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In the menu of restaurants of traditional Russian cuisine, you can find an interesting spirit – Zapekanka, which is usually served for dessert. The taste of the drink is somewhat different from the usual tinctures and liqueurs with more saturated tones with hints of baking. The cooking technology is specific, but it is easy to reproduce at home.
Theory
A casserole is an alcoholic drink obtained by steeping spices or berries on strong alcohol at high temperature in a hermetically sealed container.
Traditionally, Zapekanka was cooked in a Russian oven. First, a tightly closed bottle with alcohol and spices (berries) was smeared with a layer of tough rye dough and left in the oven overnight after baking bread. In the morning the bottle was taken out, but the dough was not removed. In the classic recipe, the procedure was repeated 3 more times, then the drink was filtered and sweetened with sugar to taste. Sometimes ceramic pots were used instead of a bottle.
Heating accelerates the extraction (transition) of flavoring substances from raw materials into vodka. If at room temperature this takes weeks and even months, then in the case of heat treatment, the same effect is achieved in a couple of days.
It should be noted that when the temperature rises, some substances change their properties and react with each other in a completely different way from what happens under normal conditions, for example, caramelization of sugars begins. All this is reflected in the organoleptics of the Casserole – characteristic tones of baking appear, and in the case of fruit raw materials – notes of compote. This can be considered both a disadvantage and just a feature of the drink.
Attention! Modern store-bought casseroles that are sold in bottles are, in fact, ordinary tinctures (liqueurs) and have nothing to do with the traditional recipe.
Modern recipe for alcoholic casserole
It is clear that the Russian oven is available to a few, so the proposed cooking technology is scraped to a conventional kitchen oven, which we will not heat for 4 days in a row.
You will need glass bottles (the preferred option), ceramic pots, or in the simplest case, an enamel pan. The main difficulty is to hermetically close the container so that the insulating material does not burn. For this we use a cool rye dough. You can take other types of dough, but they are less sticky and do not adhere to the walls as well.
A casserole is more of a cooking technology than a separate alcoholic drink, since there is no single recipe. We can only distinguish two main types: fruit and spicy Casseroles. The given ingredients and proportions are only a guideline for experiments, they can be changed at your discretion.
Spicy Casserole
Ingredients:
- vodka (moonshine) – 1 liter;
- lemon peels – from 1 lemon;
- ground cinnamon – 12 grams;
- cardamom – 5 grams;
- star anise – 3 grams;
- nutmeg – 5 gram;
- sugar or honey – 50-150 grams (to taste).
Before baking, insist vodka on lemon peels for 3 days at room temperature, then strain and follow the recipe below.
Fruit Casserole
Ingredients:
- fresh berries – 1 kg;
- vodka (moonshine) – 1-1,5 liters;
- sugar (honey) – to taste.
Any berries will do: cherries, raspberries, black and red currants, strawberries, sweet cherries, etc. The proportions of berries at your discretion, you can mix 2-3 different varieties in one drink, it is no longer advisable, since different fruits will begin to interrupt each other’s taste. The amount of alcohol depends on the container – alcohol should cover the berries by at least 2-3 cm.
Technology of preparation
1. Put all the ingredients in a baking dish, pour in the alcohol base, close.
2. Coat the bottle completely with dough with a layer of at least 3-4 cm, paying special attention to the cork so that it does not burn. Coat the pots and pan with dough only at the junction with the lid, creating tightness.
3. Preheat the oven to 80 °C and switch off. Put a vessel with a drink inside, leave for 8-12 hours until the oven cools down completely, then take it out and keep it at room temperature for at least 5-6 hours.
Attention! The boiling point of ethyl alcohol is 78 ° C, which means that heating the oven above 90 ° C is explosive. For safety reasons, the container must be hermetically sealed and able to withstand the specified temperature without chips or cracks, since alcohol vapors are highly flammable.
4. Repeat the previous step with holding in the oven.
5. Strain the finished Casserole. Sweeten with sugar or honey to taste. Pour into bottles for storage, close tightly. Leave for a day to stabilize the taste. Shelf life away from direct sunlight – up to 3 years.