Corn meal wine

[Cruser]

OK, my father-in-law gave me this recipe & I wanted to know if anyone has seen anything like it. Here it goes, it's pretty crude.

3 oranges peeled & sliced
3 lemons peeled & sliced
3 lbs raisins
3 lbs yellow corn meal
10 lbs sugar
10 qts warm water
1/2 cake yeast (whatever that is)

Mix yeast, water, & sugar together. Then add all other ingredients. Mix well. Stir am & pm for 7-8 days

Strain & bottle. Cap loosely. Let set until it quits working.

My father-in-law said he had tried it 30 years ago. Couldn't remember much about it but he said it tasted good. I wrote this just as it was given to me. Any help on this would be appreciated.

[Hippie]

Why not just call it orange-lemon-raisin-corn wine?

I would try a more modernized recipe and use modern techniques and equipment. You will be much happier with the outcome.

[jojo]

I openly support the use of a hydrometer with this one.

[Paul]

cake yeast

Well thirty years ago would have been the 70's <groan> but assuming he received the recipe from someone else of around say the 50's or earlier, yeast wasn't packed like it is now. It was packed as a cake form, like a biscuit perhaps. So you'd break a piece off. At least from my reading that's what I always envisioned.

I think specialized yeasts like wines and ales weren't as commercially available as they are now.

Paul

[jlsherman55]

Before I get to this 10 pounds seems like a lot of sugar was his hand writing bad(3 Lbs in a US gallon(5 litres) of plain sugar wine is a percentage of 18 percent that is 6 cups of sugar)

Paul from my reading It mentioned relly quickly that yeast was first put in packs(Isolated) somtime in the 70's posibaly late 60's I forgot the exact year, before then, and people still do it today they had to put A Jar of flour(maybe some people even added some sugar ) with water in it out side, and If they noticed it had activity they brought it inside--- or started over.
I did see them dry it a very easy way ---- Im not posive, but Im pretty sure they froze it to dry it.

[Paul]

yeast cake

That sounds almost like a sourdough type starter. Try a google search perhaps?

[Curt]

That sounds like a recipe for mash to be run through a still.