Wines are great for cooking and serving with food, and this Five Finger wine is just great for that.
“Ah want some homemade wine madame Gloria,
Gimme de homemade wine, it nice.
Ah want some homemade wine madame Gloria,
Gimme de homemade wine, it sweet…”
Just like Scrunter’s song, “Homemade Wine” celebrates homemade wine making in Trinidad and Tobago which is an art in itself. And a delicious one at that too! From recipes scribbled on a copybook page or passed on by word of mouth, to possibly closely guarded secret ingredients or techniques, making homemade wines using our local fruits, plants, barks and flowers is a treasured pastime.
Homemade Five Finger Wine
Wine from plants, barks and flowers??? Yep, that’s right. We have taken plants like the famous Chadon Beni (Eryngium Foetidum), Aloes ( Aloe vera), Timarie ( Neptunia Aquatica ), the aphrodisiac bark Bois Bande ( Roupala Montana ) and even Hibiscus flowers to make wine. Personally, I haven’t tasted the chadon beni and timarie but common ones like guava, passion fruit, cashew, cane, rice etc I have had at one time or another while house paranging, at a lime or from friends…. I even heard of some people using dasheen to make wine….in fact I think we Trinis could take almost anything to make wine LOL!!
Anyhow, today I’m going to show you how to make five finger wine. From the looks of it though, you could substitute the five finger with any other fruit and make any other type of wine as well. The steps are simple to follow; just make sure everything is sterilized with hot water. Here’s five finger ( carambola, star fruit) wine. Enjoy the fruitiness!
Five Finger Wine Recipe
FIVE FINGER WINE
Ingredients:
25 five finger (star fruit, carambola)
1½ pack yeast (16.5 g)
12 pounds sugar
2 1/4 gallons of water (i.e. 2 gallons and 4 cups)
½ pound raisins
Direction:
Wash and slice the five finger.
Add the five finger to the water in a bucket.
Note: We used what we call a “pigtail” bucket to set the wine. The water was boiled and cooled beforehand.
Add the yeast and 6 pounds sugar and stir.
Cover the container and leave in a cool dry place for 21 days….
Ok 21 days has passed….Well at least pretend 21 days has passed LOL! ….
This is how the five finger looks now.
Pour out and sweeten the wine with the remaining 6 pounds of sugar.
Strain using a cloth
Note: Make sure everything is sterilized in hot water before use.
Pour out in sterilized bottles, add raisins and leave for ten days.
Note: Adding the raisins and leaving for the ten day period helps make the wine clearer.
DO NOT COVER THE BOTTLES TIGHTLY.
After the ten day period strain the wine again. The second picture shows some of the impurities (dead yeast) that settled at the bottom of the bottle.
Bottle the wine and store in a cool dry place. Serve chilled or with ice.
Tips:
Storing wines. Store your wine in a dark place and free of vibrations.
If you wish to use this wine to add flavor to a dish, makes sure the main flavor of the food match the wine. This wine will match well with tomatoes or to grilled meats. For meats, use it as a baste by mixing about 3 tablespoon of wine with 2 tablespoon of olive oil or melted butter.
Ok before I go I would like to leave you all with the song “Homemade Wine” by Scrunter….See how many types of Trini homemade wine you could name!
Ah gone!
Five Finger Wine
Ingredients
- 25 five finger star fruit, carambola
- 1 1/2 pk yeast 16.5 g
- 12 lbs sugar granulated
- 2 1/4 gal of water i.e. 2 gallons and 4 cups
- 1/2 lb raisins
Instructions
- Wash and slice the five finger. Add the five finger to water (that was boiled and cooled) in a large bucket. Add the yeast and 6 pounds of sugar and stir. Cover the container and leave in a cool dry place for 21 days.
- Pour out and sweeten the wine with the remaining 6 pounds of sugar. Strain using a clean cloth Pour out in sterilized bottles add raisins and leave for ten days.
- Note: Adding the raisins and leaving for the ten day period helps make the wine clearer. DO NOT COVER THE BOTTLES TIGHTLY.
- After the ten day period strain the wine again. Bottle the wine and store in a cool dry place.
- Serve chilled or with ice.
Notes
By the way, The Simply Trini Cooking Cookbook is now available at Amazon in Kindle and paperback copy. The cookbook contains over 600 recipes. Order your copy today!
what other types of wine do you make in trinidad?
i have heard of christophene wine too from the “sweet hands”
As I have said before, we take almost anything to make our wines even down to aloe vera!
Hi Felix
made this wine and i’ve been told by some people it’s the bomb thanks so much for this post i always use your site especially when i want to try something new
Hi,
Our tree is laden with five finger and I’ve been searching for uses for it. Thanks for posting this. I’m just in time for Christmas! 🙂
Can sorrel be used to make wine? Ever heard about Ganja wine?
Yes and yes lol!! But you know between you and me I can’t post Ganja wine lol!!
Felix, you wrote that you can make any other kind of wine using the basic recipe. But I have a question, to substitute the fruit, would you do it by amount or by weight? So would I use a pound or two pounds of aloes, or a pound or two pounds of guava, or a pound or two pounds of pineapple or a pound or two pounds of raw rice? Wonder if I am asking this question correctly?
Hi dc,
Thanks for the comment. I believe I understand what you are asking. If you wish to substitute the 25 star fruit with any other fruit it would be equal to about 5 pounds. So I guess you can go ahead and use an equivalent amount of 5 pounds for the fruits.
You know, I have always wanted to try guava wine. I find the perfume of guavas really delicious. There used to be a guava tree in Woodbrook some years ago. Every year it was something to smell the perfume when the fruit was in season. Then they cut it down. Very sad day. Oh well. Thank you for your guidance on this!
Can uou post rhe recipe for aloes wine
I’ll need to get a lot of aloes to make it.
hi. is it normal baking yeast that is used?
Yep.
Hello! Do you have a guava wine recipe? Or is it similar to this but with guava? Thanks!
http://simplytrinicooking.com/guava-wine/
Hey thanks for the recipe. do you have a sorrel wine recipe?
I have a sorrel liqueur you can check out.
Hey our cherry tree is full or Caribbean cherries. I think some call them Acerola or Barbados cherries. Can you get me a good recipe to make wine from them please. I can’t find one anywhere on the internet and your site has the most Caribbean wine recipes. . Thanks
Haven’t seen those in a while. I’ll have to check around but I’ll keep you in mind.
What type of yeast do you use. Is it regular instant yeast?
Yep, regular yeast.
I really appreciate your recipes I tried this wine and it came out really well. I’m trying to make it using pomcetyre this time around would let you know the outcome. Thank you for sharing your recipes.
Hi. Am very happy to get this recipe. Thank you. Could you tell me if there is a recipe that can be used for all or most of our fruits here in Trinidad and Tobago? Much thanks in advance.
Hi Shanti I don’t think there would be one formula to be used for all the fruits. The very nature of the sweetness or tartness each fruit has, will have to be taken into consideration. What I can say is that you can use any of my wine recipes as a base to conduct your personal experiments.
Thank you very much for replying. I will try it and have fun experimenting.
Hi Felix,
I have heard of potato wine but some people say that you can either use the potato or the skin of the potato so any thoughts on this?
Maybe you use both.
how do you cover the bucket ?
We use a cloth.