Page:Completeconfectioner Glasse 1800.djvu/321

This page has been validated.
282
The Complete

three gallons of rose water, drawn with a cold still; put into it a convenient quantity of rose leaves; cover it close, and put it for an hour in a kettle or cauldron of water, heating it over the fire to take out the whole strength and tincture of the roses, and when cold, press the rose leaves hard into the liquor, and steep fresh ones in, repeating it till the liquor has got a full strength of roses; then to every gallon of liquor add three pounds of loaf sugar; stir it well, that it may melt and disperse in every part, then put it into a cask, or other convenient vessel, to ferment; and to make it do so the better, add a little fixed nitre and flour, with two or three whites of eggs; let it stand to cool about thirty days, and it will be ripe, and have a curious flavour, having the whole strength and scent of the roses in it; and you may add, to meliorate it, some wine and spices, as your taste or inclination leads you.

By this way of infusion, wine of carnations, clove-gillyflowers, violets, primroses, or any flower having a curious scent, may be made; to which, to prevent repetition, you are referred.

Wines thus made, are not only pleasant in taste, but rich and medicinal, being excellent for strengthening the heart refreshing the spirits, and gently cooling the body, making it lenitive, and so purges the first digestion of phlegm, and even choler; it abates the heat of the fever, quenches thirst, mitigates the inflammation of the intrails, and on many occasions, serves for a good counter poison.

To