1549. Birch Wine

The season for procuring the liquor from the birch tree is in the beginning of March, while the sap is rising and before the leaves-shoot out; for when the sap is come forward and the leaves appear, the juice, by being long digested in the bark, grows thick and coloured, which before was white and clear. The method of procuring juice is by boring holes in the body of the trees and putting in fossets, which are made from the branches of elder, the pith being taken out. You may, without hurting the tree, if large, tap it in several places, four or five at a time, and by that means save; from a good many trees several gallons every day; if you have not enough in one day, the bottles in which it drops must be corked close and rosined Or waxed, make use of it as soon as you can. Take the sap and boil it as long as any scum rises, skimming it all the time. To every gallon of liquor pour four pounds of good sugar, the thin peel of a lemon, boil it afterwards half an hour, skimming it very well, pour it into a clean tub, and when it is almost cold set it to work with yeast, spread upon a toast; let it stand five or six days, stirring it often; then take such a cask as will hold the liquor, fire a large match dipped in brimstone, and throw it into the cask, stop it close until the match is extinguished, tun your wine, lay the bung on light till you find it has done working; stop it close and keep it three months, then bottle it off.

1550. Blackberry Wine

Put some ripe blackberries into a large vessel with a cock in it; pour on as much boiling water as will cover them, and as soon as the heat will permit, bruise them well with the hand till all the berries are broken; cover them, and in about three or four days, when the berries rise to the top, draw off the clear part into another vessel; add to every ten quarts of the liquor one pound of sugar, stir it well in, and let it stand a week or ten days to work. Draw it off through a jelly bag. Steep four ounces of isinglass in a pint of sweet wine for twelve hours, then boil it slowly till dissolved, put it in a gallon of the juice; boil them together, then put all together, let it stand a few days, and bottle.

1551. Cherry Wine

To make five pints of this wine, take fifteen pounds of cherries, and two of currants; bruise them together, mix with them two-thirds of the kernels, and put the whole of the cherries, currants, and kernels into a barrel with a quarter of a pound of sugar to every pint of juice. The barrel must be quite full; cover the barrel with vine leaves and sand above them, and let it stand until it has done working, which will be in about three weeks; then stop it with a bung, and in two months' time it may be bottled.

1552. Chocolate Wine

Take a pint of sherry or a pint and a half of port, four ounces and a half of chocolate, six ounces of fine sugar, and half an ounce of white starch or flour, mix, dissolve, and boil these altogether for ten or twelve minutes; but if your chocolate is made with sugar, take double the quantity of chocolate and half the quantity of sugar.