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Drink

Damson Wine

A fruit wine made by bruising damsons, boiling them in water, adding sugar, fermenting, and aging.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Damson Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Gather the damsons on a dry day and bruise them.

  2. Place the bruised damsons in a container with a spout and add 1 gallon of boiling water.

  3. After two days, strain the mixture into another vessel.

  4. Add 2.5 pounds of sugar to the strained liquid and mix well.

  5. Fill the container and seal it tightly.

Age and bottle

  1. Store in a cool cellar for 12 months.

  2. After 12 months, bottle the wine, adding a lump of sugar to each bottle.

  3. Cork the bottles well and let them age for 2 months before using.

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

Damsons
Provide the fruit flavour, acidity and tannin that give the wine its character.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and feeds fermentation, which produces alcohol.

The step that matters

Sealing the container tightly. A tight seal keeps air out so spoilage microbes cannot take hold, while still letting the fermentation proceed under controlled conditions.

“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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