[Sca-cooks] Crab-apples and Verjuice

[Katheline van Weye]

The discussion on historical apples reminded me of something...In 16th century English cooking, verjuice is made from crab-apples.

>From Markham's The English Housewife...
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31. To make verjuice
To make verjuice, you shall gather your crabs as soon as the kernels turn black, and, having laid them a while in a heap to sweat together, take them and pick them from stalks, blacks, and rottenness: then in long troughs with beetles for the purpose, crush and break them all to mash: then make a bag of coarse haircloth as square as the press, and fill it with the crushed crabs; then put it into the press, and press it while any moisture will drop forth, have a clean vessel underneath to receive the liquor: this done, tun it up into sweet hogsheads, and to every hogshead put a half a dozen handfuls of damask rose leaves, and then bung it up, and spend it as you shall have occasion.
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Note: The "beetles" mentioned in the recipe refer to clotting beetles or mallets.


In Service,
Katheline