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Unfermented Wine
IO POUNDS CONCORD GRAPES 2 QUARTS WATER 2 CUPS SUGAR Cook grapes until they break, and skins are tender; let juice drain overnight. To the juice, add 2 cups granulated sugar; let boil 5 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. When you drink it, add lemon juice to taste.
A straightforward Concord grape juice, boiled briefly with sugar and served diluted and sharpened with lemon. The method is sound; a few of the quantities need reading with care.
- The waterTwo quarts of water are listed but never called for in the method. Presumably it was meant to go in with the grapes at the start of cooking -- the listed amount works out to about a quart per five pounds of fruit -- so the mass simmers rather than scorches. Concords are juicy enough that less will do if you crush them first.
- Cooking the grapesHeat gently, at a bare simmer rather than a hard boil, until the skins split and slump. Hard boiling extracts tannin from seeds and skins and dulls the flavor.
- Draining overnightHang the pulp in a jelly bag or a double layer of cheesecloth over a bowl and leave it. Do not squeeze if you want clear juice; squeezing gives more yield and a cloudy, slightly bitter result. Overnight in a cool room is intended, but a refrigerator is safer for a long drain.
- Tartrate crystalsConcord juice throws gritty cream-of-tartar crystals as it stands cold. Chilling the strained juice for a day and decanting off the sediment before sweetening produces a cleaner drink.
- SugarTwo cups to the yield of ten pounds of grapes is a light hand by modern soda standards. Dissolve it in the warm juice and taste before committing to the full amount; ripe Concords carry a good deal of their own sugar.
- "Unfermented"The five-minute boil pasteurizes the juice but does not preserve it. Without proper hot-fill canning in sterilized jars, treat this as a fresh drink: refrigerate and use within about a week, or freeze it. Left at room temperature it will begin to ferment from wild yeast on the fruit.
- Yield and servingTen pounds of grapes gives roughly four to five quarts of finished juice with the water included. The lemon juice is stirred in at the glass rather than in the pot.