For as long as I can remember, we’ve always had homemade cherry liqueur. It was prepared by my grandmother, then by my mother, now I do it. It’s amazing that we have a completely non-drinking family. At the same time, every summer we make moonshine and fill it with all the berries that are on the estate. Stocks of liqueurs pass from year to year without drying up. But there is always something to put on the table if guests suddenly come.
Thus began her letter to me Vera Ivanovna from the city of Voronezh. I love family recipes – they have been tried and tested for years.
5 reasons to make homemade liquor
For making a drink at home, I have several reasons:
- Cherry canning. Grandmother said that initially she started making liqueur in order to preserve cherries. There was nowhere to get sugar for jam, there were also no freezers for harvesting berries for future use, and everyone loved cherry pies. It was then that they came up with the idea of filling cherries with moonshine (it was driven from sugar beets).
- Then came sugar and freezers, but they couldn’t make drunken cherries tasty. For baking confectionery delights, you need a liqueur. My family loves chocolate cherry cakes and pies, so pouring is the best way to get this product.
- Pouring. This is not just alcohol, although it is almost not alcohol, since the fortress is not high, it is a tasty, fragrant, natural and healthy drink.
- Always at hand. With a carryover, I don’t worry about not having anything to put on the table. Maybe someone will come to us, or we will go somewhere – there is always something to do. You won’t be ashamed of such a product.
- The method to “attach” cherries in super harvest years. There are many cherries in our area, they are everywhere. Therefore pouring is a fast harvesting method.
What ingredients are required
This drink doesn’t require much. To prepare a 3-liter jar, we need:
- cherry – 1,5-2 kg, this is the weight with a bone;
- sugar – 2 glass;
- water – 2 glass;
- moonshine – approximately 1,5 liters.
I do it in glass jars. It seems to me that this is the most convenient container. You will also need a nylon lid for the jar and a cellar or basement, that is, a cool dark place.
The cooking process
Even a novice winemaker will prepare such a drink. The process is like this:
- cherries need to be sorted out and washed;
- remove bones;
- put the cherry in a jar. I usually make jars on the floor, and my mother always poured on the “neck”;
- pour sugar;
- pour water;
- pour moonshine to the top;
- close with a nylon (plastic) lid;
- put on the shelf of the kitchen cabinet, not far away;
- Shake the jar daily until the sugar is completely dissolved. This happens in 3-5 days;
- as soon as the sugar has melted, we send it to the cellar or basement;
- forget about the product for 2-3 months.
Pay attention to the last point. The drink will be ready only after 2-3 months. What to drink in summer? That is precisely why last year’s rolling stock is needed. The finished drink can be stored for years.
Result
After 2-3 months I take out the liqueur, filter it through a sieve and bottle it for storage. I add one or two cherries to each container, which I filtered before. It’s not required, but I like it that way. The tincture turns out to be a beautiful dark red color, the fortress is not large.
Excessive alcohol consumption is harmful to your health. Take care of yourself!
My liqueur has been tested over the years, but I do not stop there, and constantly experiment. If you have interesting thoughts about the recipe or technology, share them in the comments.