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Recipes

Cowslip Wine

Posted under: Recipe Archive

Featured in George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss. This recipe is from the 1861 publication of Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management.

INGREDIENTS

To every gallon of water allow 3 lbs. of lump sugar, the rind of 2 lemons, the juice of 1, the rind and juice of 1 Seville orange, 1 gallon of cowslip pips. To every 4–1/2 gallons of wine allow 1 bottle of brandy.

METHOD

Boil the sugar and water together for 1/2 hour, carefully removing all the scum as it rises. Pour this boiling liquor on the orange and lemon-rinds, and the juice, which should be strained; when milk-warm, add the cowslip pips or flowers, picked from the stalks and seeds; and to 9 gallons of wine 3 tablespoonfuls of good fresh brewers’ yeast. Let it ferment 3 or 4 days; then put all together in a cask with the brandy, and let it remain for 2 months, when bottle it off for use.

Mrs. Beeton suggests we pick the cowslips in the field and make this drink in April or May.