Name: Blackberry Drink
Ingredients: 12 quarts blackberries; 2 quarts clear water; 5 ounces tartaric acid; 1 pound sugar

Blackberry Drink

Ingredients

12 quarts blackberries
2 quarts clear water
5 ounces tartaric acid
1 pound sugar

Directions

Prepare the juice

Combine 12 quarts of blackberries with 2 quarts of clear water and dissolve 5 ounces of tartaric acid in the mixture.
Let the mixture stand for 48 hours.
Strain the juice through a flannel cloth or sieve without pressing.

Sweeten and bottle

For each pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar and bottle immediately.
Cover each bottle with a piece of cloth and let it stand for about 10 days.
Cork the bottles and use when desired, diluting the acid liquid with ⅔ ice water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Blackberries: Provide the main flavor, color and fruit juice for the drink.
Tartaric acid: Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the fruit flavor.
Sugar: Sweetens the juice and balances the acidity of the tartaric acid.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.