Kümmel – cumin tincture for true gourmets

Kümmel is the most popular in Europe and unfairly forgotten in our latitudes bitter liquor based on cumin. So, I decided to share with the readers of “Rum” a few interesting and simple recipes for making caraway tincture at home.

Kümmel is the most popular in Europe and unfairly forgotten in our latitudes bitter liquor based on cumin. But at one time, tincture very often appeared on the “wine cards” of noble Russian houses, and Emperor Peter the Great loved it so much that he even set up mass production of the drink in his homeland.

Kümmel is distinguished by a pronounced aroma of cumin with light notes of spices and herbs – anise, dill, citrus peels. This liquor was mentioned in their novels by Kuprin, Hemingway and Remarque – the latter painted its amazing taste and effect of consumption so juicy that it is simply impossible not to want to try it!

Personally, I didn’t drink purchased kümmel – I just didn’t see it on sale. But I really liked the homemade one prepared by my friend for its downright amazing originality – we can safely say that nothing similar is sold or produced in our country. So, I decided to share with the readers of “Rum” a few interesting and simple recipes for making caraway tincture at home.

Kümmel liqueur: drops of the Danish king or the Russian emperor?

There is probably no other liquor with such a controversial and controversial history.

Mass production of cumin tincture was first established at the Bols factory in Amsterdam, at the turn of the 1503th and XNUMXth centuries. But in historical sources, the first mention of kümmel dates back to XNUMX – a documented liquor recipe compiled by a knight of the Livonian Order, which consisted mainly of Germans, dates back to this time (in fact, “kummel” is translated from German as “cumin”).

“Do you know what my favorite vodka is? Kümmel! Believe it or not. Old, honest kümmel!”

“Time to live and time to die”

The Livonian origin of the kümmel looks plausible: at that time, the modern Allazh parish of Latvia was also part of the order lands, where, according to experts, the best, fragrant and generally incomparable cumin grows. By the way, the coat of arms of the Allazhsky Pogost depicts a bush of cumin and a millstone, which in some way should symbolize “Allasch kummel”.

С One interesting legend is connected with the history of the drink. Allegedly, once King Frederick II of Denmark fell seriously ill. Against the backdrop of political problems, the crowned Frederick began to suffer from insomnia, nervous exhaustion, stomach ailments, and even male weakness. Dutch doctors were summoned to the court, who prescribed caraway tincture to the monarch. In a matter of weeks, the king completely restored all his strength, as evidenced by Frederick’s 7 children and a short but stormy romance with the English Queen Elizabeth I. Kümmel – one of the contenders for the title of “drops of the Danish king”, which, as you know, “heal the dead from death.”

Peter I rarely fell ill, but he liked to drink, during the Great Embassy he tried all the overseas elixirs that came to hand. After the Dutch treated His Majesty to caraway liqueur, Peter firmly decided to establish the production of this alcohol in Russia. He bought the recipe for kummel from the Bols family, made some adjustments to it and set up a small factory in the same Allage estate. Liqueurs “Allasch Kummel” and “Doppel-Kummel” with a high content of cumin, sugar and alcohol quickly gained popularity in the Russian Empire.

«… Буян лихой,

With whose youthful head

Neither doppel-kummel, nor madera,

Not even noisy ai

Could never get along”

Lermontov

At the end of the XNUMXth century, the recipe for “Double Caraway” was bought by the German company Mentzendorff. Kümmel began his victorious march through Europe. Since that time, the drink has been produced according to several different recipes:

• Dutch and German Kümmel is a bitter tincture, with a strength of 30-34 °, almost not sweet, with an unobtrusive spicy aftertaste.
• Latvian “Caraway” is a sweet 35-40 degree liqueur with a very bright, pronounced caraway aroma and violet-anise aftertaste.
• Strong kyummels with a moderate sugar content. An example of such a drink is the Italian XENTA Kummel, with the addition of coriander and, for some reason, bitter wormwood. The drink is characterized by an exorbitant strength of 70 revolutions, it is recommended to drink it like absinthe, with a piece of sugar.

“There was a kümmel,” I said. “The best kümmel comes in these bear bottles. It is brought from Russia”//

“A Farewell to Arms!” 

A few homemade kummel recipes

There are quite a few recipes for caraway tincture, they sometimes differ significantly in composition and nuances of preparation. It combines three main ingredients:

Actually, caraway. The most common European cumin of the “umbrella” family, and not the so-called “black cumin”, it is also kalindzhi or nigella, and not cumin – it is also zira.

Anise. Do not forget that anise and star anise are completely different plants, although their aroma is similar. Common anise is also a representative of the “umbrella”, and star anise is a relative of lemongrass.

Dill seeds. Everything is simple here. By the way, again, “umbrella”.

In addition, recipes often feature such a rare component as orange peel. Pomeranian is also called the “wild orange”, although in pots it grows already running. An unauthoritative source in the corresponding Wiki article claims that the orange is a hybrid of a mandarin and a pomelo – both of these fruits can be easily obtained in our markets, their peels, combined together, in theory, should give the desired effect. Real orange can be found in stores in ground form, as well as in sets of spices for mulled wine. In addition, orange peel, according to moonshiners, can be replaced with kumquat peel. In some recipes, they even change it to a lemon – as they say, for lack of a maid …

And one more difficulty that can await a novice kymmel-maker is orris root. This is not violet root, as one would logically assume. This is an iris, most often a yellow, such a beautiful flower. Its crushed rhizomes are used as a spice and flavoring.

Recipe #1: Classic Kümmel

• Vodka (good moonshine, 50% alcohol) – 3.5 liters.
• Cumin – 50 g.
• Anise – 50 gr.
• Dill seeds – 20 gr.
• Violet root – 20 gr.
• Orange peel – 30 gr. (we take, respectively, 15 grams of lemon peel and pomelo).

All ingredients are crushed in a pusher or coffee grinder, placed in a jar and filled with alcohol. The whole thing is infused for 2 weeks in a warm and – as usual – dark place, after which it is filtered through gauze and a cotton filter.

Recipe #2: Homemade Kümmel with Lemon Peel

• Vodka (alcohol, moonshine) – 1 l.
• Cumin (seeds) – 6 tablespoons.
• Anise – 2 tbsp.
• Violet root – 3 tbsp.
• Dill seeds – 2 tbsp.
• Lemon peel – 2 tbsp
• Sugar – 0.5 glass.

Grind peels and violet root, throw all the ingredients into a jar, pour alcohol. This cumin tincture is prepared for 2-3 weeks, after which it is filtered through gauze. After filtering, add sugar to it and stand for another day or two, and then filter it again through cotton wool or a dense cloth.

Recipe number 3: cumin tincture with star anise

This drink cannot be called kümmel, as it does not use anise and orris root. Its smell is more minty, with a herbal tinge.

• Vodka – 1 liter.
• Cumin – 50 g.
• Star anise – 50 gr.
• Fennel – 25 gr.
• Dill seeds – 12 grams.

Pour everything with vodka, leave for 2 weeks, filter, if necessary, sweeten with sugar syrup.

Recipe #4: Lemon Kummel

This cumin tincture recipe differs from the classic kyummel in proportions, as well as in the replacement of orange with lemon.

• Vodka – 2 liters.
• Cumin – 40 g.
• Anise – 50 gr.
• Dill (seeds) – 50 gr.
• Crushed lemon peel – 50 gr.
• Crushed violet root – 36 gr.
• Sugar – 2 tsp.

All ingredients are mixed, poured with vodka and infused for a week. After that, the drink must be filtered, add sugar and stir until completely dissolved, and then filtered again.