Squirrels! You may be wondering what on earth this has to do with dandelion wine.
Nothing! But this is my little note to all of you who have been emailing me since my Fox News article came out about eating squirrels. I’ve gotten inquiries about where one might find squirrel recipes on my site. The short answer is nowhere… you see, they are all in my book Girl Hunter, and my publisher won’t allow me to publish what’s in my book everywhere else, because that defeats the purpose of toiling away for years on a book. But the recipes are mighty tasty, so if you don’t want to spend the $16 to order it, I highly recommend asking your local library to order you a copy. I’m sure they would love to. Also, there are some recipes for dove stews and rabbit dishes here that could also be interchanged for squirrel. Be creative! Go wild!
This past Saturday was squirrel appreciation day. But I appreciate squirrels every day and so should you.
Now, on to a dandelion wine update.
As you may recall, I made a batch of dandelion wine over the summer. It was a thrill and I’ve been waiting 6 months to taste it.
What better time than New Year’s Eve I thought?
So I got out a few glasses for family and friends and we had a taste test.
Actually, first I spilled.
Then I poured properly.
First sip: Wow! Sweet but flavorful. A nice bubble to it from the fermentation.
Second sip: Still tasty, but a bit too sweet.
Third sip: It’s becoming too cloying, it needs something to thin out the sweetness. And it’s a little warm. I would refrigerate this before serving for sure.
I added a cube of ice.
Fourth sip: Still too sweet. But it would make a wonderful after dinner aperitif as a result.
I added some sparkling water to turn it into a spritzer.
Amaaaazing. A dandelion spritzer. Sign me up.
Next spring when the dandelions are blooming again, I’m going to try this with a little less sugar and a little more yeast so that the yeast will eat up the sugar and give this a bit more tang. I like tang in my life.
But this was a wonderful adventure in dandelion wine. And my godfather has informed me that the best roasted chicken he’s ever had was with dandelion wine poured over it. I bet it caramelizes the skin in an intoxicating sort of way.
The End.
p.s. For the full dandelion wine recipe go HERE.
1 Comment
Gerry
I hi you inspired me to try making dandelion wine. I do homemade wines myself and read your article and thought I would give it a try. However I noticed you said you use brewer’s yeast brewer’s yeast is really engineered for beer not wine. Wine yeast actually will convert the sugars into usable food and their form produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as a result period brewer’s yeast will also convert sugar into alcohol but is generally made for beer which is low alcohol content. Therefore your sweetness is because the brewer’s yeast dies off before the alcohol can kill it. the reason they die iiii that they can no longer consume the sugar and it overstresses the yeast since they starve. The sediment on the nottom is dead yeast cells plus any organic matter from the buds. Thete should be NO undissolved sugar . I boil my sugar in its own pot and make sure its fully dissolved. I will become thick when saturated but this is ok since youll be adding it back to your total liquid volume. This process breaks down tanle sugar into glucose which the yeast eat more readily. This makes more food and hence more alcohol. This will naturally reduce the sweetness of the wine due to less residual sugar.