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Parsnip Wine

This beverage is highly spoken of by those who are accustomed to home-made wines. Clean, and carefully remove any spongy or decayed portions from the roots, quarter them, and cut them into pieces about four inches long. After they are thus prepared, weigh them, and boil them, allowing four or five pounds of the roots to each gallon of water. When they are tender, without being pulpy, leave the lid off the copper for a short time, to allow the escape of the strong aromatic odour which will arise, then strain the liquid through a hair sieve into a tub, and be careful in doing so not to bruise the roots. Add immediately half an ounce of powdered white argol (a bi-tartrate of potassium, procurable at the chemist's), to each gallon of wine, and when it has been stirred a few minutes, introduce three pounds of loaf sugar, and stir again until the latter is dissolved. Leave the liquid uncovered until it is almost cold, that is, until it is reduced to a temperature of eighty-five degrees. Cut a thick round of bread from a half-quartern loaf, toast it, and moisten it with fresh yeast (two table-spoonfuls will be sufficient for six gallons of wine); put this into the liquid, cover with a flannel the vessel which contains it, and stir it every day until the fermentation subsides. The vessel should be kept in a room or cellar where from fifty to fifty-five degrees may be kept up, and the yeast should be skimmed off as it forms. In ten days or a fortnight the wine may be turned into the cask. If a sweet wine is wanted the barrel should be filled to the bung and left for a few days; them as it overflows it should be filled up with a small quantity of the liquid, which has been preserved for the purpose. When it is quiet, the hole may be covered with a piece of brown paper, and if that remains unmoved for a week the cask may be loosely bunged down, and in a day or two, when the "fretting" is quite over, made tight. This wine may be racked off in six months, but should not be bottled for at least a year. When a dry wine is wanted, leave the liquid in the open vessel until all the beer yeast has risen and been skimmed off, then put it into the cask, and leave an inch or two of space in the barrel; frequently stir in the yeasty froth, and to prevent the liquor escaping cover it with a slate. Skim the liquor thoroughly before securing it, and be careful not to fill up the cask until the wine is quite tranquil. Time to ferment the liquid, ten or fourteen days, until the fermentation subsides. Probable cost, 1s. 10d. per gallon.