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That year I went on vacation to my friend Sergei, who had worked as a forester for many years. He lived in a house on the banks of the river, a few dozen kilometers from the city. We met warmly, after all, we had not seen each other for three years.
Sergey organized a small feast. Naturally, only natural products stood on the table, including the Golden Nut balm, which I particularly liked.
The story was shared by blog subscriber Oleg.
What ingredients and equipment will be needed
The balm impressed me so much that the next morning I began to beg Sergey for his recipe. A friend thought and said that in a couple of days you can try to cook it together. Naturally, I agreed to this.
Two days later, Sergey, having freed himself from his urgent forest affairs, started an old UAZ, and we drove to the city for the necessary ingredients. On the way, a friend said that the main list of herbs needed to make a balm can be collected in the forest, but some products, such as alcohol, unfortunately do not grow under trees.
So, we arrived in the city and went shopping. Here’s what we needed to buy:
- Grain alcohol – 2,5 liters. Sold only in 5-liter canisters for 3200 rubles.
- Sugar – 25 gr. 50 rub. per kg.
- Walnuts in shell – 50 gr. for 480 rubles. per kg.
- Green Walnuts – 200 gr. 500 rubles each per kg.
The base of the balm is walnut.
That’s all we needed in the store. In addition, the composition of the balm includes propolis and pharmaceutical herbs:
- St. John’s wort;
- chamomile;
- mint;
- Strawberry;
- sage;
- lavender;
Each herb should be added 5-10 gr. We collected all this in the forest, and Sergei begged for propolis from a beekeeper he knew, who lived a few kilometers from his hut. Theoretically, all this can be bought at a pharmacy, however, then the cost of the balm will increase by another 1000 rubles.
Note! When choosing nuts, it is recommended to smell them first. If the slightest smell of charm is felt, it is better to refuse the purchase. The shell must not be damaged. You should also make sure that the nuts are completely dry.
The cooking process
So, the products from the city are in the pantry, the herbs are in the locker, and I am waiting for Seryoga from the round. Still, the work of a forester is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It takes a lot of strength and energy, however, my friend has been climbing the forests since childhood, he is no stranger to it.
Therefore, when he returned from his rounds in the evening and said that now he would drink tea, and then we would start preparing the balm, I was not surprised at all.
The stock of herbs in the forester’s hut is chamomile, lavender and centaury.
However, what was my disappointment when, instead of some alchemical actions, we sat down at the table and began to cut the nuts into quarters. “Seriously?!” I thought.
For some reason, the preparation of homemade alcohol has always been associated with chemical manipulations, beakers, green smokes and other attributes of alchemy.
And here we just cut the nuts, put them in a three-liter jar, filled them with alcohol, previously diluted to 50%, tightly closed the lid and left it to infuse in the closet for two weeks.
After this period, crushed herbs and propolis were added to the container, then the jar was closed again and sent to the cabinet for another week.
Note! If it is not possible to purchase alcohol, it can be replaced with undiluted moonshine or high-quality vodka, for example, Pure Dew or Moskovskaya.
So, after 21 days, after the start of preparation, we filtered the balm through cheesecloth and added sugar diluted in water to it. Mixed and left to infuse for another 3 days.
I was already tormented by vague doubts that until the end of my vacation I would not try the balm, and judging by the finances that had already been spent on it, it was not for nothing that the balm was called the Golden, and not the iron or wooden nut …
What will be the result
So, a few days before my departure, we were finally able to have a tasting of our balm. At that time, Sergey had already poured alcohol from a three-liter jar into glass bottles, so we sat like in a restaurant.
Well, let’s pour.
The balm was poured into glasses. I could not resist and looked at the liquid in the light of a kerosene lamp. The balm turned out to be brown.
The smell of nuts and herbs was clearly felt in the air after opening the bottle. They dominated the taste. Moreover, alcohol notes were practically not felt.
How to serve and with what to use
I am a curious nature, so after one glass of balm, I wondered how Sergey even knew about its existence. I just heard the name “Golden Nut” for the first time in this forest hut.
Serega said that he first tried the balm as a student of the forestry. They then with friends celebrated the end of the session in one of the restaurants. Well, one forester taught him how to cook “Golden Nut” on his own, during an internship in Karelia.
According to Sergey, if the waiters of the restaurant where he found out about the existence of the balm saw how we are drinking it now, they would have had a heart attack.
“Golden Nut” should be served slightly chilled. It is rarely consumed in its pure form – mostly mixed with coffee, tea or ice cream.
In general, “Golden Nut” over the next few years has firmly held the position of the best balm that I have tried. What are your favorite balms? Share a recipe?
*Alcohol abuse is dangerous for your health!