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Raisin Wine

A fermented wine made from Malaga raisins and boiled water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Raisin Wine

Raisin Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the water and let it cool completely.

  2. In a clean cask, layer 8 pounds of raisins for each gallon of water, removing large stalks.

  3. Press the raisins down and alternate adding water and raisins until the cask is full.

Ferment

  1. Lightly place the bung on top and stir the mixture every day or two.

  2. Keep the cask full by adding more cooled boiled water as needed.

  3. Once fermentation ceases in 6 to 7 weeks, press the bung in and leave the wine untouched for 12 months.

Rack and fine

  1. After 12 months, transfer the wine to a clean cask and fine it with isinglass if necessary.

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

Malaga raisins
Provide the sugar and fruit flavour that yeast ferments into alcohol.
Water
Dissolves the raisin sugars and carries the yeast fermentation through the mixture.

The step that matters

Keep the cask full with cooled boiled water. Topping up keeps air from contacting the liquid surface, which limits spoilage organisms and acetic souring while fermentation runs.

“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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