Parsnip wine with brandy
A root wine made from boiled parsnip liquor and lump sugar, fermented with yeast and finished with brandy before bottling.
Historical attestation
Parsnip wine kept a year in the cask
Parsnip Wine
Wright's 1909 compilation records a parsnip wine made from boiled roots, sugar and a little yeast. The liquor spends ten days in a tub, then twelve months in a cask topped up daily only while the wine works over.
Wright's three parsnip wines are separate formulas
Wright's 1909 collection prints three preparations under Parsnip Wine. This record follows No. 1: six pounds of sliced roots are boiled in two gallons of water until soft, the liquor is squeezed out and sieved, then boiled with three pounds of loaf sugar for each gallon of liquor. A little yeast is added when the liquor is nearly cold. The source gives ten days in a tub with daily stirring, then twelve months in a cask, topped up each day only while it works over. It does not state a yeast dose, final yield or measured fermentation endpoint.
No. 2 is a different mixture: one pound of parsnips, fourteen pounds of loaf sugar and one and a half ounces of hops, followed by four days to work in a warm place; Wright says the paper over its cask is likely to burst. No. 3 uses seven and a half pounds of parsnips in two and a half gallons of water, coarse lump sugar and yeast on toast, with a ten-day tub stage and a year in cask. No. 2's paper warning belongs to that method; it is not evidence that No. 1 bursts its cask.
History
Helen S. Wright's Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines, Cordials and Liqueurs (Boston, 1909) gives three parsnip wines. The first is this one: six pounds of sliced parsnips boiled soft in two gallons of water, the liquor sieved and boiled for three-quarters of an hour with three pounds of loaf sugar to every gallon, a little yeast added nearly cold, ten days in a tub stirred daily from the bottom, and then a year in the cask, filled up every day as the wine works over. It has no brandy, which sets it apart from the brandied first alternative in Anne Cobbett's English Housekeeper of 1851. The third wine in Wright's book follows the same plan with seven and a half pounds of parsnips in two and a half gallons and a little yeast on toast; the second boils one pound of parsnips with fourteen pounds of sugar and hops, works it four days, needs no brandy and is likely to burst the paper pasted over the cask.
Ingredients
Scaling: source batch only
ParsnipsSliced in Wright's No. 1 account.
2.72 kg6 lb as recorded
Water
2 historical gallon
A historical gallon; its size is not defined and is not converted.Loaf sugar
Amount not stated
Three pounds to every gallon of liquor.Yeast
Amount not stated
A little; the kind is not stated.Method
Risks and precautions
Pressure if fermentation continues or restarts in a sealed bottle
Clemson Cooperative Extension describes this as a general home-winemaking hazard. That guidance does not assess Wright's No. 1 formula. Wright's No. 1 says to top up the cask while it works over but does not give a measured fermentation endpoint or a packaging-stability test.
Hazard sourceWright's No. 1 does not give a measured fermentation endpoint, bottle-stability test or safe storage procedure. Its cask top-up wording applies only while the wine works over.
The paper-burst warning in Wright's No. 2 belongs to that different parsnip-wine formula. General bottle-pressure guidance does not validate No. 1.
- Wright's No. 1 account boiled six pounds of sliced parsnips in two historical gallons of water until soft, then squeezed and sieved the liquor. The gallon size is not defined in the text.
- Three pounds of loaf sugar were added for every gallon of expressed liquor, and the liquid was boiled for three-quarters of an hour. The resulting liquor volume and finished yield are not recorded.
- A little yeast was added when the liquor was nearly cold. Neither yeast identity or dose nor a measured inoculation temperature is given.
- The account describes ten days in a tub with daily stirring from the bottom, then twelve months in a cask. The cask was filled up each day as the wine worked over; it does not direct daily top-ups for the entire year. No amount or source of top-up wine is given.
- The account supplies no measured fermentation endpoint, microbiological test, alcohol strength, packaging-stability check or safe storage procedure. These are historical instructions, not a validated household batch.
Places
Boston
Historical attestation · Locality evidencePrinted in Boston in a 1909 collection of old-time wine recipes; where the recipe came from is not stated.
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Sources
The Page Company, Boston, 1909; Project Gutenberg eBook 75708Ingredients · Method · History · Safety
Helen S. Wright, Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines, Cordials and Liqueurs, Parsnip Wine, Nos. 1 to 3, pp. 83-84First parsnip wine: 6 lb sliced parsnips, 2 gallons water, boiled soft, squeezed and sieved; 3 lb loaf sugar to every gallon, boil three-quarters of an hour; a little yeast nearly cold; ten days in a tub stirred daily from the bottom; twelve months in a cask filled up daily as it works over.
No. 2 is likely to burst the paper pasted over the cask; No. 3 uses 7.5 lb parsnips in 2.5 gallons with coarse lump sugar and yeast on toast.
Cited in: Wright's three parsnip wines are separate formulas
Project Gutenberg eBook 55314History
The English Housekeeper (transcription of the sixth edition, 1851), Parsnip Wine, pp. 341-342Two parsnip wine alternatives printed in 1851; the first is brandied and the second is kept twelve months in the cask without brandy.
Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home & Garden Information CenterSafety
Basics of Home WinemakingStep 5: fermentation can restart during storage and carbon dioxide trapped in bottles can shatter them. General wine-packaging hazard; no parsnip-specific endpoint or validation of the historical formula.