Sunday 9 August 2015

Cassis

blackcurrants

I have two blackcurrant bushes - I keep meaning to propagate more from them but haven't yet - one early and one late. Very late this year it seems as I took the harvest of perfectly ripe large luscious berries just a couple of days ago.

Blackcurrants aren't my favourite fruit, I do particularly like blackcurrant and peach jam, but mostly they do very little for me. However, in the liqueur Creme de Cassis they do have a place in house.

Most of the recipes I've ever seen for making this at home start with macerating the berries in a red wine. It might be traditional but I worry that the low alcohol content will allow the brew to ferment or worse,go mouldy before the full flavour is extracted so this year I'm trying a slightly different approach. The berries are soaking in vodka for three weeks and then I will strain off the flavoured liquid and extend and sweeten it by the addition of judicious amounts of simple syrup, hoping to end up with an alcohol content of about 25%, rather stronger than the commercial varieties or those based on wine.

I'll let you know how it turns out.


No comments: