Homemade black and red currant liqueur, Creme de Cassis

Crème le Cassis is a blackcurrant liqueur believed to have been shaped in 1841 by Auguste-Denis Lagout, a cafe owner in Dijon, France. Many of the best examples of the liqueur are still produced in this region, but even they fall short of homemade Crème de Cassis. And all because with the soul!

EU legislation states that Creme de Cassis must contain a minimum of 400 g of sugar per liter and a minimum of 15% alcohol. Unfortunately, no minimums have been set for the berries, although the best French producers of this liqueur use up to 600 g of blackcurrant per liter. The number of berries directly affects the intensity of taste, aroma and color of Cassis. It is this indicator that is the bottleneck of commercial distilleries, which have to save for the sake of income. All paths are open to us!

There are a lot of Creme de Cassis recipes, but they all come down to a single technology: delicate pressure of the berry, soaking it for two months in alcohol (traditionally in brandy), squeezing the alcoholized juice and adding sugar. The result is a very rich liquor of a dark, almost opaque purple color with a very subtle summerberry aroma. What then to do with tart, thick liquor? Prepare Kir and Kir Royal, popular cocktails with dry white wine and sparkling wines (champagne) respectively. So, a few recipes for black and red currant liqueur.

Crème de Cassis is Hercule Poirot’s favorite drink. Agatha Christie drinks blackcurrant liqueur for her literary character in at least three books.

Creme de Cassis or blackcurrant liqueur

The output is almost 2 liters of drink.

How to cook:

Rinse the currants, remove all the stems and sort out. Crush in small batches (you can at low speed in a blender or food processor) – here the main task is to crush each berry, but at the same time keep the seeds intact. Pour the crushed berry into a jar of the required volume and fill it with vodka. The berry should be soaked for at least 1 month (this process is called maceration) in a dark, cool place.

A month later, the berry needs to be squeezed out: we take gauze and squeeze out all the alcoholized juice with it. Then the drink can be filtered several times and driven through a cotton filter. We measure the amount of liquid received. Now we add sugar: if you need ordinary blackcurrant liqueur, then add 20% of sugar from the total volume of liquid (that is, 200 g of sugar for each liter of drink), if you want to get Creme de Cassis – 45% (this option is only suitable for mixing cocktails ).

Sugar must be added to the juice and mixed in a blender at low speed for about 5 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved (this can be done in small batches, as well as mixed by hand). The final stage is bottling and capping of the liquor, while it is important that the drink is tightly closed. The fact is that the liquor oxidizes very quickly, literally in a couple of months, and this greatly affects its color – from a noble dark purple it becomes a dull brown. So after opening another bottle of homemade Creme de Cassis, call the guests 😉

This recipe in action:

Crème de Cassis half-breed

This is a lighter version of the French liqueur. It is prepared from red and black currants.

Glasses here are understood as American 1 cup = 8 ounces = 236 ml.

How to cook:

1. Currants need to be washed and sorted out, transferred to a bowl and kneaded well until each berry gives juice. Pour the crushed berry into a jar.
2. Add alcohol (here it is advisable to use pure alcohol or the strongest moonshine), mix it well with the berry and cover the jar with plastic wrap. In this state, the jar should stand for 24 hours at room temperature.
3. Remove the film, crush the berry again and tighten the neck of the jar with a new film. Place the container in the refrigerator for 7-10 days until the drink turns dark purple.
4. Strain the tincture through several layers of gauze and squeeze out the berry pomace. Then cook a simple syrup: mix sugar and water, heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.
5. Mix the tincture and chilled syrup, bottle, seal tightly and store in the refrigerator for no more than 3 months.

Polish redcurrant liqueur

In fact, this is the usual currant tincture from the last article, but the recipe is interesting because it uses the already familiar Belarusian vodka Zubrovka. I found it just now, so I am publishing it in this article.

Pluck the berries from the twigs, sort and rinse well. Pour it into a clean liter jar, add sugar and crush them together. Add Zubrovka, close tightly with a lid and leave in a dark, cool place for 2 weeks or until the berry is completely discolored. It is advisable to shake the jar every 2-3 days so that the sugar dissolves completely. Upon completion of the infusion, the drink can be filtered through several layers of gauze and cotton wool, bottled and tasted.

Blackcurrant liqueur on cognac

Cooking on brandy – the traditional alcohol-based Creme de Cassis. The recipe indicates the proportions for making regular blackcurrant liqueur, but if you want to get a French liqueur, then just double the amount of sugar syrup. You can also make a regular liquor from half of the obtained tincture on the berry, and Cassis from the other.

If you are using fresh berries, just wash and crush them. If you decide to try dried currants, then heat 250 ml of water and add dried berries to it, then remove the container in which the water was heated from the heat, cover it with a lid and let the berries soak in boiling water for 5 minutes. Then drain the water. Place the berries in a jar, fill it with brandy (cognac) and let it brew for 1 week, periodically stir the tincture. Then the tincture must be filtered and the right amount of simple sugar syrup added. Pour the drink into bottles and seal tightly. Let it ripen for another 2 weeks. Ready!