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Verjuice

Verjuice, or the juice of green fruits, is an acid liquor expressed from crab-apples, sour grapes, and unripe gooseberries, and used in sauces or ragouts as a substitute for lemon-juice; indeed, for some dishes experienced cooks prefer verjuice to lemon-acid. To prepare it from unripe grapes, gather the grapes while they are transparent, and extract the juice from them by a wine or cider press, or by pressing them in a cloth. Filter it repeatedly till it is clear. Bottle it, and expose it to the sun, uncorked, for six or seven days. The liquor will ferment, and the bottles must be filled up every morning. To preserve it, an ounce of salt should be added to each pint of juice, and it should be kept in well-closed bottles. Gooseberry verjuice is much used in France. It is sweetened and coloured, and sold as "Syrup de Groseilles." It is made just like grape verjuice. When crab-apples are made use of for this purpose, they must be gathered fully ripe, then piled in a heap, and left for a few days to sweat before the juice is expressed from them. All decayed apples must, of course, be discarded. As verjuice is very liable to undergo decomposition, the vessels in which it is to be preserved should be sulphured before it is put into them. To do this, introduce into the jars a burning match that has been dipped in melted sulphur, fill the bottles while they are full of the smoke, and cork instantly and very securely.