give additional colour. Add a pound of sugar which has been boiled to a sj-rup with half a pint of water and the juice squeezed from two lemons. Strain the liquid into the mould and freeze. Time, half an hour to draw out the juice. Sufficient for one quart of ice. {fiec also Currant Cream Ice.) "T! Currant Wine, Black. — Take six quarts of black currant jun-c ; mix it with six quarts of cold water and twelve pounds of moist sugar. Wlien the sugar is dissolved put the liquor into a cask, which must be kept in a warm, dry room. It win ferment without anything else being added to it. A little of the liquid should be kept with which to fill up the cask when the fermentation is over, and the wine has been well skimmed. Before closing the cask add one quart of brandy. Currant wine should not be bottkd for twelve months, and will fee im- proved if kept even longer. This wine will be good for several years. Probable cost of cur- rants, 4d. to 6d. per quart. i^Ciirrant Wine, Red. — Take three gal- lons of ripe red cui-rants, jjick from the stalks, bruise them and press out the juice, and infuse the residue in four and a half gallons of cold water. Mix well and repeatedly to insure equal diffusion ; press out the liquor, mix it with the juice, and add fourteen pounds of loaf sugar. When the sugar is dissolved, transfer the whole to a cask large enough to leave some space unfilled, put in the bung and bore a hole through it with the gimlet, and allow the cask to stand where the temperature is not less than seventy degrees, for a month. By that time the fermentation will have greatly de- creiised. Add three pounds of sugar, dissolved in two quarts of warai water, shake the cask well, and bung it as before. In about six or eight weeks, on listening at the bunghole, your ear will inform you that fermentation has ceased, then rack off the clear liquor from the sediment, and mix with it a quart of the best French brandy. Set it by in the cellar for about two months, when the liquor is again to be racked off into a clean but not new cask, which should be quite filled ; it must now be tightly bunged down, so as to exclude the air perfectly, and be preserved for three or four years at a temperature of seventy degrees. AVIien neces- sary the cask should be for this purpose kept near a fire. Time, about three months to cement. Currant Wine, WTiite. — "Wliite currant wine may be made in the same way as red, with two ounces of bruised bitter abnonds mixed in the fermenting liquor. Currant Wine from Unripe Fruit. —Currants may be Tised for making wine before they are quite lipe. They should be bruised sufficiently to burst the berries, and have the water poured over them : the sugar may be intro- duced at once. If this is done the wine will be strong and highly flavoured, though not very sweet. The wine must be well strained before it is put into the cask. The same proportions may be allowed for this wine as for black cur- rant, and the same directions may be followed. The only difference wiU be that greater care ynll be required in separating the stalks from the fruit. Currants, Compote of.— Pick a quart of ripe red and white currants quite free from dust. Put half a pound of loaf sugar

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.