Contents
The tincture “on brunki” – birch buds – at one time was so popular in our company that we had to introduce a special term: “brunka”. The gentle aroma that spreads around the room when opening the next bottle is invariably associated with spring, allowing you to feel it at any time of the year. It’s a sin not to talk about various birch tinctures – with and without additives, especially since the bud harvesting season is very soon!
Tincture of birch buds on vodka is an old drink, very popular among the people. The reasons for its popularity are simple: it does not require exotic ingredients, almost any raw material is suitable – moonshine, vodka, alcohol – and the “brunki” themselves, they are also young kidneys, can be collected for free if you take the time and guess the right moment to collect them. At the same time, this tincture has a wonderful aroma – fresh, interesting, truly “spring”, beautiful dark straw color and unobtrusive characteristic taste.
Tincture of birch buds on vodka – properties and raw materials
Like many other “drinking” tinctures – for example, the same “lipovka” that I wrote about recently – “birch” was originally a tincture, a concentrated medicinal mixture, which was used for a variety of ailments. It helps against diseases of the gastrointestinal tract (it is not unsuccessfully used as an adjuvant for the treatment of ulcers), indigestion, kidney (pun intended!) Puffiness, is used as a diaphoretic, blood-purifying, anti-inflammatory and even anthelmintic agent.
As you know, poison differs from medicine in dosage. This is also the difference between medicinal tinctures and delicious tinctures for a fun pastime with a slight healing and preventive effect. Therefore, we arm ourselves with scales or a measuring vessel and do not throw more raw materials than indicated in the recipe!
First of all – what are these “brunki”? Contrary to popular belief, these are not “earrings” that appear in the summer – they are painted on bottles of supposedly birch “breech” just for beauty.
These are precisely the early, spring buds, from which young leaves will appear later. More precisely, they will not appear, because we will collect them and put them into a delicious tincture.
Brunki are harvested in April-May or even earlier – it depends on the region of your residence, the weather and the species of the tree itself. The main sign is that the buds are noticeably swollen, but are not yet inclined to open, they are resinous to the touch, and if kneaded in the hands, they give a bright, pronounced aroma. Of course, there is always the opportunity to purchase dried and packaged raw materials in a pharmacy. But why, when you can assemble it on your own and be sure of the quality?
If you need some buds, you can just pick them from the tree. In large quantities, they are harvested along with young twigs, dried in a warm, ventilated room, and then threshed – simply pounding the twigs on the ground so that the buds fall off – or passing the branches through a clenched palm – this process has a funny name “sniffing”.
Vodka on birch buds – classic recipes
The first recipe is taken from the book of the Soviet poetess and writer – including the culinary one – N. A. Nadezhdina, which is called “50 shades ….”, oh, that is, “50 moonshine recipes.”
All we need is nothing: half a liter of vodka, 50 grams of kidneys and a teaspoon of honey – best of all, light, flowery. Preparing the drink is extremely simple – all the ingredients are poured with alcohol and set aside in a dark place for 10 days. After that, the tincture is filtered, if necessary – carefully filtered. Everything, it is ready for tasting!
This recipe is given in a huge number of sources, but the moonshiners on the forums who have tried it in action are advised to reduce the weight of the ingredients by two or even three times – up to 50 grams per 3 liters. In this case, the tincture will acquire a beige color and a light aroma, and it will be easier to drink and, which is especially important, will become digestible in large quantities.
Tincture “Birch” named after Bezrukov
Author’s title. Why Bezrukov? Well, he loves birch-birches. And in this recipe, two whole birch components are used – kidneys and juice. An alcohol tincture is made, diluted with juice after infusion.
Approximately per liter of the final product will need:
- Alcohol 95-96% – 400 ml;
- Birch buds – 4 teaspoons;
- Sugar – 1-2 tablespoons;
- Birch sap – 600 ml.
To prepare, you need to take the kidneys, pour them with alcohol and stand in a dark place for 2 weeks. After that – strain, discard the kidneys. Take birch sap, pour tincture into it. Add sugar to taste – the drink should not be very sweet, but soft, for convenience it can be pre-diluted in a small amount of heated juice. Shake the mixture and insist again for 10 days. After that, pass through a cotton swab or paper filter. Everything, birch tincture named after Bezrukov is ready!
Spicy tincture on birch buds
In this recipe, in addition to the kidneys themselves, spicy, spicy ingredients are used – ginger and galangal root. Moonshine on birch brunkas is prepared in 2 stages in this way: first the concentrate, then the drink itself. At the output, we get a slightly spicy, pleasant tincture with a yellowish color and a spicy-birch, fresh aroma.
For 10 liters of finished product you will need:
- Kidneys – 40 grams;
- ground ginger – 5 grams;
- Ground galangal – 3 grams;
- Ground cinnamon – 1-2 grams;
- Moonshine 50-60% – 350 ml.
To begin with, we crush birch buds in a mortar. We take all the dry ingredients and pour 350 milliliters of moonshine or alcohol. We insist the concentrate for at least a month, after which we drain and carefully, filter several times. Essence for 10 liters of tincture is ready!
To prepare a drink, we take 30-35 ml of concentrate and dilute 40% or vodka in a liter of moonshine, if necessary, add sugar. Let stand for 3-4 days before use. Everything!
This method is good because it allows you to adjust the saturation of the drink. If it seems to you not concentrated enough, essences can be added at any time. If you overdo it – just add vodka.
Birch tincture “Pereyaslavskaya”
This drink was very popular in narrow circles in Soviet times. The recipe is taken from the recipe technological guide and slightly simplified. The composition of the drink includes the herb “bison”, “Hierochloë odorata”, read more about it in this article. Read, otherwise I have already met with the opinion that bison and St. John’s wort are one and the same.
This tincture is prepared in the same way as the previous one – first a concentrate is made, which is diluted in vodka, sorting or very good moonshine. The composition also includes cognac and port wine, though quite a bit.
Ingredients for concentrate per 10 liters of product:
- 6 grams of birch buds;
- 6 grams of coriander seeds;
- 6 grams of bison grass;
- 3 grams of lime blossom;
- 1 grams of citric acid;
- 100 grams of sugar or light honey;
- 200 ml of medium quality cognac;
- 300 ml of white port – Massandra will do.
Preparation:
- Pour herbs and citric acid with cognac and insist in a dark place from 10 days to two weeks.
- After insisting – filter and filter. Add port wine to cognac tincture.
- After that, we filter the liquid again and that’s it – the concentrate is ready!
- To prepare a liter of Pereyaslavskaya tincture, you need about 50 ml of concentrate and a teaspoon of sugar or honey. We mix everything and try. If you want a more intense drink, add more essences to it.
- After the taste and sweetness of the tincture suits you, it must be set aside in a dark place for 3-4 days so that a precipitate falls out. After that, pass through a dense filter and bottle.
- The finished drink before tasting needs at least 3-4 weeks of rest, because its taste dramatically changes for the better during aging.
Everything, our Pereyaslavskaya tincture of birch buds is ready!
“Rum Diary” wishes you a speedy onset of spring and successful home experiments!