Marrow Wine?

Sorry about that. I believe the american word is squash or gourd. They're called marrows in England, UK.

Akator

Here's a picture:

I know someone who makes this, calling it marrow rum. I have asked for instructions and will post them when received.

Yep.

And to think I assumed he meant making wine out of the stuff inside bones ...

Ok received the instructions. It's a bit different from the one you mentioned in that the fermenting is done in a demijohn

First, take your marrow and slice off the stalk end, removing a piece about

4" or so long. Carefully scoop out the inside of the marrow, as far down as you can reach, but without removing all the flesh. Can be tricky, so the bigger the marrow the better. Stuff the cavity with sugar - brown or white, Demerara, a mixture, whatever you have. Place the top back on and keep in place with tape. Place the marrow in a large jug or high-sided bowl and cover with a tea towel. Leave undisturbed for about a week, then remove tape, top up with sugar if required, and re-tape it closed. Leave it undisturbed again until the marrow starts to collapse; the sugar will dissolve the insides of the marrow and the whole insides and sugar will turn into a liquid. When it looks done (quite subjective, but you will know), place the liquid into a bowl or jam pan or similar - it may need straining if there are wee bits of marrow in it.

Warm the liquid to blood heat and then add pre-activated yeast.

Leave covered in a warm place for 24 hours to ensure it's working, then transfer to a demijohn and ferment out. Will need racking at least once, and keeping for at least 2 years before drinking.

You'd be hard pressed to get one gallon from one marrow so you could be like me and have four or five of them lined up on the window! They look quite attractive until they start to collapse!

It's like rum in the same way that carrot whisky is like whisky, but worth doing.

Main text:

Hope that helps.

Hmmm, another wine to age for 2 years without drinking! Maybe I'll make a gallon this year and put it beside my banana wine that needs at least 1 year of aging before drinking. I usually have too many zucchini (marrow's) in the summer to eat and have to resort to grilling and canning some (very good in the winter months) or giving them away. Thanks for the recipe. Al

Sounds suspicious to me. Especially the part about using raisins as a yeast source. Raisins are heavily sulphited and I don't think you would find much in the way of viable yeast on them. I would suspect also that it would come out something like sweet jungle juice.

Ray

I have read with interest the comments made by all. And pass on to you all, the following two recipes from my collection. MARROW RUM This is a traditional Norfolk recipe, and although this is of course not rum,any more then the " brandy " in previous recipes was actually brandy, it carries a tremendous kick, and should be treated with great respect.

1) Get a beautiful, big, straight marrow, cut a two inch ( 50 cm) slice off the top, and scoop out all the seeds. 2) Fill the resulting space with demerara sugar pack as tight as you can. Dissolve a half teaspoon of yeast in a tablespoon of tepid water, and pour it on the sugar. 3) Replace the end of the marrow, and seal the join with adhesive tape. Wipe the outside of the marrow carefully and cover it with a muslin bag, tying it at the neck. Suspend it over a jug, and exclude air by placing the whole thing, marrow and jug, in a plastic bag. 4) Hang the whole thing up on a hook, and within a few days, juice will start to drip down into the jug. And by "juice", we mean jungle juice. ==========================================Morrow Rum (2) to follow

General Purpose wine yeast

Yeast nutrient

Wipe marrow clean with damp cloth, then cut a piece off the stalk end of the marrow, deep enough to enable you to scoop out the seeds and pith from the rest of the marrow. Press the Demerara sugar into the cavity left; it depends on the size of the marrow how much you will need; a large one will take 7 pounds of sugar.

Replace the end of the marrow and seal with a piece of sticky tape. Then suspend the marrow over a jar or jug; something with a narrow neck so that the marrow can rest on this but not touch the bottom of the container.

After two or three weeks unseal the end of the marrow and add some more sugar; some of the first lot will have been absorbed into the flesh of the marrow. Put the end on again and leave for about six to seven weeks, when the sugar should have mixed with the flesh of the marrow and the resulting liquid will have dripped through into the jar leaving only the shell of the marrow. Add yeast and yeast nutrient. Strain into fermentation jar fit airlock and allow fermentation to finish until dry.

Keep at least twelve months when it will be very strong.

MARROW RUM (the alternative method)

This one looks good hanging in the kitchen for a few days! 4 oz of sugar per half pint of rum, White preferably, it blends better with the marrow. Get yourself a good mature marrow, cut open the top & scoop a good cup full out of the middle. Underneath the Marrow make about half a dozen puncture wounds with a sharp narrow needle (preferably long sowing needle or a sharp thin knife ), & suspend above a glass bowl . Feed the marrow through the top hole with sugar & rum in proportion & in a few hours you'll get lovely scented marrow rum dripping out of the bottom. An average marrow will normally take about one & half pints of rum (over a few hours) I prefer to make most liquers on the tart side & sweeten to taste afterwards if necessary. Geraint

Marrow Rum

This is going to be impenetrable for most of us colonials, who don't know a "marrow" is Brit for "squash", or Zucchini. You can make a kind of wine by filling the cavity of a hollow vegetable, such as a pumpkin or other hollow squash, with fermentable sugar, nutrient and yeast.

Pectic enzyme will also help, or better yet, a starch-converting enzyme, such as Koji, or Diastase. As fermentation proceeds, the sugars in the squash will be fermented, and the whole thing gets digested. Best to do it in a container, since it may eat through the outer skin. You can do it with either beer, or wine. If you use something like a large pumpkin, and carefully cut a round hole as you remove the stem, it is possible to fit it with a fermentation lock. Then pour in any basic must or wort, grape juice, sugar water, whatever. Add a touch of yeast, and away it goes. Draw a happy Bacchus face on the pumpkin !

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what exactly is a marrow?

john

A gourd, basically.

You know what a zucchini[1] is? Well if you let one of them grow you'll get something much larger [~60cm] which is called a marrow.

[1] We call them courgettes here.

Geoff, North Loburn New Zealand

Okay, I wasn't sure if it was a zucchini or a different vegetable entirely. I have lots of marrow (marrows?) at the end of the summer in my garden..but I can't even imagine what the wine would taste like!

john

Interesing....in french a squash is a courge..and courgette would be a small one I think..

On the beer side of things, there *are* old recipes for "c*ck ale." One I have uses a ham in addition the whole rooster, if memory serves, while the other merely uses a rooster.

It gets discussed sporadically, but I've never heard of anyone actually making it in modern times--and if they did, I'd be afraid to drink it.

hawk