Blackberry whisky, strawberry liqueur, pickled pears.
I recently discovered some blackberry whisky I had forgotten about, it was great! It must have been a good 18 months old and had definitely improved with age. This has put me back onto a liqueur making phase, although it does get a bit expensive and I have to watch the units I am drinking because some of these are SO nice.
I got some strawberries today so will try strawberry liqueur, I have never made it before. Here’s the recipe from a book called Make your own liqueurs (unsurprisingly) by Jean Dickson. I got it from a car boot and thought it was Australian, turns out it was South African, so I have to take account of some strange ingredients I cant seem to get my hands on easily, like whitblits. If ever I know anyone going to South Africa I will get them to bring some back..
Strawberry Liqueur
500 g fresh strawberries
750 ml of gin
200 g sugar
250 mls dry white wine
1 ml of black pepper -a pinch I assume.
Wash and cut strawberries into quarters
Place strawberries and pepper into a clean dry glass or earthenware container with a lid and add the gin.
Mix the sugar and wine in a heavy bottomed pot and stir over a low temp until dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil for 7 minutes.
Remove the syrup from the stove and leave to cool. Add the cold syrup to the mixture and close tightly. leave to stand for a fortnight in a warm spot shake every morning and evening.
Pour the mixture through several layers of clean dry cheesecloth.
Pour into a clean dry sterilised bottle, cork, seal and store for at least a month before use.
Having said that I simply put my home made liqueurs straight into a sterilised spirits bottle. It has never started fermenting!
Technically anything made now should be ready for Xmas, although as I have discovered, they improve with time.
