Skip to main content
Drink

Gooseberry Wine

A fermented beverage made by crushing gooseberries, adding sugar, and allowing the mixture to settle and age.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Gooseberry Wine

Gooseberry Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Gather gooseberries in a dry season when they are half ripe.

  2. Pick and bruise them in a tub with a wooden mallet.

  3. Put the bruised gooseberries into a horse‑hair cloth and press them without breaking the seeds.

  4. Add the pressed juice back to the bruised gooseberries in the tub.

Ferment and bottle

  1. For every gallon of juice, add 3 pounds of powdered sugar and stir until dissolved.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a vessel, filling it completely.

  3. Let it stand for 2–3 weeks if the vessel holds about 10–12 gallons; if 20 gallons, let it stand for 4–5 weeks in a cool place.

  4. After settling, draw off the wine from the lees.

  5. Return the clear liquor to the vessel and let it stand for 3 months if 3 gallons, or 4–5 months if 20 gallons, then bottle it.

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

Gooseberries
Provide the juice and fruit flavour that form the base of the wine.
Powdered sugar
Feeds the fermentation and sets the sweetness and alcohol level of the wine.

The step that matters

Pressing without breaking the seeds. Crushed seeds can release bitter and astringent compounds into the juice, which then carry through fermentation into the finished wine. Pressing gently keeps the flavour clean.

“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.

More gooseberry wine recipes

Pearl 5Green 4 See all 79 →

You might also like

Vegetable SoupVegetable Soup350 recipesRaspberry VinegarRaspberry Vinegar214 recipesBrown Coffee with EggBrown Coffee with Egg175 recipesBlackberry CordialBlackberry Cordial129 recipes