☠️ Poison Pantry 1863

To Make Sherry Wine (by fermentation)

The sweet-wine formula ends with sulphuric acid, added to clarify.

From: The French Wine and Liquor Manufacturer
Published: 1863
Yikes Scale: Call poison control

Exactly as printed, 1863

To make Muscat Wine. (BY MIXING.) RECIPE No. 3.

To 35 gals. Muscat wine, add : 18 66 honey, 20 “ spirit, 40 o. p. 100 “ distilled water.

Filter.

To make Sweet Wine.

RECIPE No. 4.

To 16 barrels whiskey, add : 34 66 water, 2,000 lbs. sugar, 4 66 coriander seed, infused in half gallon spirit, 95 per cent, 1/2 gal. sulphuric acid.

The latter ingredient is added to clarify the wine.

To make Sherry Wine. (BY MIXING.) RECIPE No. 5.

To 70 gals. Sherry wine, add : 100 lbs. sugar, 40 gals. spirit, 40 o. p., 200 66 water.

Agitate or stir up the above compound for several days.

Neroly is a good flavor for Sherry wine; one drachm dissolved in one pint spirit, 95 per cent, is sufficient for 300 gallons. An infusion of dried peaches is also a good flavor. Infuse one gallon peaches in two gallons alcohol, 95 per cent, as long as you can get any flavor from the fruit. The essence of Sherry wine is also a very desirable flavor, and may be purchased from any respectable essence dealer.

The French Wine and Liquor Manufacturer, 1863. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

Sulphuric acid into a beverage, to brighten it. The exact quantity has dropped out of our copy of the text, which is its own kind of warning: the book expected a tradesman who already knew.

The wider point is that no grapes appear anywhere. This is whiskey, water, sugar and flavouring, assembled into something that gets sold as sherry.

Notes from the 21st century

“40 o.p.” means over proof. On the old British Sikes scale, roughly 80% alcohol by volume. The book assumes you can read a hydrometer.
Compounding for sale is regulated now. Everywhere. These formulas were written for a trade that predated labelling law entirely.
The same page makes Muscat by mixing. Thirty-five gallons of Muscat, honey, spirit and a hundred gallons of distilled water. Filter, and sell.

Also in this book

Imitation gin with ethers and acid — Nitric ether, acetic ether, sulphuric acid, and a quarter-pound of mashed prune kernels.
Oil of Cognac from fusel oil — Brandy flavour distilled from the pressed lees of wine, with oil of vitriol by the half-pound.
Prune Tincture — Twenty-five pounds of prune kernels macerated in alcohol, as a stock brandy flavouring.

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To Make Sherry Wine (by fermentation)

Exactly as printed, 1863

So what happens if I make it?

Notes from the 21st century

Also in this book

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