Yesterday’s story on using beetroot to make bread naturally
sent me off on a search for other interesting things to do with the vegetable.
It struck me that we hadn’t finished considering all of the fermentation
possibilities.
Should you have a surfeit of beetroot, you can make beetroot
beer, or wine, or vinegar. Sadly, I have been unable to find a useable recipe
for beer, but I can offer you the following:
From The
wine & spirit merchant's own book, 1855:
Beetroot Wine.
It is well
known, that of all European vegetables, beetroot is the one which contains the
greatest quantity of sugared matter, and, consequently, the most productive of
alcohol. However, beetroot, when left by itself, does not undergo the vinous
fermentation. If you put in a pan filled up with water, apples, pears, grapes
&c, in a short time the liquid will begin to ferment, and liquor will be
formed more or less rich in alcohol, according as the fruit contained less or
more sugared matter. Not so with beetroot cut in thin slices and steeped in
water: in a few days the water, which before was limpid and pure, will become
turbid, limy, and acidulated, but without trace of alcohol. This double
experiment clearly shows that wine-making with beetroot requires a peculiar
process, and cannot be done without the addition of a ferment sufficiently
powerful to transform the sugar of the pulp into alcohol and carbonic acid.
There are two methods for making beetroot wine both of which can be depended
upon as conducive to highly satisfactory results.
1st Receipt.—Take fresh-pulled red
beetroots, with all their juice; scrape the skin; cut them in thin slices; put
them in a wooden, glass, or earthen jar, which you fill up to the top ; pour
over common water acidulated as follows:—to every quart of water add tartaric
acid 2 ounces; sulphuric acid 1 pennyweight ; the beetroots must be altogether
steeped in the liquid. Keep the jars at a temperature of 60° Fahrenheit, and in
thirty-six hours you will obtain a beautiful red liquor, perfectly limpid;
drain it out, and pour over the beetroot the same quantity of acidulated water;
let it stand forty-eight hours, and it will yield again the same quantity of
liquor, which you mix with what you have previously obtained.
To this extract
from beetroot mix 12 grains of a solution of sulphur and alcohol; 1 ounce of
moist sugar, and about J of an ounce of barley or Indian corn, broken in small
lumps. Keep the must at a temperature of from 60° to 70° Fahrenheit and it
begins fermenting. Let it stand twelve or fourteen days till the sugar has
almost completely disappeared. Rack it off then, and bottle it if you want to
have a wine as sparkling as Champagne; otherwise, keep it in the cellar in
casks or stone jars.
The tartaric
acid or soluble cream of tartar, gives the beetroot wine that slightly tart
flavour which is requisite in all the fermented beverages; the sulphuric acid
plays the same part as tannic acid in red wine, it makes the beetroot wine a
tonic and slightly astringent liquor; the solution of sulphur and alcohol gives
the wine a pleasing aroma, a vinous and alcoholic flavour, which perfects its
preparation. Let us observe that the wine must be aromatized only when it has
been racked off.
2nd
Receipt.—The beetroot
wine can be also manufactured by a more direct process. Put in a cask 90
gallons of riverwater; 70 pounds of beetroot cut in thin slices; ½ ounce of
sulphuric acid in a pure state; 2 ½ or 3 ounces of tartaric acid; two-thirds of
an ounce of a solution of sulphur and alcohol; 12 pounds 14 ounces of moist
sugar; 8 pounds of barley or Indian wheat, either in corns, broken in lumps, or
powdered into a fine flour. Some people prefer, instead of barley and Indian
wheat, the use of apples, pears, grapes, &c. Then put the same weight of
fruit and beetroots, and only two-thirds of the moist sugar.
The beetroot wine, through
its primitive ingredients, is perfectly pure and limpid; it is an excellent substitute
for grape wine, and perfectly wholesome. It has no peculiar flavour, and that
makes it a truly precious substitute for the grape must (calabre) in the
manufacturing of all artificial wines, as by mixing it with various aromas it
can be made to imitate all wines. It will prove an invaluable ingredient in the
making of British wines.
And from The
Farm Journal and Progressive Farmer (Pennsylvania, 1855):
Beet Root Vinegar.
In these times of a scarcity of apples and cider, the following statement made by N. P. Fairbanks in the "Boston Cultivator" is worth considering. He says :—The juice of one bushel of sugar beets, worth twenty-five cents, and which any farmer can raise with little cost, will make from five to six gallons of vinegar, equal to the best made of cider or wine. First, wash and grate the beets, and express the juice in a cheese-press or in any other way which a little ingenuity can suggest, and put the liquor into a barrel; cover the bung with gauze and sot it in the sun, and in fifteen or twenty days it will be fit for use. By this method the very best of vinegar can be obtained without any great trouble, and I hope all who like good vinegar will try it.
As this may readily be tried by almost any one, we hope to hear from some of our friends on the subject next winter.
In these times of a scarcity of apples and cider, the following statement made by N. P. Fairbanks in the "Boston Cultivator" is worth considering. He says :—The juice of one bushel of sugar beets, worth twenty-five cents, and which any farmer can raise with little cost, will make from five to six gallons of vinegar, equal to the best made of cider or wine. First, wash and grate the beets, and express the juice in a cheese-press or in any other way which a little ingenuity can suggest, and put the liquor into a barrel; cover the bung with gauze and sot it in the sun, and in fifteen or twenty days it will be fit for use. By this method the very best of vinegar can be obtained without any great trouble, and I hope all who like good vinegar will try it.
As this may readily be tried by almost any one, we hope to hear from some of our friends on the subject next winter.
Quotation of the Day.
Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer
tensions and more tolerance.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
4 comments:
You can also boil it down for sugar/syrup. I read the instructions once, but I don't recall exactly how to do it.
Personally, I love beets, but mine aren't doing well this year.
This is really fascinating. I'm quite unsure about the quality of beetroot wine, but I have enjoyed a Czech vodka distilled from beets called Kord (at the old Russian Tea Room in New York City many years ago). It was excellent and had a uniquely pleasing, sort of "round" quality compared to other Russian and Polish vodkas. I'm skeptical about beer also, but we really, really love beets around here and believe that "waste not, want not" is the best policy. Curtis
Interesting. I had not thought a out vodka from beets, but it makes sense. One more thing to add to my list of things to do with beets!
I am still looking for beer from beets.
Kord is distilled from white beets. Here, for your enjoyment, is a link to a 1956 ad for Kord, which appeared in Playboy magazine. It's nostalgic for me because I note that the US distributor's address precedes the time our current "zip" postal codes were instituted, which I recall being in the early 1960s:
http://www.adashofbitters.com/2010/11/05/ad-of-the-week-kord-vodka/
Unfortunately, I haven't seen or tasted Kord in years. Curtis
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