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Wine, Damson

Boil for half an hour ten gallons and a half of filtered river-water with thirty-two pounds of strong moist sugar and the whites of ten eggs well beaten, skimming it well; then add thirty-two quarts of ripe prune damsons well picked from the stalks and stoned, and boil them half an hour longer, skimming and stirring until the liquor is beautifully bright. Strain it off the fruit in a fine hair sieve into your cooler, and when at the proper temperature work it with fresh yeast, spread on toast, three or four days. Then draw it off the sediment, put it into the cask, filter the lees, and fill up, letting it work out at the bung. When it has ceased hissing put to it a quart of French brandy, and stop it up safely, pasting paper over the bung. Let it stand for six months, then rack it off, filter the lees through flannel twice folded, and filling the cask again, add an ounce of isinglass dissolved and mixed with two quarts of the wine. Secure the bung well, and let it remain two years; then draw it off and bottle, sealing the corks. This being a rich wine, requires age, and should not be drunk until it has been bottled two years or more.