Seasonable: Make this in March, and bottle it the following January.
Ingredients
90 Seville oranges
32 lbs. of lump sugar
water
Directions
Break up the sugar into small pieces, and put it into a dry, sweet 9-gallon cask, placed in a cellar or other storehouse, where it is intended to be kept
Have ready close to the cask two large pans or wooden keelers, into one of which put the peel of the oranges pared quite thin, and into the other the pulp after the juice has been squeezed from it
Strain the juice through a piece of double muslin, and put it into the cask with the sugar
Pour about 1-1/2 gallon of cold spring water on both the peels and pulp
Let it stand for 24 hours, and then strain it into the cask
Add more water to the peels and pulp when this is done, and repeat the same process every day for a week: it should take about a week to fill up the cask
Be careful to apportion the quantity as nearly as possible to the seven days, and to stir the contents of the cask each day
On the 'third' day after the cask is full,--that is, the 'tenth' day after the commencement of making,--the cask may be securely bunged /li>
This is a very simple and easy method, and the wine made according to it will be pronounced to be most excellent. There is no troublesome boiling, and all fermentation takes place in the cask. When the above directions are attended to, the wine cannot fail to be good. It should be bottled in 8 or 9 months, and will be fit for use in a twelve month after the time of making.
Ginger wine may be made in precisely the same manner, only, with the 9-gallon cask for ginger wine, 2 lbs. of the best whole ginger, 'bruised', must be put with the sugar. It will be found convenient to tie the ginger loosely in a muslin bag.Source: The Book of Household Management by Isabella Beeton (1859)
Orange Brandy
