Clary Wine
12 quartsIngredients
Directions
Prepare the liquid
Boil the water with the sugar and skim it.
When cool, mix a little of the water with the yeast.
Gradually add more yeast mixture to the water.
Ferment
Pour the mixture over the clary flowers.
When it stops hissing and all flowers are added, seal it for four months.
Rack, fortify and bottle
Rack off the liquid, leaving the dregs behind.
Add 1 gallon of the best brandy, seal it, and let it stand for 6 to 8 weeks.
Bottle the wine.
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
- Sugar
- Provides the sweetness and the fuel that yeast turns into alcohol and carbon dioxide.
- Yeast
- Ferments the sugar into alcohol, which drives the wine's transformation.
- Clary flowers
- Supply the aroma and flavour that give the wine its character.
- Brandy (in the method)
- Raises the alcohol content and adds body and warmth to the finished wine.
The step that matters
Seal only after the hissing stops. Hissing comes from carbon dioxide released by active fermentation. Sealing while it still bubbles can trap gas and pressure in the container, so wait until the fermentation has visibly slowed.
“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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