SC - Dandelion Wine

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Dyane McSpadden wrote:

> A member of my local group asked me to ask if anyone out here has a recipe
> for dandelion wine they can post and/or send, it seems he has a backyard
> full of the little buggers :)

>From Jocasta Innes' "The Country Kitchen":

DANDELION WINE

Another flower classic. Pick the dandelions on a hot day, and use only
the petals, pinching them off and discarding the centres and stalks.

2 litres (4 pints) dandelion petals
5 litres (1 gallon) water
1 kg (2 lb) sugar
225 g (8 oz) raisins
3 oranges
1 lemons (or 7 g/ 1/4 oz citric acid)
150 ml (1/4 pint) strong tea or 8 drops tannin concentrate
2 rounded teaspoons all purpose wine yeast
1 level teaspoon yeast nutrient

The method is exactly the same as for gorse wine.


GORSE WINE

<ingredients snipped>

Put the flowers into the fermenting bin immediately. Boil up half the
water, half the sugar, and the chopped sultanas together for a minute or
two, then pour over the flowers. Thinly peel the rind from the oranges
and the lemons, and add to the bin. Squeeze out the juice and add that
too. Add the cold tea, or the tannin, stir thoroughly. Make up to 5
litres (1 gallon) with cold tap water, or cooled boiled water if you
prefer. This should give you a tepid mixture, about right for adding the
yeast from the starter bottle. Add the yeast and the yeast nutrient,
stir well, cover. Ferment for one week, stirring daily. After two ot
three days, when fermenting well, add the remaining sugar, stirring to
dissolve. Strain through a hair sieve or cloth and siphon into a 5 litre
(1 gallon) jar. Fill up to the neck of the jar with  cool, boiled water,
if necessary ( the less surface area exposed with all wines, the
better), fit an airlock or secure a plastic bag with an elastic band
over the neck of the jar. Rack when clear, bottle and keep for six
months.
*****************************

Me again. Just a few comments directed at any beginning
cooks/brewers/vintners:

1) I strongly recommend you use the metric measurements or recalculate
the American measurements correctly. They are vague approximations at
best  and are significantly off.

2) Change any specific recipe references to reflect the fact that the
method is intended for a different recipe. So, for sultanas, read
raisins, etc.

3) This is not a period recipe. It calls for non-period ingredients
being used in a non-period way. Substituting the tea for the tannin,
etc., will not change this fact. There may be a dandelion or other
flower wine similar to this in Sir Kenelm Digby, but then he's not a
period source, either. If you have no problem with this, then neither do
I.

4) I recommend that any aging instructions given in almost any British
alcoholic beverage recipe be increased by a factor of 50%, but not to
exceed a year, except in the case of things like an especially heavy
stout or very strong mead. 

All that said, have a good time and enjoy.

I, for one, will stick to my kvass!

Adamantius