Name: Gooseberry Wzne to Resemble Cbampagne
Ingredients: 40 pounds gooseberries; 4 gallons water; 30 pounds loaf sugar; 3 ounces tartar (crude)

Gooseberry Wzne to Resemble Cbampagne

Ingredients

40 pounds gooseberries
4 gallons water
30 pounds loaf sugar
3 ounces tartar (crude)

Directions

Prepare the fruit

Select gooseberries that are full grown but not ripe, preferring those with less flavor when ripe.
Remove unsound or bruised fruit and any remaining blossoms or stems.
Bruise the gooseberries in a clean tub without breaking the seeds.
Add 4 gallons of water.
Stir until juice and pulp separate from seeds and skins.
Let the mixture rest for 6 to 24 hours.
Strain the mixture through a coarse bag.

Make the must

Dissolve 30 pounds of sugar in the strained juice.
Add water to make 11 gallons.
Add 3 ounces of crude tartar to the mixture.

Ferment

Cover the tub with a blanket and a board.
Keep it at 55°F to 60°F for 24 hours to 2 days for fermentation.
Transfer the mixture into a cask.

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

Gooseberries: Provide the fruit juice and pulp that form the base of the wine.
Loaf sugar: Feeds the yeast during fermentation and sets the wine's sweetness and alcohol level.
Tartar (crude): Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and helps keep the wine stable.

The step that matters

Keep the fermentation temperature steady. Holding the mixture between 55°F and 60°F for the stated period lets yeast ferment cleanly. Much warmer temperatures can produce off-flavors, while cooler temperatures slow fermentation and invite spoilage.

“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.