Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management

Carefully hull and pick over a quart of fine raspberries, bruise them, put them in a jar or wide bottle, and pour over them two quarts of good brandy ; close the jar air-tight, and let the berries remain in the brandy for two weeks. Then put half a pound of sugar over the fire with half a cupful of cold water, and boil it until it becomes a sirup of medium consistency, removing all scum as it rises. Mix this sirup with the fruit and brandy, pour the mixture into a jelly-bag, and let it run through slowly ; then bottle it, and cork the bottles, and keep them in a cool, dark closet for two weeks longer. At the end of two weeks, filter it again, carefully pouring it from the bottles to avoid disturbing the sediment, and when the liquor is quite clear and bright, bottle it for use. RASPBERRY LIQUEUR. Prepare berries according to the directions given in the recipe for raspberry brandy, substituting any pure spirit preferred for the brandy ; bottle for use in the same way. BLACKBERRY BRANDY. Brtfise five pounds of blackberries ; add to them one gallon of proof spirits, one-eighth of an ounce each of crushed cloves, mace, and cinnamon, and a dozen crushed cardamom-seeds ; let all these ingredients stand, closed from the air, for two weeks. Then make a sirup of two pounds of sugar and one pint of water by boiling them together until a little cooled on a saucer is about as thick as maplesirup, and strain and cool it ; strain the spirit away from the crushed fruit and spice, and mix it with the sirup ; let the mixture stand, closed from the air, for two weeks, and then filter it, and put it up in air-tight bottles. BLACKBERRY CORDIAL. Allow a pound of granulated or loaf sugar for each quart of blackberry- J nice, obtained by mashing the berries, and then squeezing them in a cloth; add to these quantities of berry-juice and sugar, a quarter of an ounce each of whole cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and pounded but not powdered nutmeg. Boil all these ingredients together over a gentle fire for two hours; then strain the cordial thus produced through a bolting-cloth sieve, or through a fine cloth, add to it half a pint of the best brandy, and bottle and cork it. This cordial is very useful in cases of diarrhoea or dysentery ; it also makes a very wholesome summer drink, a tablespoonful being used in a glass of cool water. PEACH BRANDY. To make peach-brandy, crush ten pounds of good peaches without peeling them, breaking the stones ; put the peaches into a tub or barrel, pour over them two gallons and a half of ninety- five per cent alcohol, and two gallons of water; cover the tub, and let the peaches stand in the liquor for twenty-four hours. Then strain off the liquor, pressing the peaches to extract all of it, and filter it, to clear it, through flannel or filtering-paper. Next add two and a half pints of white sirup, and then bottle the brandy. If the color is wanted dark, use a very little caramel. The sirup is simply water containing as much white sugar as will dissolve in it : the sirup may be clarified unless the sugar is very pure. PEACH AND HONEY. A good winter drink is made by mixing together one tablespoonful of honey, and a wineglassful of peach-brandy. CIDER CUP.