Today, we explore the use of the noble onion in making wine. Here’s a map. I copied it from the Three Stooges. It has no relevance here. But it looks classy.
In this article I continue to copy the work of M.A. Jagendorf, who wrote “Folk Wines, Cordials and Brandies.” This fine book was one of a very few items inherited from my wife’s grandmother. This article is taken almost verbatim, just like the last winemaking article. No attempt has been made to verify any claims or recipes. And, like most of my articles, this is open post.
Today, we discuss the manufacture of onion wine, a talent which will be in great demand post-apocalypse. I hear it goes well with green bread…
“DON’T TURN YOUR NOSE, or eyes, disdainfully from the onion, for a good and potent wine can be made from it. Remember, it has been cultivated, and actually worshiped, through countless silent years. The Egyptians were the first to worship it, and used it as a sacrificial offering and as one of their most important foods. The great strength of the men who sweated and worked on the ageless pyramids was attributed largely to the onions they ate, and they ate very large amounts indeed.
There is an inscription in the Great Pyramid of Cheops, c. 2900 B.C., that tells that 1600 talents of silver were spent for onions, radishes, and garlic for the workers on the stone tomb.
To the Hindus, too, the onion was a symbol of religious mysteries, solemnities, and divination. There are also innumerable references to it in the Bible.
Later on, the onion changed considerably historically and folk-loristically. It vacillated between favor and disfavor, but folks always remembered that it had once been an object of worship.
The Arabs and the Chinese used onions to ward off witches and demons, for these evil spirits had both fear and respect for the bulbous plant. Later, in some parts of these countries, onions were thrown at a newly married couple to keep away the evil eye.
Among the Greeks, the onion was presented as one of the gifts to a newly married couple, for the same reason that we throw rice at newlyweds. When Iphicrates married the daughter of King Cotys, among the wedding gifts there was a jar of snow, a jar of lentils, and a jar of onions.
And yet, necromancers say it is a plant of ill omen. To dream of onions forebodes coming trouble. Like so many other plants, the onion has long been used on the Continent for divination and fortunetelling. In parts of England, an onion named after Saint Thomas is peeled and wrapped in a clean kerchief and placed under the pillow.
In the last hundred years, our own chefs de cuisine have learned that it enhances and sweetens the taste of good soups and is invaluable for seasoning endless dishes. Fully 8% of our prepared foods contain onions.
With so important a place in the culinary realm, it surely deserves a place in viniculture. It makes a strong wine with a most unusual flavor, worth cultivating.”
RJ: Good Lord, Jagendorf can talk. I cut out 500 words above, and 200 below. Let’s get to it.
“You need:
- 1 lb. onions
- 1lb. uncooked barley or potatoes
- 2 lbs. raisins
- 2 gals. water
- 4lbs. sugar
- ½ oz. yeast (2 packages)
- Peel and slice the onions and put them into a crock.
- Clean and add either barley (my own preference) or potatoes, washed and sliced.
- Cut up the raisins and put them in.
- Warm the water, in which the sugar has been dissolved, and pour it into the crock.
- Dissolve the yeast in ½ cup warm water and pour it into the liquid.
- Cover, set in a warm place (65°-70°), and let ferment, stirring daily. The fermentation will take about fourteen days or more.
- Then strain, clear, fine if necessary, and bottle.
The result will be a strong, dry wine with a most unusual taste. No, there will not be an onion bouquet!”
And I zoned out after a few paragraphs. I feel like a millennial now.
That dude wrote four book pages on onion wine.
There’s no amylase to convert the starches from the onion or the barley/potato. So what’s the point of adding those to the fermentation?
Excluding the potatoes/barley and onions, you’ve got four pounds of sugar in two gallons of water. So around 19 to 20 Brix. It will go dry around 10% ABV. So, yeah, that’s wine like.
It’s a interesting book. Someday you may own it.
What are the raisins for? That seems to be in every recipe.
Fermentable sugar.
And then you can say it’s wine cuz it has grapes in it. 😉
Dammit
Can’t have wine without grapes.
Nutrients.
Lots of folk recipes add raisins with the belief that it will help the yeast grow and thrive. Also, there are tannins to get from the raisins.
I think it is safe to say that the number of raisins being added has little impact on fermentation.
2lbs of raisins has little impact on fermentation? (been years since I homebrewed so it’s getting fuzzy)
Ohhh…there is 4lbs of sugar in it. Yeah, OK…missed that.
Missed the two pounds of raisins.
Yes you’re getting the equivalent of 4 or 5 pounds of grapes.
So, there is sugar and nutrients in those raisins. Plus some color and flavor from them as well.
And yeast on the raisins too, right?
/I say this as a raisin hater.
Carly Pearce – Hide The Wine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxUpyfQ0A5o&ab_channel=CarlyPearceVEVO
Raisins have yeast. But I don’t think it is particularly useful.
Raisin are soaked in sulfites to preserve them. This gets into your must and helps to kill wild micro-organisms.
Wine yeast is generally quite tolerant of sulfites, so it doesn’t hurt the wine yeast that you pitch.
Adding two packages of yeast to 2+ gallons of must is going nuclear.
I bought some dandelion wine from a place in Massachusetts. The folks there said they used raisins to make the dandelion wine a little less bitter.
I made dandelion wine about 12 years ago. I think I still have one bottle left. It was actually pretty good.
/I normally don’t like wine.
You just haven’t had the right wine yet.
I HAVE had the right mead, though.
Thank you!
you are welcome
The big advantage of raisins or other dried fruits is that they are shelf stable. This means you can harvest grapes; make raising; then make small batches of wine at your convenience.
Interesting. Some day I will try to make some wine from this book.
Next time there is an emergency article need, I will post one of the cordial recipes.
Cordial recipes would be cool.
Consider it done.
Shouldn’t that be “cordial recipes would be friendly and polite?”
Onion wine? I had asparagus wine once and it was awful.
I can only imagine the post wine pee smell.
Lol
Onion Wine
Onion wine huh? Thanks for the article R.J. but no thanks.
With a name like Stinky Wizzleteats, you won’t try onion wine?
Well….
I probably wouldn’t either.
Sounds gross
Not as gross as brussel sprout wine. After reading that book I think you ca make a wine out of damn near anything. “Wine” being a loose term.
/MADD members let out anguished wail
OMG 🤢🤮
The map is awesome. I would like to visit the Straights of Rye. As a matter of fact, I think I will right now.
Three stooges reference noted
April Wine.
I’m not throwing onions at anybody. I like onions.
🤘🏻
Heaven forbid you throw an onion and spill the wine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W77Kwh6f0TE
Three of my favorite things.
Strawberry Wine – Deana Carter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up06CryWQpE&ab_channel=DeanaCarterVEVO
Kelsea Ballerini – Hole in the Bottle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUHQ0j6qrCM&ab_channel=KelseaBalleriniVEVO
Tundra’s first concert. 1982. Eddie Money opened.
Glorious.
One more time!
Quite possibly the fourth or fifth best rock and roll song ever.
Easily.
Hair farmers.
I’d try it. Didn’t know it existed, but I figure anything and everything edible has been turned into an alcoholic beverage at some point or another.
How about ground beef? Has that been turned into an alcoholic beverage?
Hold my beer…
For the second time in recent visits (I have 9 cars, I’m there more months than not), when I went to the tax office, they had Metallica playing on the sound system. It was Blackened. This was followed up by AC/DC Shoot to Thrill. When I look at the demographics of the tax office staff, I can’t for the life of me figure out who is in charge of the music, but I like it.
🤘🏻🤘🏻
Looks like a good wine to make in your toilet once we Glibs get locked up for…. Fillin the blank.
Get a job in the kitchen. Plenty of fermentables plus bread yeast there.
I know local winemakers that make tomato wine. No one drinks that stuff. It’s mostly for cooking with.
Survival is about getting from harvest one year to harvest the next year.
There were few reliable ways to preserve food before cheap refrigeration was available. Turning stuff into alcohol was one way. Further turning it into vinegar was another.
You only have to go back as far as World War II for this to be important to poor country folk without access to ice houses or electric refrigerators. So my parents and grandparents would have lived with iceboxes and not refrigerators.
Most of these recipes are from the 1800s to 1940s, preserved like a time capsule by M.A. Jagendorf. Makes a great read. Books like that are going to be important in the coming decades, I would think, after the great degaussing.
*Straightens tinfoil hat
*Challenges commentariat to name the movie reference
Brewers and bakers. Important members of society.
I have a small, but growing, paper library of such books. Army survival manual, book on butchering livestock, etc. I can’t find it right now, but if I don’t have the same book you pulled this from, I have a similar one. I need to figure what I did with it…
I bought four books in summer 2020 on small scale farmsteads and basic small game hunting. I hope I never have a reason to open them.
Yeah, I have a couple small scale farming books as well. And ditto on hoping I never read them with earnest.
May I have a sidebar?
My wife has sort of fallen into a conspiracy theory that i can’t disprove.
She believes that the football guy for the bills is dead or very critically injured. Maybe the Vax, maybe not.
I can’t dismiss it because all the new video tape is suspicious. He was supposedly at the game ( I did not watch) and he is in some box suite, but their is not clear video of his face, his brother looks rather uncomfortable and his movements are not what i would suspect a double cpr/AED survivor would look like.
It IS CRAZY. but i cant disprove it and that bothers me.
Speaking of conspiracy theories, there has been another shooting in California. Chinese man shot 7 Chinese farm workers.
https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/multiple-casualties-reported-after-california-shooting-incident
I hear they’ve got him frozen in a missile silo in Nevada and they’re going to thaw him out when the economy gets better.
He’s right next to Reagan.
So the NFL or Big Pharma paid off his family and friends to push the lie? I can see paying off on or two people but this would require many many payoffs, I don’t see it.
It should be so easy to disprove with some decent video. Or pictures of him hugging the guys who did CPR on him, or anything else like that.
I also don’t see it, is should be ridiculously easy to disprove…but at this point i cant.
Just fodder to talk about.
I went looking for video that would easily disprove it and yeah…I willing to hear out your wife. Both the footage of him entering the stadium and shown during the game is amazingly terrible and conspiracy-feeding.
I did watch and I caught an unfocused view of him in the box suite and yeah there was no way you could tell who it was.
TBH I was expecting them to parade him around the field or something. Maybe at the Super Bowl.
Socials don’t help here. Imagine the level of insanity beyond the insanity we saw with 9/11 and theories.
Jared Schumaier 🇺🇸
@strummaster42
·
4h
Is Damar Hamlin alive?
The result will be a strong, dry wine with a most unusual taste.
Hmm… “unusual taste”. I haven’t made booze in a while, but this might be worth trying once.
https://archive.ph/5PzW8/1b40d3008b9d9b0a426b15860b6fbc0eccf51cbe.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/bt5SA/6e10438b838d48f0b1fcb921af40ef29fcb1fc9b.jpg
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/DDXbj/f8d716abf0799dcd52e96a66f99f8bc708e56840.webp
NSFW.
https://archive.ph/ibgOJ/0430fc1e602fa0f68883a19d847ec21269ddc05e.webp
NSFW.
Not your best collection, but this one will do.
Yes, I am interested in hearing how you make Onion wine.
Yes, thank you. I would like some chocolate.
Here’s a little Chlorine and Wine.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DnYO7iQfQDQ
Cigarettes and Wine
Cig Machine – The Suburbs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULBOuU8r_uw&ab_channel=TheSuburbs-Topic
I’m 22 now…
Mr. Cigarette
Don’t forget the Codeine
Not thiCodeine?s
Goddamit
Does Isbell have a supremely punchable face, or is it just because he reminds me of a really shitty neighbor I had once?
That and I fucking hate the song he recently did with Buddy Guy.
That’s just because you like guns more than children.
I got the hots for his wife, who seems like a wild one. I’m digging her outfits in her newer videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsj2wQU9ZkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKGZk4cjHLs
I’ve heard her music, and like it, but never seen the videos. Interesting wardrobe choices.
The clothes just scream, “Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!”
Yep, she’d be a fun one to date for about 3 months, tops.
As long as you don’t own any rabbits.
“I will not be ignored Pud!“
I’m trying to figure out the rabbit reference. Does it have to do with the first song link?
Naw:
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bunny-boiler.html
I like some of her music too. And you’re right, Isbell does have a punchable face.
Her music is quite good.
She’s just on the wrong side of the hot/crazy divide.
Iron + Wine
That was the band I first thought of.
I knew it’d be that – you’re the one who turned me on to them. That’s a great song (and video).
Seeing tonight’s topic, I went searching for any wine or spirits made with Vidalia (TM) onions, since those are known for their high sugar content.
Unsurprisingly, I didn’t find any, but there is some dude in Italy who is making an onion liqueur. I’m not averse to trying that, but I don’t expect it to go into my Gibsons anytime soon.
Hit “Post Comment” too soon.
Italian liqueur: https://www.italianfoodexcellence.com/regina-the-first-italian-onion-liqueur/
I wouldn’t shed any tears if I can’t find it.
🤔
Shpip’s post often have many layers.
They are very appeeling.
Do not like grapes (texture, not taste), but I fucking LUV raisins. /ontopic
I paid my coding test fee today and bought the new books I have to have to sit for this fucking test. It is March 4. I’m as nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
You got this. Ain’t no thing.
You can do it! Practice timed!
Opposite – I hate raisins.
Me too.
Why take a perfectly good grape and ruin it?
Why take a perfectly good cinnamon roll and ruin it by adding raisins?
I do not understand you people.
Both fresh and dried grapes are good. Just don’t let the yeasties get them or you’re stuck going all the way to the still before you can fix that mistake.
You have a fucking test?
Nobody ever told me that there would be a test.
They send the memo out somewhere between ages 9 and 15.
What!?!?!! That was so long ago!
Wait until you hear about the list.
Lists and tests?
I need more wine.
Nice bigfoot hat:
https://www.creepycompany.com/collections/apparel/products/weekly-world-news-bigfoot-trucker-hat
Onions are for wearing on your belt, not wine.
⬆ This took too long.
🤦♂️
He had internalized white supremacy.
And nobody calls these ridiculous white reporters out on their stupid hot-takes.
On to the next shiny thing.
So much this.
USA Today/Gannett has been polishing the headline
Monterey Park tragedy brings back trauma, fears of anti-Asian violence
The article is just as bad
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/01/22/monterey-park-tragedy-brings-back-trauma-fears-anti-asian-violence/11102401002/
“How do we frame this to the narrative” /Uni class, level 100 course.
The first one should be blockquoted also. Takes #2 & #3.
The sheriff’s department spox says the shooter was “discovered by a sheriff’s deputy”… after the guy drove himself to the sheriff’s office.
“We didn’t leave him waiting to be arrested after he surrendered. We aren’t going to make that mistake again.”
April Wine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83hcnq4PRvc
Excellent choice.
Still room for another bottle or two
https://youtu.be/uNkF_ZpQ4eg
https://youtu.be/zXt56MB-3vc
suh’ fam
whats goody
Yo
Morning Glibs.
Wakey wakey.
Good morning, Sean, homey, Stinky, ‘bodru, Roat, and ….Q? Good morning, Q! Welcome to the early morning crew!
I finally have to go back to work today now that my pothole-dented wheel has been replaced. I suspect I owe Reliable Coworker a beer just for having to sort the Monday Mail Mountain.
And back atcha, GT and all
Good morning, 4(20)! ::hug::
At first I was trying to figure out what you were chugging.
I need to wake up… where’s my caffiene?
Good morning, U! Caffeine’s in the fridge – green bottle/can, yellow fizzy liquid inside.
And I’ll have you know I’m sipping my coffee daintily like a lady. At least I hear that’s what ladies do. If I ever meet one, I’ll have to confirm that. ***GLUG!!!***
Morning GT, 4×20, and all!
I like that we have a pre-links morning shift 🙂
Good morning, Shirley! You will note that many of our regulars (especially Sean) provide pre-AM Lynx links!
Yes, and it’s appreciated.
I’m always lurking by 6 at the latest. I’m just pretty variable in terms of whether I have anything to say. Some days, even ‘good morning’ feels gratuitous. Slow-waking introverts are weird lol.
🙂
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5xQF0gerTtM
🎶🎶
cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/half-moon-bay-california-shooting-suspect-in-custody-police-say/
Another MAGA hatted white supremacist. Right? Right?
(FBI handlers unavailable for comment.)
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/half-moon-bay-california-shooting-suspect-in-custody-police-say/
https://www.fox13now.com/girl-finds-rare-megalodon-tooth-in-chesapeake-bay
It’s not shark week yet.
https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/01/23/news/new-england/open-carry-ban-connecticut-governor-plan/
Yeah, that’ll help.
🙄
German engineering!
Watch a German Leopard 2 tank carry a beer and not spill a drop
I don’t understand the fascination with tanks. Back when I paid attention, there was daily tweets about blown up Russian tanks. Many and easily dispatched. What’s changed?
Those things will be reduced to expensive scrap metal soon enough or paraded through Moscow once captured. The Ukes don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of keeping them alive for any period of time.
Maintenance/logistics is difficult.
Wake up bitches!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rmHDhAohJlQ
Share it with your neighbors.
Gun control.
Gun control.
Gun control.
Surely, these events are all organic. *adjusts tinfoil hat*
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-proposes-simplifying-covid-vaccine-schedule-making-similar-flu-sho-rcna66961
NOPE.
I do look forward to less traffic on the road though.
The people who will get these have been jabbed as many times as possible already.
And right on time, lefty establishment mouth pieces move from “mUh ClAsSiFiEd DoKuMeNtZ!” to “Maybe Biden’s not up to running in 2024…”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/23/is-joe-biden-a-viable-candidate-for-2024
This was orchestrated 100%.
The list of non orchestrated things is much shorter than orchestrated these days. I’m gonna say it’s like 10/90%.
Even then, random events get spun to fit The Narrative. We’re just fucked. Adjust accordingly.
Reich is still pissed ’cause he couldn’t go on any rides at Six Flags
Reich needs a hearty rebuttal from Winston’s Mom.
He wasn’t viable for 2020 either but that didn’t stop him.
Here’s why your gas bills are so much higher right now
Some “CAPATILISM!!!” but the close is good:
You could have let the market decide but you chose the fantasy of a command economy.
I thought making it painful was the point.
I beg to differ. The intentions are not “good”, and the heart is not “pure”. If they were, the elite might consider not wrecking the lives of the little people.
Funny how that works, also applies to the private sector.
Exec: Work up an estimate for developing $feature.
Me: Optimistically, this will take 4 months.
Exec: Marketing issued a press release announcing the availability of $feature in 2 months. Revise your estimate.
People in positions of power believe they can will things into existence. Narrator: We are not gods.
If we double the FTEs it will take half the time. It’s simple math, right?
Why didn’t I think of that?
Another one of my favorites from years ago: “It only takes an employee 8 hours to do the work manually. Why is it taking you longer to automate?”
Hah. Double the FTEs, double (if you’re lucky) the time.
No, no I haven’t noticed that. Maybe you’re living in a delusional fantasyland?
Mornin’, reprobates!
Rumor has it there will be real, honest-to-god snow here tomorrow morning. Which makes perfect sense since I need to drive to the ENT. First snow of the season = Demlition Derby.
Good morning, ‘patzie! We’re expecting more snow tonight, starting in the wee hours, on top of what we got over the weekend. I’m half-hoping for a “snow day” to shorten my work week even more, but I’m not holding my breath.
Mornin’. As much as I whine about it, I miss snow. La Nina winters suck.
Only rain here but we get demolition derby all year. Someone took out a utility pole nearby yesterday.
Morning. Cold rain here today.
What’s the name of the buttplug country on the map?
Trick question. Every country is fucked.
Isle of Cork?
Isle of Cork
This morning I heard about a rampage at a mushroom farm in Cali. My first thought was that Yusuf had gone off the deep end.
If we had followed Pelosi’s advice and hugged the Chinese, this never would have happened.