Damson Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Make the liquid
Boil water and sugar for 2 hours, skimming carefully.
Add pitted damsons and boil until the color is a fine red.
Strain the liquid and ferment it in an open tub or pan for 4 days.
Age and bottle
Pour the clear liquid from the sediment into a clean cask.
Let it stand until fermentation is complete, then close it for 8 months.
Bottle the wine; it improves if kept for a year or more.
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 flavor, color and tannin that give the wine its body.
- Sugar
- Feeds the yeast during fermentation, which produces the alcohol in the wine.
The step that matters
Skimming the boiling water and sugar. Skimming removes foam and impurities that rise during boiling, leaving a clearer liquid. Clarity matters because sediment and debris can spoil flavor and affect the finished wine.
“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.
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.