Cooking honey liqueur – Krupnik and Drambuie

There are many honey liqueurs in the world. Some appeared quite recently and rapidly conquered the market, others were always by our standards, and they did not need to conquer the market. One of these is the notorious Polish honey liqueur Krupnik, which has been prepared in Poland and Belarus since the XNUMXth century. He is one of the few “elite” drinks that were customary to prepare in Russia, and he is accompanied by such hits as Starka and Zubrovka. Krupnik is prepared on the basis of alcohol, honey and spices. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, they also prepared fruit krupniks: with juices, cranberries, etc.

Wiki says that in the XNUMXth century every self-respecting mistress of a noble house should have been able to prepare this wonderful honey elixir. For the sake of some craftswomen, the guests traveled for many, many kilometers. They also say that the best krupniks were cooked in Kovno. Another thoroughbred honey drink is the Scottish liqueur Drambuie, we talked about it in this article. Now to the point: we are preparing Krupnik and Drambuie at home. With full dedication and with rapture.

Krupnik from the 1981 LVI reference book

This recipe for honey liquor is taken by us from the reference book “Recipes for alcoholic beverages and vodkas” in 1981 edition (page 21). Entertaining, by the way, reading matter. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with it – it was the last in the USSR. Of course, the recipe is slightly adapted and tested, since the reference book was produced, you guessed it, for distilleries, and there all samples are in kilograms, and alcohol is calculated in decalitres.

Spicy concentrate for the preparation of 25 liters of Krupnik honey liqueur:

• 10 g vanilla pods;
• 7 g star anise (asterisks);
• 8 g cloves (without legs);
• 10 g cinnamon (in sticks or bark);
• 10 g of coriander;
• 7 g of bison leaf;
• 20 g juniper berries;
• 2 g nutmeg;
• 6 g cardamom (boxes);
• 950 ml 55% alcohol;
• 650 ml 50% alcohol.

To prepare 10 liters of honey liqueur:

• 250-500 ml of spicy concentrate;
• 1800 g fresh, liquid honey (about 1,5 l);
• 2,5 kg of sugar;
• 500 ml + 1,4 l of water;
• 0,5 tsp citric acid;
• 100 ml of cholera;
• 4 liters of 80% alcohol.

Preparation:

Of course, the number of all ingredients can be counted. Reduce, for example, by half – then you will get not 10 (but in fact it turns out about 8,5-9 liters), but 5 liters (that is, within 4-4,5 liters).

1. First you need to fill all the spices with 55% alcohol and insist them for 2 weeks. Drain, pour 50% alcohol and insist another 2 weeks. Drain, combine both infusions. It turns out about 1,5 liters of concentrate. We dilute alcohol to 50% and 55% using our calculator.

2. Boil syrup from 2,5 kg of sugar and 500 ml of water, add 0,5 tsp to it during boiling. citric acid. Cool before mixing with honey, alcohol and infusion. You also need to cook 100 ml of color – burnt sugar, caramel – it acts as a dye and is not mandatory, but desirable if you are pursuing a beautiful, rich golden hue. True, cooking it is very troublesome, and at some point even dangerous.

You can prepare it as follows: pour sugar, for example, into a Turk (preferably copper), add water 1-2% of the volume of sugar, that is, quite a bit. You need to heat it up until the sugar starts to melt. You have to constantly stir. We keep on fire until the mass begins to stretch with threads and becomes a dark, brown-cherry color (here to your taste). Next, you need to cool the sugar to 60 ^oC! and pour into it the same amount by volume of boiling water.

It is important to cool the caramel to the right temperature, otherwise even boiling water will cause an “explosive” reaction, which is fraught with burns. It is also important to pour in the water on time, otherwise the caramel will harden and you will end up with a cockerel on a stick, only in a Turk 🙂

3. We mix all the ingredients: honey, syrup, alcohol, the rest of the water (1,4 l), infusion and color. According to the LVI recipe, you need to add 250 ml of spicy concentrate per 10 liters of drink, but we recommend 500 ml – this way the drink will turn out to be more saturated, with character, so to speak. We withstand at least 2 months, then we filter several times, you can drain it from the sediment for the first time. After a year, the drink will lighten completely by itself. A two-year aging is recommended – during this time, the taste of the drink becomes rounded, becomes whole, and the liquor itself is very soft.

Ultimately, you should end up with a honey liqueur with an old gold color and a very pleasant spicy flavor. The main taste direction is set by honey, juniper berry, vanilla. Star anise and cardamom are felt in the aftertaste. Before you put the liquor on exposure, we recommend that you first try it. If it seems too cloying for you, add alcohol and water in the right amount – we focus on the final 40 degrees.

Polish recipe for krupnik – the one that is simpler

The recipe is borrowed from the Polish magazine “Please to the table” (“Kvieciu prie stalo”). It is much easier to prepare krupnik according to it than according to the LVI recipe, but in the end the drink is not so fragrant. The technology of its preparation closely intersects with the technology of making mead, with which krupnik is often confused – do not confuse 🙂

• 0,5 l 95% alcohol;
• 0,5 kg of honey;
• 400 ml of water;
• cinnamon to taste (in sticks);
• ginger root to taste;
• 5-6 buds of cloves;
• 3 boxes of cardamom;
• 0,5 tsp caraway seeds;
• 1 a starlet of badin;
• 1 vanilla pod;
• 1 / 5 tsp. soda

You need to mix water, honey and spices in a saucepan and cook over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring constantly and removing the foam. If you are afraid of honey overheating and the release of carcinogens, do not heat the mixture above 60 ^оC. Then cool the honey-spicy syrup and pour alcohol into it. Pour the krupnik into a jar and let it stand in a cold place for 2-3 days. Then strain through a fine sieve or several layers of gauze and bottle. It is necessary to withstand the honey liquor for at least 2 months, but a year or two is better, until it is completely clarified (a cloudy precipitate will fall out), and the taste is not rounded.

Instead of a vanilla stick, you can use a couple of packs of vanilla sugar. You can add a teaspoon of dried mint. To get started, start with one cinnamon stick. The drink is strong, masculine, about 40%. You can try to make the ladies’ version with vodka, but the consistency and taste will differ dramatically.

Recently, the alcohol brand Jack Daniel’s (Jack Daniels) presented a new product – honey whiskey Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Honey. It includes Jack Daniel’s Old No.7 whiskey and spiced honey liqueur.

Homemade drambuie on Chivas Regal whiskey

Scotch liqueur is made with 12 year old Chivas Regal whiskey, but it’s expensive, so any other blend will do (if you don’t know what a blend is, read this article). To achieve the most similar taste, you must definitely use heather honey, but you can get by with any other with similar tastes (it is a little sugary). Fans of homemade drinks have not yet revealed the secret composition of Drambuie, or rather the spices and roots that are added to it, but a very good result is obtained with rosemary.

• 0,25 tsp dried rosemary (preferably 1 tsp fresh);
• 700 ml Chivas Regal 12 old whiskey;
• 240 ml heather honey.

Remember and chop the rosemary in a jar, add the scotch and let it sit on the rosemary overnight, preferably two. Then strain the infusion well, and add honey. Shake vigorously and let the drink stand for another 2-3 weeks. In the first days, you can shake it vigorously, but then you need to leave the infusion alone so that the honey settles to the bottom. Then decant the sediment, filter the homemade Drambuie through cotton wool and let it steep as long as possible. In our edition, this is “not earlier than tonight!” 🙂

Homemade Drambuie on Johnny Walker Black Label Whiskey

Again expensive, so we try the usual red Jonik. But the authors of this recipe, and these are respected American “bootleggers”, adapted the recipe specifically for this whiskey – Chivas seemed too “mountainous” to them. In this recipe, just the roots are used, so the liquor is very close to the original in taste and smell.

• 750 ml scotch whiskey;
• 350 ml of soft honey;
• 2 tsp dried, finely chopped angelica root;
• ¼ tsp crushed dill seeds;
• 2 strips of lemon zest, 5 cm.

Mix all the ingredients in a jar and stir vigorously several times for the first 24 hours. Remove the lemon zest after 24 hours. Close the jar tightly and keep the liquor in a dark, cool place for 2 weeks, shaking slightly from time to time. Then strain the infusion through a sieve or several layers of gauze bandage. Bottle and age 6 months (haha). The remains of angelica and dill seeds can be used to prepare any dishes – we rely on your imagination.

They drink krupnik, by the way, in different ways. It used to be consumed hot from small china cups. Now served with ice in summer and slightly warm in winter. In old Poland, there was a ritual of “smoking” krupnik – all the components of the liquor were put into a large clay bowl and set on fire. When the burning mixture gained a dark amber color and a peculiar aroma, at the sign of the hostess, all the guests blew on the flame to extinguish it. In general, they had fun then, as they could …