Surrounded by wonderful sun ripened fruits here in France I am able to practice freely my passion for making Liqueurs.
They are begining to build up now on my shelves so I thought it was time to provide a Carte des Liqueurs for my clients , complete with tasting notes.
White Peach with Cinnamon
I found that the evanescent flavour of the White Peach was a little overcome by the alcohol so added some Cinnamon Bark to provide backbone.
Vin de Noix
More of a fortified wine than a liqueur the spirit from this bottle came from friends in the village who found a bottle in their cave labelled 90% and dated 1943.
This along with red wine, crushed green walnuts, oranges and sugar is now macerating away nicely.
Apricot with Bitter Almonds
Again I found these fruits needed a little help to shine , the almonds seem to be doing the trick.
Sloe
Irish Sloes picked in South Kilkenny carried out frozen and then steeped in French Marc rather than Gin (and none the worse for that)
Elderflower
Picked just this May, and a bit of an experiment , these have proved a winner.
The flavour shines through
Cerises Jaunes
These were my first experiment in France and have a lovely soft almond flavour.
Bigarades
Seville Orange, made from one imported from Ireland and hung over the spirit to slowly infuse it and then, when I found three on my own Bigarade tree I added these in too. Cointreau also use bigarades for their liqueur.
Plum
This was also one of the early experiments and is down to the last bottle,it is a little sweet but rightly plummy.
Quetsch
This plum has a much higher acidity so is doing much better, I’m going to let it macerate for another year.
Raspberry Pip
How could I possibly discard the Raspberry pips having strained them out of the fruit to make the jam ?
This one also wants more time.
I recently found a book of French recipes (220 of them ) for liqueurs so am looking forward to more experiments.
How can I resist making a liqueur from the kernels of Apricots ? Or one from flowers of Fennel ? Or even one that first requires me to catch a snake ?
Comments
Caroline@Bibliocook
on June 16, 2011I love the sound of the elderflower liqueur – how did you make that? The elderflowers were very late around north Cork this year so my champagne is a little behind the times!
Martin
on June 16, 2011Pack as many flowers as you can into a pot (Mine was about 3 kilo). Fill with alcohol ; I use French wine alcohol, cheap Lidil vodka is fine . Macerate for 6 weeks, strain and squeeze into a large pot , add sugar syrup to taste, (also some lemon juice to taste).
Bottle and leave. It really captures the smell of the blossom.
isabel healy
on June 19, 2011I came across a reference to making a liqueur with vodka and the young red leaves of the walnut tree the other day…..its also a good tincture for ailments….
Martin
on June 19, 2011Great against depression I would imagine, (if taken in large enough doses)
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