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["Kathryn Mathews" <kathmath@charterinternet.com>]

Do you need to refrigerate this or does it keep at room temperature without any canning procedure?

Kathryn Mathews

 

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-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Karen Tillou
Sent: 12/06/2007 1:32 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Blackcurrqant Cassis

cherries in brandy are super delicious, easy and long lasting - get a decent quality of brandy to start - i go for a bottle between the bottom shelf rotgut and upper shelf quality. this is a recipe from Keeping Food Fresh, a book of french food preservation recipes:

sun cooked cherries in brandy

1 quart unwashed cherries with stems left on, but cut to 1/2 inch long

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brandy

1 quart canning jar and lid

fill jar to the rim with cherries, packing them well.

add the sugar, then the brandy, close the lid.

leave the jar out in the sun for one month (longer in cloudy weather), shaking the jar after one week in the sun.

good for up to two years.

so - great success, you could vary the sugar amount some to get it sweeter or not i suppose, but no cloudyness or ugly color to the brandy. the whole fruit with stem on i think helps with the cloudy problem. this yields yummy drinks, dessert fruit with a kick, and my jar just turned two this summer, and the remaining bits are still as good as the first. i would try this recipe with any small, whole berries - currants, rubus . i suspect small dessert quality pears might be nice too, though the most flavor would come from chopped up fruit, and that might create cloudyness.

but clouds not withstanding, if the flavor is there, who cares!

vodka steeped any fruit is good too - though the blueberry vodka was a dissappointment. but currants, pear, apple, quince! oh! yummy. good for ridiculous flavored cocktails in midwinter.

happy steeping...

karen

oregon zone 8a

On Dec 6, 2007, at 8:56 AM, Thomas Olenio wrote:

Hello All,

Tom suggested I post this cassis recipe, so here it goes. We are leaving 

this with a friend who will be staying at our farm when we are away for the 

next few weeks. Hopefully she can catch the currants before the birds dive 

in and ransack the bushes. I found this in a wonderful book - " The Cook and 

the Gardner" by Amanda Hesser, A Year of Recipes and Writings from the 

French Countryside.

You can make this in any amount, you just need to be really accurate about 

quantities / proportion for the juice and the sugar. It is made in two 

parts, at picking time and then about 4 to 6 months later. We usually 

complete part two late November or early December when it's really a 

disgusting grey, rainy day and enjoy having the fruit smells all through the 

house. The tasting is also kind of fun. We drizzled pot scrapings over 

biscotti and they were heavenly.

MADAME MILBERT'S CASSIS

Makes 2 One-Quart MasonJars

PART ONE

Ingredients

Enough black currants to fill the jars ( about 3 to 4 cups per jar )

Eau-de-vie or vodka ( the alcohol countent should be 80 proof  ) to cover 

the currants - usually 3 to 3 1/2 cups per jar

Sterilize the jars with boiling water and dry them with a clean towel. 

Loosely pack the black currants in the jars, leaving 1/2 inch of space at 

the top of each jar. Cover with eau-de-vie or vodka and seal. Store for 4 to 

6 months .

PART TWO

You will need sterilized wine bottles and some corks.

Be very accurate when measuring the proportion of juice to sugar.

Bring the fruit and eau-de-vie or vodka mixture to a boil in a saucepan. 

Strain the juice into a large bowl, crushing the fruit with the back of a 

large spoon to extract the maximum amount of juice. Measure the juice you 

obtain, then measure out an equal amount of sugar. For every quart of black 

currant juice, for example, add one quart of sugar and one cup of eau-de-vie 

or vodka.

Combine them in a saucepan, bring to a boil, and cook until the sugar has 

completely dissolved and the mixture turns thick and syrupy, coating the 

back of a spoon. This takes about ten minutes. As the mixture cooks and the 

sugar dissolves, the liquid turns glossy. As it nears the perfect stage, it 

drips from the spoon in a thin, syrupy thread. Remember, it will thicken 

slightly as it cools and should reamin liquid, so do not bring to a jelly 

stage.

Pour through a funnel into sterilized wine bottles. Let cool and seal with 

corks. The bottles are best for pouring.

Comment: When we made this two years ago, it turned quite thick, so we added 

a small amount of vodka which brought it back to syrupy. There's no 

comparison when you do a taste test with the store-bought product.

Enjoy!

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