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Wine, Beetroot, Red

Bruise six quarts of ripe sloes (the fruit of the blackthorn) in a stone mortar, breaking the stones, boil them twenty minutes in two quarts of soft water strain the liquor, and pour it into a stone jar. Scrub well with a soft brush and wash thirty pounds of purple beetroots, but on no account cut or break the skins, and boil them slowly till tender. When cold, peel and slice them into a tub, pour on them the sloe liquor, cover them up, and the following day add the rinds of three lemons and four Seville oranges, and twelve pounds of Smyrna raisins cut in halves. Boil for three-quarters of an hour twenty-six pounds of strong moist sugar with nine gallons and a half of soft water, skimming it well, and pour it hot into the tub upon the sliced beetroots, etc.; stir well, and when lukewarm work it well with eight table-spoonfuls of strong yeast, cover it up, and let it remain three days; then strain the liquor, and filter it into the cask, filling to the bung. Let it work out, and when the fermentation is over, put to the wine six ounces of sugar-candy and a quart of French brandy. Then stop it up for a month, rack it off, filter the lees, and put all again into the cask with an ounce of the best isinglass dissolved, and two ounces of bitter almonds blanched and slit. Secure the bung, and let the wine stand eighteen months; then bottle it, seal the corks, and keep it a year longer. This is a nice light wine, and has frequently been introduced as claret. It improves greatly with age.