three months, and bottle it off for use; it will be ready in a week after it is put in the bottles.
It is a very wholesome, pleasant, and rich cordial, and very serviceable in curing consumptions, and particularly useful in scorbutic disorders.
To make Wines, of Plumbs, Damsons, &c.
Take what plumbs you please, mix those of a sweet taste with an allay of those that are somewhat sour, though the must be all inclining to ripeness; slit them in halves, so that the stones may be taken out, then mash them gently, and add a little water and honey; the better to moisten them, boil to every gallon of your pulp a gallon of spring water, and put in a few bay leaves and cloves; add as much sugar as will sweeten it, scum off the froth, and let it cool, then press the fruit, squeezing out the liquid part; strain all through a fine strainer, and put the water and juice all together into a cask; let it stand and ferment it three or four days, fine it with white sugar, flour, and whites of eggs, draw it off into bottles, and cork it up, that the air may not injure it; in twelve days it will be ripe, and taste like sherry, or rather a nearer flavour of Canary.
Damsons may be ordered as other plumbs, though they produce a tarter wine, more clear and lasting; but do not put so much water to them as to luscious plumbs, unless you mix some sweet wine with it, as Malaga, Canary, or the like; or infuse raisins of the sun in it, which will give it a rich mellow taste.
These, as other wines made of English fruit,
