Wine to Cook with

Winged_one

We use the boxes as well, and that works well for us but we are generally reasonably controlled. (And I find, if a bottle is opened, we are more likely to finish it than a box).

Otherwise, the freezing does work well too. Either in trays if you have them (and can transfer to a plastic box once frozen). Or use the bags if need be. Or even straight into a plastic box, as it is easier to hack through frozen alcohol than frozen water.

[Deleted User]

Thank you - some great replies! Didn't know you could freeze wine (dumb or what !!) And the boxes sound like a good idea too (if I can just stop myself finishing them off too quickly ... )

Would definitely like to try making my own wine one day - when my veggie / fruit garden really takes off. (Could I ask Kantankrus mare and Sunnyday - what would you recommend a low income beginner to use ?)

Sunnyday

Hi Corona,

i use an adaptation of jenny jellys wine recipe.

Into each demi john put 1 litre of apple juice and 500ml of white grape juice.

dissolve 1kg of sugar in 2 pints of water in a pan and cool it then add to the first demi john then repeat and add to the second. Don`t put it in hot or it will crack the glass.

Top each one up with cold water to halfway up the curved shoulder. Into each demijohn put 1 teaspoon of pectolase one teaspoon of citric acid and one teaspoon of yeast nutrient then cover the top with cling film until the next day.

Next day add one teaspoon of wine yeast to each demi john and give it a bit of a shake, put in the bungs and airlocks (sterilise them first) the day after it should start to bubble and change colour.

Leave until it stops bubbling and is almost clear - about 4 weeks give or take a few days then add 1 teaspoon of stabilising powder, leave for about 4 days. Steralise another DJ and crush a campden tablet, add to the new DJ put a funnel in the top (steralised) with a coffee filter inside and use the steralised syphon tube to syphon from the old DJ into the new. Wait about 5 days then it should be ready to drink. It`s best freezing cold

If you want to bottle it steralise the bottles and plastic caps the syphon out of the DJ into the bottles through another coffee filter. TBH if you don`t want to bottle it you can miss out the campden tablet as long as you`re not storing it for ages - it just stops it picking up any nasties.
Sometimes i just put the dj into the bottom of the fridge.

Good luck! i hope that you give it a try as it sounds harder than it is and saves an absolute fortune. The ingredients are the biggest outlay but they will last quite a long time.

I never used to use the pectolase etc but found that i was keeping it for a while and bulk making it so i started to worry about it going off. To sterilise the demis & bottles i use Morrisons trust baby sterilising soluton and use Morrisons own pure cold pressed apple juice and their white grape too. I alsways get good results with these and i think its because they arn`t full of nasties like some of the others.

HTH

SD

EDIT if i`m not bottling i don`t filter it either as it tends to clear on its own most of the time. Less work to do :-)

zippychick

Hi Corona :hello:

I looked up a few threads which should help you and offer you alternatives and food for thought. Really, not adding wine is the cheapest way he he:rotfl:

wine to cook with

How long does wine keep?

Homemade wine

freezing wine

I'll add your thread to the first link later to keep the ideas together
thanks:)
Zip

[Deleted User]

BRILLIANT! Thank you so much for recipe Sunnyday.

And thanks for the threads zippychick. Some great ideas.

rachbc

I freeze dregs from bottles but also I keep a bottle of vermouth and marsala to add a winey note to dishes but as its fortifiied it doesn't go off -

mum2one

Always remember as a kid dad use to make his own wine, don't know what happened, but it was a blackcurrant wine and the whole lot exploded, it was all over the carpet, weird the things that trigger memories.xx

missychrissy

I make my own wine too. I also use jenny jelly's recipe using either apple and white grape juice or cranberry and red grape juice but I do it in 4 gall batches in 5 gall fermenters with taps so that a lot of the time I just use it on draught and I bottle it on a 'need to' basis. I also make elderberry, rosehip (both 16p per bottle), coffee, elderflower etc. The rosehip is sherry like and very good in Chinese stir frys. I used to keep a bottle of sherry for that purpose and sherry keeps for ages once opened. A cheap bottle of port works well in beef stews and also lasts ages once opened. I also have some very small bottles of lager (Aldi) that are good in a casserole.

I occasionally freeze wine if I have a bottle open that I am not going to drink. I work nights so sometimes I work a few nights in a row and an open bottle would go off before I have a night off. It freezes fine in 'good glug' sized portions.

Sunnyday

OOHH MissyChrissy your wines sound fab!

My first attempt at elderberry has just been bottled and my first parsnip wine is still in the demi john I`m planning on trying my first rosehip this year too.

Jenny jellys white is our staple tho Which juice do you use for the red as i haven`t found one that i like yet so i`ve just been making the white?

SD

missychrissy

I love jenny jelly's white wine recipe using apple juice and white grape - I think it's a bit like a Pinot Grigio. The cranberry and red wine juice turns out more like a rose than a red. I use any juice that is on special offer for them both or Aldi's.

I am predominately a red wine drinker and I find elderberry and blackberry are the way to go. I mix them as it improves the flavour and they are great for cooking. I really enjoy making my own wines and experimenting with different ingrdients. I've been doing it for about 3 years now but if I had known how easy it was I'd have been doing it years ago.