1247. _Incomparable Apricot Wine._--Take eight pounds of ripe apricots, slice them into two gallons of spring water, and add five pounds of powdered loaf sugar. Boil them together for some time, without taking off the scum; then skim it off as it continues to rise, and put it in a clean sieve, over a pan, to save the liquor which comes from it. When the boiling liquor is as clear as it can be made from the dross of the sugar, pour it, with the drainings of the sieve, hot on the kernels of the apricots, which must be put with the stones into the pan, where it is intended the wine should be left to cool. Stir all well together, cover it up closely till it grows quite cool, and then work it with a toast and yeast. In two or three days, when it is found to be settled, fine it off into a cask, leaving it to ferment as long as it will. After it has done working, pour in a bottle of old hock, mountain, or sherry, and stop it up for six months; then, if very fine, bottle it, and keep it twelve months. This is indeed a most delicious wine. 1248. _To detect Sugar of Lead in Wines._--The tincture of orpiment converts wine so adulterated to a black color. 1249. _Orange Wine._--To ten gallons of water put twenty-eight pounds of loaf sugar, and the whites of six eggs. Boil them together for three-quarters of an hour, keeping the liquor well skimmed all the time, and then pour it hot into a tub, or large pan, over the peels of fifty Seville oranges. When it is nearly cold, take three spoonsful of yeast, spread on a piece of toasted bread, and put in the liquor to make it ferment. After it has stood two or three days, pour it from the peels into the cask, with a gallon of orange juice, which takes about a hundred and twenty oranges. Let it remain in the cask till it has done hissing, when the fermentation will have ceased. Endeavor to proportion the size of the cask to the quantity, as it must be kept filled, so as to work out at the bung-hole. When the fermentation is over, draw off as much of the wine as will admit one quart of brandy for every five gallons of wine. It will be fit to bottle, or drink from the cask, in four or five months. This wine, if carefully made, according to these plain directions, will be found exquisitely delicious; and were it kept four or five years, would far surpass most of the best foreign wines, as they are usually sold in England. 1250. _Red Currant Wine._--To eight gallons of water add twenty-four pounds of loaf sugar; boil the syrup and skim it, till the scum disappears. Have ready, picked from the stalks, two gallons of red currants, taking care not to bruise them. Pour the syrup, boiling hot, on the currants. Let it all stand till nearly cold; then add a teacupful of yeast. Let it ferment for two days; then strain it through a sieve, into the cask, and when the fermentation entirely ceases, bung it tight. It will be ready to bottle at the end of two months. Into each bottle put a small lump of sugar.