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Drink

Balm Wine

A fermented beverage made from sugar, water, green balm tops, and yeast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Balm Wine

Balm Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar in water gently for 4 hours.

  2. Cool the syrup in a tub.

Ferment

  1. Bruise the green balm tops and place them in a barrel with a little new yeast.

  2. Pour the nearly cold syrup over the balm and stir well.

  3. Let it stand for 24 hours, stirring frequently.

Bottle

  1. After 6 weeks, bottle the mixture and add a lump of sugar to each bottle.

  2. Cork the bottles tightly.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides the sweetness and the fermentable material that yeast turns into alcohol.
Green balm tops
Supply the aroma and flavour that the finished wine carries.
New yeast
Starts fermentation by converting the sugar in the syrup into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

The step that matters

Cool the syrup before adding the balm. Pouring hot syrup over the balm and yeast can kill the yeast, so the fermentation may never start. The syrup should be nearly cold before it goes in.

“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.

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