To Make Elder Wine at Christmas
Take five pounds of Malaga or Lipara raisins, rub them clean, and shred them small. Then take five quarts of water, boil it an hour, and when it is near cold put it in a tub with the raisins; let them steep ten days, and stir them once or twice a day. Then strain it through a hair sieve, and by infusion draw one pint of elder-juice, and one-quarter of a pint of damson juice. Make the juice into a thin syrup, a pound of sugar to a pint of juice, and not boil it much, but just enough to keep. When you have strained out the raisin liquor, put that and the syrup into a vessel fit for it, and one-half a pound of sugar. Stop the bung with a cork till it gathers to a head, then open it, and let it stand till it has done working; then put the cork in again, and stop it very close, and let it stand in a warm place two or three months, and then bottle it. Make the elder and damson juice into syrup in its season, and keep it in a cool cellar till you have convenience to make the wine.