When I made my first experiments of preserving grape juice in its fresh state, I was unacquainted with Mr. Parmentier’s “Information concerning the means of furnishing a substitute for sugar, in the principal uses made of it in medicine and domestic economy.”[Q] It is this valuable information which supplied me with the means of availing myself of fresh experiments, and making use of two hundred bottles of grape-juice preserved by me six months before.
1st. I made very good grape syrup, following the process of Mr. Parmentier, which is literally as follows.
Preparation of Grape Syrup.
“You take twenty-four [French] pints of grape juice and put one half of it in a boiler placed on the fire, with the precaution of not suffering it to boil with too much force. You add fresh juice as that in the boiler evaporates; you skim it and stir the surface, to add to the evaporation. When the whole of the juice has been put into the boiler, you skim it, you take the boiler off the fire, and add some lye-ashes tied up in a cloth, or whiting (blanc d’Espagne, Spanish, or Troy-white), or chalk reduced to a powder, and first diluted in a little grape juice, until it no longer effervesces, or, as it were, boils in the liquor which was shaken.
“By these means, the acid contained in the grape, is separated and neutralized. In order to try the liquor, put blue paper into it, and when it does not turn red, then you may be satisfied that the liquor is no longer acid. Replace the boiler on the fire, after having let it settle an instant, and put in two whites of beaten eggs. Strain the liquor through a woollen cloth, fixed on a wooden frame of twelve or fifteen square inches, so that it occupies little room; then boil again, and continue the evaporation.
“In order to know whether the syrup be sufficiently condensed, let some drop from a spoon upon a plate: if the drop falls without spirting or spreading, or if when divided, the halves run into each other again but slowly, then you may infer that it has acquired the proper consistency.
“Pour it into an earthen vessel which is not varnished; and when completely cold, transfer it to vessels of a moderate size, neat, dry, and well corked; and placed it in the cellar. A bottle once opened, should not remain long only half filled; and when you make use of it, take care to hold the neck downwards.
“It is hardly possible to determine precisely, the quantity of chalk or ashes necessary to be used. Less is required in the South than in the North, but at all events, more than is necessary will do no harm, since it remains upon the straining cloth with the other insoluble salts and the skim.
“If in order to preserve these syrups for a longer time, you were to carry on the boiling too long, you would find yourself mistaken; for the syrup would not fail to chrystalize at the bottom of the vessel, while the body would become thin: on the other hand, if the syrup were not sufficiently evaporated, it would soon ferment. A housekeeper who has made these syrups twice, will have learnt the degree of boiling which ought to be given to the syrup, better than can be taught her by rule.”
Syrups and Ratafies.
With this same syrup, I have prepared preserves, confectionary, syrups and beverages, as well as liqueurs and ratafies of all the kinds of fruit I have spoken of.
2d. I made syrup of the same grape juice and by the same process, except that I boiled the latter but slightly, that is, one quarter less than the former; as I wished to satisfy myself whether it would be preserved by the application of heat to the water-bath, in the way before pointed out. Having prepared my syrup, I put it when cold, into three half bottles; one full, and the other a quarter empty. I corked and sealed the bottles, and let them remain in the water-bath only till it boiled, &c. I remarked no difference in the full and half full bottles, and all three were completely preserved.
3d. I took six pints of preserved grape juice, to which I added two pints of good old proof brandy, and also two pounds of grape syrup, which I had prepared. This preparation which I mixed well, I made use of to compose four kinds of liqueur, by means of infusions of apricot-kernels, mint, orange flower, badian, which I had prepared before: these liqueurs having been well strained, were found very good, and sufficiently sweet.
4th. I took two bottles of preserved grape juice, which I poured into two other fit bottles. I corked and tied these bottles, and left them standing upright ten days. During this interval, the liquor caused its cork to burst, like the best Champagne wine, and mantled in the same way.
5th. I repeated this last experiment in the same manner. At the end of twelve or fifteen days, observing no appearance of fermentation in the bottles, I uncorked them in order to let in the air, and I then put into them a table spoonful of preserved raspberry juice. Having re-corked and sealed them, I let them remain eight days longer upright. At the end of that time, both the white and the red juice (le blanc et le rosé) caused the cork to spring out. They mantled completely, and were very agreeable to the taste, particularly the red, perfumed with raspberry.
After these experiments made of the Massy grape [in the department of Seine and Oise], it is more than probable that in the fine vineyards of the South, infinitely more precious results will be drawn from the making use of this method. Grape juice will be preserved there, in order, by congelation, to reduce it at will, to the consistence of syrup, after having taken away its acid for the sweet syrup; or if the juice be condensed over the fire, the quantity of boiling made use of for condensing the syrup, will, by the operation of heat in the water-bath in any preparatory process, be rendered immaterial for the preservation of the syrup for several years.[R]
By means of this process, which is easy to be put in practice, and of little expence in the execution, syrups may be obtained clear and white (even when produced from black grapes), and of a pure sweetness, free from a certain flavour of molasses and burnt sugar, from which it has not hitherto been found possible to exempt grape syrup, when boiled in the ordinary mode, sufficient for its preservation.
Thus this precious production, preserved in bottles and vessels of every size, may be transported to a great distance and in all seasons, coming from Bergerac, Mèze, and all the manufactories of the South, to improve the produce of our small vineyards, and make all classes of society share in the enjoyment of this useful resource.