The compleat housewife: or, Accomplish'd gentlewoman's companion: being a collection of several hundred of the most approved receipts, in cookery, pastry, confectionary, preserving, pickles, cakes, creams, jellies, made wines, cordials. And also bills of fare for every month in the year. : To which is added, a collection of near two hundred family receipts of medicines; viz. drinks, syrups, salves, ointments, and many other things of sovereign and approved efficacy in most distempers, pains, aches, wounds, sores, &c. never before made publick in these parts; fit either for private families, or such publick-spirited gentlewomen as would be beneficent to their poor neighbors.
Smith, E. (Eliza), d. ca. 1732.
To make Elder Wine.
TAKE Twenty-five Pounds of Malaga Raisins, rub them and shred them small, then take five Gallons of fair Water, boil it an Hour, and let it stand till it is but Blood-warm, then put it in an earthen Crock or Tub with your Raisins; let them steep ten Days, stirring them once or twice a Day, then pass the Liquor through a hair Sieve, and have in readiness five Pints of the Juice of Elderberries drawn off as you do for Jelly of Currants; then mix it cold with the Liquor and stir it well together, and put it in a Vessel, and let it stand in a warm Place; and when it has done working stop it close. Bottle it a|bout Candlemas.
