BRANDIES

APPLE BRANDY

Take seven gallons of water and boil one-half, putting the other into a barrel; add the boiling water to the cold, with one-half gallon of molasses and a little yeast. Keep the bung-hole open until fermentation ceases.

OLD APPLE BRANDY

One gallon of neutral spirits, one-half cup of decoction of tea, one and one-half pints of alcoholic solution of starch, one-eighth ounce of sulphuric acid. This is flavored with one-fourth ounce of the oil of apples. Color with one ounce of sugar coloring.

BLACKBERRY BRANDY

One-quarter pound essence of blackberry, one quart blackberry juice, one-quarter pound of gum arabic, one small barrel pure spirits.

CARAWAY BRANDY

Steep one ounce of caraway-seed and six ounces of loaf sugar with one quart of brandy. Let it stand nine days and then draw off.

BLACK CHERRY BRANDY

Stone two pounds of black cherries and put on them one quart of brandy. Bruise the stones in a mortar, and then add them to the brandy. Cover them close and let them stand a month or six weeks. Then pour it clear from the sediment and bottle it. Morello cherries, managed in this way, make a fine cordial.

CHERRY BRANDY, NO. 1

For this purpose use either morello cherries or small black cherries. Pick them from the stalks; fill the bottles nearly up to the necks, then fill up with brandy (some people use whiskey, gin, or spirit distilled from the lees of the wine). In three weeks or a month strain off the spirit; to each quart add one pound of loaf sugar clarified, and flavor with tincture of cinnamon or cloves.

CHERRY BRANDY, NO. 2

One of the best and most common ways of making cherry brandy is to put the cherries (being first clean picked from the stalks) into a vessel till it be about half-full; then fill up with rectified molasses brandy, which is generally used for this compound, and when they have been infused sixteen or eighteen days, draw off the liquor by degrees, as wanted. When drawn off, fill the vessel a second time nearly to the top, let it stand about a month, and then draw it off as there is occasion. The same cherries may be used a third time by covering them with overproof brandy and letting it infuse for six or seven weeks. When drawn off for use, as much water must be added as the brandy was overproof, and the cherries must be afterward pressed as long as any liquor remains in them before being cast away. When drawn off the second time, the liquor will be somewhat inferior to the first, when more sugar, with a very little cinnamon and cloves beaten, may be added.

CHERRY BRANDY, NO. 3

To every five gallons of brandy made by the recipe for French brandy add one and one-half quarts of wild black cherries, stones and all bruised, one pound of crushed sugar. Let it stand for one week, then draw or rack it off as it is wanted for use.

2. Two gallons good whiskey, one quart wild black berries, well bruised with stones broken, one pound common almonds, shelled, one-tenth ounce white sugar, one-tenth ounce cinnamon, one-tenth ounce cloves, one-tenth ounce nutmeg, well bruised. Mix, and let them stand twelve days, and draw off. This, with the addition of two gallons brandy, makes most superior cherry brandy.

CHERRY BRANDY, NO. 4

To every four quarts of brandy put four pounds of red cherries, two pounds of black, one quart of raspberries, with a few cloves, a stick of cinnamon, and a little orange peel. Let these stand a month close stopped; then bottle it off, putting a lump of sugar into every bottle.

CHERRY BRANDY, NO. 5

Take twelve pounds of cherries, half red and half black, mash or squeeze them to pieces with the hands, and add to them two quarts of brandy, letting them steep for twenty-four hours. Then put the mashed cherries and liquor into a canvas bag, a little at a time, and press it as long as it will run. Sweeten it with loaf sugar and let it stand a month; then bottle it off, putting a lump of sugar in every bottle.

LEMON BRANDY

Put two and one-half quarts of water in one-half gallon of brandy. Take one dozen of lemons, one pound of the best sugar, and one and one-half pints of milk. Pare the lemons very thin, and lay the peel to steep in the brandy twelve hours. Squeeze the lemons upon the sugar, then put the water to it, and mix all the ingredients together. Boil the milk and pour it in boiling. Let it stand twenty-four hours and then strain it.

ORANGE BRANDY

Put the chips of six Seville oranges in one quart of brandy, and let them steep a fortnight in a stone bottle close stopped. Boil two and two-thirds pints of spring water with eight ounces of the finest sugar, nearly an hour, very gently. Clarify the water and sugar with the white of an egg; then strain it through a jelly-bag, and boil it nearly half-away. When it is cold, strain the brandy into the syrup.

POPPY BRANDY

Take six quarts of the best and freshest poppies, cut off the black ends, put them in a glass jar that will hold two gallons, and press them in it, then pour over a gallon of brandy. Tightly cover the glass jar and set it in the sun for a week or more, then squeeze out the poppies with your hand, and sweeten the liquor to taste, adding an ounce and a half of alkermes. Mix it well and bottle it up.

RASPBERRY BRANDY

Raspberry brandy is infused nearly after the same manner as cherry brandy, and drawn off with about the same addition of brandy to what is drawn off from the first, second, and third infusion, and dulcified accordingly, first making it of a bright deep color, omitting cinnamon and cloves in the first, but not in the second and third infusion. The second infusion will be somewhat paler than the first, and must be lightened in color by adding one pint cherry brandy, with five or more gallons of raspberry brandy, and the third infusion will require more cherry brandy to color it. It may be flavored with the juice of elderberry.

RASPBERRY BRANDY, NO. 2

Take a pint of water and two quarts of brandy, and put them into a pitcher large enough to hold them and four pints of raspberries. Put in one-half pound of loaf sugar, and let it remain for a week close covered. Then take a piece of flannel with a piece of holland over it, and let it run through by degrees. It may be racked into other bottles a week after, and then it will be perfectly fine.

RASPBERRY BRANDY, NO. 3

Scald the fruit in a stone jar set in a kettle of water, or on a hot hearth. When the juice will run freely, strain it without pressing. To every quart of juice allow one pound of loaf sugar. Boil it up and skim; when quite clear pour out, and when cold add an equal quantity of brandy. Shake them well together and bottle.