Damson Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the water and sugar together for 2 hours.
Skim carefully.
Extract the colour
Add the pitted damsons.
Boil until the colour is a fine red.
Strain the liquid.
Ferment and age
Ferment it in an open tub or pan for 4 days.
Pour the clear liquid from the lees into a clean cask.
Let it stand until fermentation is complete.
Close it for 8 months.
Bottle the wine after 8 months.
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, colour and the tannins and acidity that give the wine its character.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, producing alcohol and carbon dioxide, and sets the sweetness of the finished wine.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar and forms the bulk of the liquid in which fermentation takes place.
The step that matters
Pour the clear liquid from the lees into a clean cask. Separating the wine from the solid lees leaves behind sediment that would otherwise cause off-flavours and cloudiness as fermentation continues. Keeping the liquid clear also helps the wine age cleanly.
“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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