Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Bed Clary Wine (another way).— Boil twenty-five pounds of good loaf sugar with ten gallons of river or rain water half an hour, beat up the whites of ten eggs to a froth, add them, continue the boiling half an hour longer, and skim continually until the liquor is perfectly clear, adding three pounds of red beet-root peeled and cut in thick slices. When the liquor is a beautiful bright red colour, strain it through a finesieve into a vessel upon nearly a peck of clarytops in flower, and two ounces of best ginger sliced or bruised well ; and when cool enough work it with nearly a pint of yeast three days, stirring it weU twice daily, and covering it close. Strain the liquor into the cask, which must be full, that it may work over ; and when the fermentation has entirely subsided, put in an ounce of bitter almonds blanched, a quart of brandy, and an ounce of isinglass or gum arabic dissolved in a quart of the wine. Then stop it up safely, put wet sand over the bung, and keep it fifteen months at least, after which bottle it ; and in six months more it wUl be very rich, clear, and strong. — Robinson. Bed Cordial Water.— Take three or four thick slices of purple beet-root boiled, one ounce each of carraway and coriander-seed bruised, one ounce of cloves and cinnamon, three-quarters of an ounce each of Jamaica pepper and nutmeg bruised, half-an-ounce of thin rind of lemon, twelve ounces of sugarcandy beaten and rolled, two quarts of proof spirit of wine, and three pints of water. Put these ingredients into a stone jar, and fasten the cork securely ; tie bladder over it, and set the jar in hot water for six hours. Shake it well daily, and keep it for a month in a warm room. Then strain and filter it perfectly bright ; fill small bottles, cork and seal them. Bed Currant.— This fruit is acceptable at the dessert, being of an agreeable acid taste. It is much used for jellies, jams, and wines. Forsyth says it is the most agreeable of all the small fruits, either for the table or the kitchen ; and that it continues longer in succession than any other. According to Withering, the juice gives an agreeable acid to punch ; and Professor Martyn says it was a common beverage in Paris in 1763. Its medicinal qualities are similar to those of other sub-acid fruits, allaying thirst, lessening an increased secretion of the bile, and correcting a putrid and scorbutic state of the fluids. The red currant is a native of the northern parts of Europe, and found in hedges and woods in England. The berries of this shrub in its wild state are red; cultivation has produced white and pale-red berrijed varieties. Professor Martjni observes that " the currant does not seem to have been known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, as the Southern nations of Europe have not even an appropriate name to it at this day. The old French name Groseilles d' outre mer jiroclaims their having been strangers imported. Our English name of currant is evidently from the similitude of the fruit to that of the Uva corinthica, the small grape of Zante, or the conunon grocers' corinths or currants." — Loudon.