[Sca-cooks] cranberry wine

[sjk3 at cornell.edu]

Recipe from "Folk Wines, Cordials, and Brandies," M.E. Jagendorf (New
York: Vanguard, 1963).  As I mentioned, I've never made wine, so I have
no idea how well this recipe would work.  There are no footnotes, so I
don't know where he got his information from, though he does have a
4-page bibliography that cites both old (Plat, Digby) and newer (Beeton)
works.

Sandra Kisner
sjk3 at cornell.edu

****

Cranberry Wine
Since cranberries are so intertwined with one of our happiest of
festivals, Thanksgiving Day, it is no more than just that we should make
a cranberry wine - and a good wine it is.

The North American Indians thought the settlers should have the pleasure
of this startlingly red, firm fruit.  The Indians had eaten cranberries
as far back as they could remember, using them in their pemmican and as a
cure for liver troubles.

The Colonists liked the berries so much that they sent ten barrels of
them as a gift to Charles II, and I hope he enjoyed them as much as did
the Colonists and Indians.

You need:
8 qts. cranberries
2 gals. water
6 lbs. sugar
3 lbs. raisins
3 / 4 oz. yeast (3 packages)

1. Wash the cranberries and put them into a crock.

2. Boil the water and pour it over the cranberries.  Mash the berries
thoroughly with a wooden spoon.  Then cover them and let them stand for a
week, crushing them daily with either your hands or a wooden spoon.

3. On the eighth day, strain the liquid into an enamel pot, squeezing the
fruit dry through a thick cloth.

4. Dissolve the sugar in the liquid.

5. Cut up the raisins as well as you can and add them.

6. Heat the liquid to lukewarm, then pour it back into the crock.

7. Dissolve 3 / 4 oz. yeast in 1 / 2 cup warm water and add it.  Cover,
set in a warm place (65-70 degrees [F]) and let it ferment.  Fermentation
will take about two or three weeks.  Strain into glass jars, let the wine
rest for a few days, then decant, fine if necessary, and bottle.

The wine will gain greatly by aging, and so it is wise not to drink it
for a year; a longer period is even better.