Wine receipts from 1737

[Donegal john]

Found an old book that was reprinted in 1938 from an original olde book for housewives (their words not mine)
“Old English wines and cordials”
They use the word receipts not recipies and there seemingly was no such thing as sanitisation nor yeast other than wild yeast.
wonder what would come of making these nowadays ? Has anyone tried ?

 

[user 44889]

Found an old book that was reprinted in 1938 from an original olde book for housewives (their words not mine)
“Old English wines and cordials”
They use the word receipts not recipies and there seemingly was no such thing as sanitisation nor yeast other than wild yeast.
wonder what would come of making these nowadays ? Has anyone tried ? View attachment 46656View attachment 46657View attachment 46658View attachment 46659View attachment 46660View attachment 46656View attachment 46657

What a fantastic find. Love old books and the terms used.

 

[Berry454]

These old books are really am amazing read! But are they practical? Probably not.

I've bought several wine making books in the last couple weeks. The issue I've found with them is that most use actual fruit in the recipes.

So should you want to make a cherry wine you'll need to source 1.8kg of cherries for a 4.5l DJ. From supermarkets at £3 for 200g that's totally not feasible!

The only recipes that I've seen in books which have been useful are ones using large quantity cheap fruits such as apples, pears, pineapple ect. Even then, in modern day you can often do them cheaper without the actual fruit!

 

[user 44889]

These old books are really am amazing read! But are they practical? Probably not.

I've bought several wine making books in the last couple weeks. The issue I've found with them is that most use actual fruit in the recipes.

So should you want to make a cherry wine you'll need to source 1.8kg of cherries for a 4.5l DJ. From supermarkets at £3 for 200g that's totally not feasible!

The only recipes that I've seen in books which have been useful are ones using large quantity cheap fruits such as apples, pears, pineapple ect. Even then, in modern day you can often do them cheaper without the actual fruit!

Yes they are amazing, got about 5 wine making books and i get general info from them and compare. Then chat to people on here and pick their brains for advice.
In my freezer I've got 4x480g bags of pitted Cherry's, got them from Tesco, i think i paid about £3 a bag ( was a time ago ) buying fresh fruit as you say is not feasible . The WOW wines are good.

 

[Berry454]

Yes they are amazing, got about 5 wine making books and i get general info from them and compare. Then chat to people on here and pick their brains for advice.
In my freezer I've got 4x480g bags of pitted Cherry's, got them from Tesco, i think i paid about £3 a bag ( was a time ago ) buying fresh fruit as you say is not feasible . The WOW wines are good.

See, even at £3 a bag that's close to £12 for enough cherries for a DJ of wine. To upscale to 5g that would cost £48 for a 30 bottle batch. Seriously expensive. Considering you can get wine expert kits in that range and other mostly grape concentrate kits.

WOWs are definitely great. Like asda's red grape juice. 647 grapes in a bottle for £1. It would cost a damn sight more than £1 for 647 grapes!!

It's just sad that fruit can't be more readily available at a reasonable price. Without the long term commitment of growing it yourself.