Due to their high calorie content, dates in the East are called “bread of the desert.” Few people know that homemade date wine with an unusual taste can be made from a sweet delicacy familiar to us. We will consider the recipe and cooking technology further.
Dates of all varieties and sizes are suitable for winemaking, the main thing is that the fruits are not rotten or moldy. All containers used must first be rinsed well (preferably sterilized with boiling water) and wiped dry with a clean cloth.
Ingredients:
- dates – 3 kg;
- sugar – 0,8 kg;
- citric acid – 40 grams;
- water – 8 liters;
- unwashed raisins – 100 grams (or sourdough).
Citric acid is needed to stabilize the acidity, otherwise the fermentation will be sluggish, and the wine will turn out tasteless and will not be stored well. After steaming in boiling water, there will be no wild yeast left on the dates, so a couple of days before laying the must, take care of the wine sourdough. An alternative is to add unwashed raisins in the fifth step, but there is no guarantee that they will ferment.
date wine recipe
1. Remove pits from dates.
2. Pour boiling water over the pulp, leave for 60 minutes.
3. Drain the broth into a separate container. Pass the steamed dates through a meat grinder.
4. Mix the resulting slurry with a room temperature decoction.
5. Add the first portion of sugar (200 grams), citric acid, sourdough (raisins). Mix well.
6. Transfer the container to a dark room with a temperature of 18-25°C. Tie the neck with gauze. After 2-3 days, foam, hissing, and a slight sour smell should appear on the surface. This means fermentation has begun.
7. Leave the must for 7-9 days (from the moment of mixing the ingredients) until the pulp (cake) floats to the top. Stir once a day with a clean hand. During fermentation, a kvass smell is felt, this is normal, we will remove it at the 14th stage.
8. Strain the wine material through several layers of gauze, squeeze out the hard part well. Squeezes are no longer needed.
9. Add a second portion of sugar (400 grams) to the liquid wort, mix, then pour into a fermentation tank (fill a maximum of 2/3 of the volume). To remove carbon dioxide, install a water seal on the neck (a rubber medical glove with a small hole in the finger). Leave in a dark place with a temperature of 18-25°C.
10. After 3 days, add the last portion of sugar (200 grams). To do this, pour 0,5 wort into a separate container, dilute sugar in it and pour it back, not forgetting to install a water seal.
11. Active fermentation lasts 35-60 days. Then the water seal stops emitting gas (the glove deflates), sediment appears at the bottom, and the young date wine becomes noticeably lighter.
If fermentation has not stopped after 55 days from the date of installation of the water seal, the wine must be drained from the sediment and left to ferment under a water seal at the same temperature, otherwise bitterness may appear.
12. Carefully drain the fermented wine from the sediment through a straw into another container. To taste. If desired, sweeten with sugar or fix with vodka (alcohol) in an amount of 2-15% by volume. Mix well.
13. It is advisable to fill the container with drained wine to the neck so that there is no contact with the air inside. Close hermetically (if there is any doubt that the fermentation is completely over, put it under a water seal) and transfer to a dark place with a temperature of 5-16 ° C for holding. The basement is ideal, in a pinch, a refrigerator.
14. Withstand at least 3-4 months. Gradually, sediment will appear at the bottom. At least once every 2-3 weeks, it must be removed by pouring home-made wine from dates through a straw into another container. Thanks to the transfusion, the kvass smell will disappear and the drink will become lighter. Cooking is complete when sediment no longer appears.
15. Pour the finished wine into bottles for storage, seal tightly with corks. Shelf life 2-3 years. It turns out about 6 liters. Fortress – 10-12%.
PS For the development of cooking technology and photos, I express my gratitude to the user Alexander M. from Izhevsk. He has repeatedly sent recipes for wines from exotic raw materials.