Goofeberry Wine
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Gather gooseberries in dry weather when they are half ripe.
Pick and bruise them in a tub with a wooden mallet.
Press them using a horse-hair cloth without breaking the seeds.
Ferment and clear
To every gallon of juice, add 3 pounds of sugar and stir until dissolved.
Transfer to a vessel or cask, filling it completely.
Let it stand for 2 weeks if 10-12 gallons, or 5 weeks if 20 gallons.
Store in a cool place, then draw off the lees.
Clear the vessel of lees and pour the clear liquor back in.
Let it stand for 3 months if 10 gallons, or 4 months if 20 gallons.
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
- Gooseberries (in the method)
- Supply the juice, acidity and flavour that form the base of the wine.
- Fine dry powdered sugar
- Dissolves into the juice to provide sweetness and food for fermentation, which produces alcohol.
The step that matters
Pressing without breaking the seeds. Gooseberry seeds can release bitter, astringent compounds into the juice if crushed, so pressing gently keeps the wine clean-tasting.
“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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