Contents
Once, with my old friend, we came to visit his mother-in-law, and she treated us to her signature drink, the decanter of which my friend and I emptied together. It was a sunny-orange ryabinka, transparent as a tear, with an amazing taste and aroma.
I liked the mother-in-law Ryabinovka so much that I decided to make such a drink myself. I asked a friend’s mother-in-law, learned several recipes from friends, and tried to insist on several types at once, since last year there were a lot of mountain ash. I want to share the best.
The story was shared by my subscriber Oleg.
Classic vodka version
All you need to make a classic rowanberry is a three-liter glass jar, sugar, water, vodka and the berry itself.
Important: to obtain a high-quality tincture, you should take only ripe berries without damage. They should be harvested immediately after the first frost. Vodka or other alcohol should also be of good quality.
For 1 kilogram of ripe rowan berries you will need:
- Vodka – 500 ml;
- Sugar – 500 g;
- Water – 500 ml.
We will cook this way:
- We clean the berries from the stalks, sort and wash.
- We make syrup from water and sugar – mix in a container and bring to a boil.
- In a glass jar or an enameled container with a tight lid, lay out the prepared mountain ash, pour syrup and add vodka.
- We mix everything well, cork tightly and put the container in a dark place for 3 weeks, not forgetting to shake it from time to time.
- After the specified period, we filter and pour into beautiful bottles.
Important: with periodic, once or twice a day shaking during infusion, the tincture is richer in color, taste and aroma.
If you don’t need to buy mountain ash, the cost for 1 liter of mountain ash according to the classic recipe will be no more than 320 rubles: vodka (for example, White Birch, 1 bottle of 0,5 l – 300 rubles, sugar, 0,5 kg – up to 20 rubles .)
The classic rowanberry on vodka has a delicate reddish hue and a pleasant rowan aroma with sourness and a slight bitter aftertaste.
Ryabinovka on vodka with apples
I decided to experiment and make a rowan tincture with my favorite fragrant apples. For this purpose, both pepinka and pear are good. But I like pepinka more because of its sourness.
So, to prepare our rowan-apple liqueur, you need to take a three-liter cleanly washed jar. Wash the berries first, remove the stems and let the water drain. We wash the apples, peel them from the core and cut into small slices.
Then we pour rowan berries, apple slices into the jar in layers and sprinkle each layer with a small amount of sugar. Thus, we fill the jar by 2/3 and fill it up to the neck with vodka or purified 50 ° moonshine.
Important: in total we need about 1 liter of vodka and about 750 g of sugar. If you take vodka for 250 rubles. and sugar for 40 rubles. per kilogram, the cost of preparing rowanberry, excluding the cost of apples and berries, will amount to no more than 530 rubles.
We close the container with a lid and put in a warm dark place for a month.
After a month, we filter the resulting infusion into another glass jar through cheesecloth, paper filter or cotton pads, close the lid and forget about it for a week.
Pour 0,5 kg of sugar into a jar with the remaining apple-rowan raw materials, shake well and send it to a sunny windowsill for a week. At the same time, you need to shake the contents of the jar every day so that the sugar absorbs the remaining alcohol and flavor from the fruit.
After a week, the resulting sugar syrup is drained through the filter and combined with the already prepared tincture.
Tip: If desired, you can reduce the amount of sugar, then the tincture will be less sweet. Also, instead of vodka, you can use cognac, then you get a completely different taste and a richer aroma.
The result is a light amber drink with the aroma of red rowan and apples with a delicate taste and a pleasant strength.
Ryabinovka on cognac with honey and oak chips
So we come to the most exquisite recipe for rowan tincture. This is truly a divine drink for real gourmets. And it’s just as easy to prepare. The only caveat is that it is better to grind the berries first so that they release the juice. But this is optional.
As in previous recipes, we will use a three-liter jar or bottle with a wide neck for cooking.
For a half-liter bottle of cognac “Troekurov Zhemchuzhina Stavropol 5 years” (495 rubles) we need:
- rowan – 300 g;
- honey – 2 st. l .;
- oak chips (bark) – 1 tbsp. l.;
- dried cloves – 2 pcs.;
- water – 0,5 l.
Preparation:
- Oak bark pour water and boil for 30 minutes. In a hot infusion add 2 pcs. cloves and let it brew for 4 hours. Then strain – the finished broth should be about a glass.
- Crush the prepared mountain ash until juice appears, place in a glass container, add honey, cognac and oak broth.
- Cork and leave to infuse for 3-4 weeks, not forgetting to shake the jar every day.
- After the prescribed time, strain the infusion and pour into bottles with tight stoppers.
Tip: rowan tincture after filtering should ripen for at least a month, although it can be drunk immediately. But the longer it stands, the nobler the drink will turn out in the end.
The financial costs for the preparation of mountain ash on Troekurov cognac, taking into account the cost of honey and spices, will not exceed 520 rubles. And believe me, it’s worth it!
How to serve and with what to use rowanberry
I indicated in my recipes the minimum time for infusion of mountain ash. In some old recipes, berries are recommended to insist on alcohol for up to a year. Ready-made rowan tincture can be stored for 6 years – while its taste becomes more saturated, and the degree increases.
It is better to serve the tincture chilled in a beautiful decanter with wine glasses. Depending on the sugar content, drinks can be masculine or feminine.
Sweet tincture goes for dessert and is served with fruit. More masculine drinks with little sugar are great with any traditional snack.
For the first time I made a rowan tincture in different versions and was pleased with the result. This year I want to experiment again – to make a tincture on dried rowan and rowan lightly baked in the oven. Do you think it’s worth a try? Maybe some of you have already done this?