Preparing a savory liqueur from red currants
Preparing a savory liqueur from red currants
Liqueur is a medium-strength alcoholic drink with a special smell and taste. In particular, it comes out surprisingly tasty from red currants. You can make it at home quite simply and simply - anyone can cope with this task, for this you just need to stock up on suitable products and patience, so this drink will have to be kept for some time at first.
Red currant liqueur, prepared at home, has a special soft, inimitable taste, the drink comes out light and fragrant. Perhaps every housewife has noteworthy recipes for making such a wonderful drink in her notebook. We have collected the best ones for you: now anyone can create the most delicious liqueur at home, following detailed instructions.
Currant liqueur recipe
- Vodka – 0.75 liters.
- Reddish currants – 1 kg.
- Sugar – 1 kg.
- Water – 0.75 liters.
- Currant leaves – 10 pcs.
How to create currant liqueur at home:
- Process the berries and place in a glass container.
- Tear the currant leaves into several pieces and add to the main ingredient of the liqueur. Fill everything with vodka, cover the container tightly and put it in a warm space to infuse for about 5 weeks.
- After the required aging, you will need to decant the drink a couple of times, so that the resulting liquid remains without a single admixture of berries.
- Cook the syrup: mix water and sugar, bring to a boil, simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
- Cool the sweet mass to room temperature.
- Combine both waters together and stir everything well. Pour the liqueur into beautiful bottles, screw on the cap, and soak the drink for another week to enhance the taste.
Red currant liqueur must be cooled before use.
Currant liqueur with vodka: a quick recipe
- Vodka – 350 ml.
- Boiled water – 1 liter.
- Cherry, raspberry, currant leaves - 10 pieces each.
- Berry – 200 gr.
- Sweet sand – 350 gr.
- Citric acid – 1/3 teaspoon.
- Carefully wash all the leaves and place them on a paper towel to dry.
- Sort the currants, rinse, and place in a saucepan.
- Add the prepared leaves, pour boiled water over the ingredients, and cover the pan with a lid. Leave the resulting mixture to brew for 12 hours.
- Then you will need to filter the infused berry mass, pour sugar and citric acid into it.
- Bring to a boil, remove from heat, cool.
- Pour in vodka and refrigerate for 3 hours.
There is still enough time for the liqueur to be ready. You can serve it by bottling it in advance.
Homemade redcurrant liqueur without added alcohol
Naturally, preparing a drink according to this recipe takes a long time, but you will certainly enjoy the aromatic smell, pleasant aftertaste and tart taste.
- Water – 2 liters.
- Fresh berries – 4 kg.
- Sugar – 1 kg.
- Take a huge container and place washed currants and 500 grams of sweet sand in it. Pour in water and carefully mash all the ingredients until pureed using a blender.
- Cover the container with the contents with gauze and leave at room temperature for a week to ferment. Stir the mixture once a day for a week, and during the last four days add 100 grams of sugar while stirring.
- Pour the finished liqueur into bottles, close the container with a lid in which you can create a hole for a special straw. Thanks to the tube, the berry pulp will settle to the bottom of the bottle.
- After three days, add the remaining 100 grams of sugar, carefully shake the drink and leave to infuse for another three weeks.
Filter the finished liqueur, pour it and store it in the refrigerator.
Currant-grape liqueur
The grapes will give the drink lightness and softness, and it will also reduce the time it takes to make the liqueur.
- Reddish garden grapes – 6 kg.
- Reddish currants – 3 kg.
- Vodka – 1 liter.
- Sugar – 500 gr.
- Wash the grapes and currants and pass them through a juicer separately.
- Heat grape juice to 35 degrees, add sugar and stir. Pour in currant juice.
- Send the mixture for 10 days in a dark space for fermentation. Don’t forget to stir at least once every two days.
- Strain the fermented mixture, add vodka, and pour.
Store horizontally in a cool place.
Homemade dark and red currant liqueurs
We will look at how to create currant liqueur at home using two proven recipes. Any variety is suitable, but it is not allowed to combine reddish and dark berries in one drink. Before production, the fruits should be separated from the ridges, carefully sorted, removing spoiled and moldy ones, otherwise the taste of the drink will deteriorate. The alcohol base (alcohol diluted to 40 degrees, vodka, double-distilled moonshine or cognac) must be of the highest quality. There are no other requirements, you just need to adhere to the technology.
Compound:
- dark or red currant berries (separately) - fresh, dried (half as much as in recipes) or frozen (defrost in advance, then use together with the released liquid);
- currant leaves - make the smell better;
- sugar - can be replaced with watery honey or fructose;
- alcohol (vodka);
- water – reduces the strength and is needed for making syrup.
When using honey instead of sugar, in order to preserve the beneficial substances, do not bring the syrup to a boil, but heat it to a maximum of 40°C and stir until the honey is completely dissolved in the water.
Attention! When insisting, it is important to choose the right container; the alcohol base must cover the layer of berries by at least 2-3 cm; pour in more alcohol as necessary.
Darkcurrant liqueur recipe
Ingredients:
- berries – 1 kg;
- leaves – 6-8 pieces;
- vodka (alcohol, moonshine) – 1 liter;
- sugar – 1 kg;
- water – 750 ml.
Manufacturing
1. Place the washed berries and leaves in a jar, pour in the alcohol base, and close the lid tightly. Leave for 5-7 weeks in a warm, dark room. Shake once every 5-6 days.
2. After aging, filter the contents of the jar through gauze or special filter paper. Squeeze the berries dry (no longer needed).
3. Create sweet syrup. To do this, boil water, add sugar and simmer over low heat until foaming begins (approximately 4-6 minutes). Then remove the syrup from the heat and cool to room temperature.
4. Mix currant tincture with sweet syrup. Pour the purchased drink into bottles and close tightly. Refrigerate for 5 days to improve taste.
Serve chilled. Shelf life when stored away from direct sunlight is up to 3 years. Strength – 15-17 degrees.
Redcurrant liqueur recipe
- berries – 1 kg;
- leaves - 5-6 pieces;
- vodka (alcohol, moonshine) – 0.5 liters;
- water – 0.5 liters;
- sugar – 800 gr.
Manufacturing
1. Place the berries in a glass bottle or jar. Add currant leaves and vodka (alcohol) there. Close tightly and keep for 5-6 weeks in a sunny place (on a windowsill). Shake once every 7 days.
2. Strain the purchased infusion through cheesecloth. Squeeze the berries.
3. Prepare sweet syrup using the technology described in the previous recipe.
4. Add cool syrup to the currant infusion, stir, pour into glass bottles and close tightly.
After 5-6 days you can start tasting.
If sediment or turbidity occurs, filter through cotton wool.
Strength – 10-11%. Shelf life (in a black room) is up to 3 years.
Despite the fact that the given recipes for currant liqueurs differ only in the proportions of ingredients, the taste of the drinks is very different.
Homemade redcurrant liqueur
Option 1: Traditional redcurrant liqueur at home
Homemade liqueur is an excellent light drink with a mild taste. It is usually prepared with vodka. We choose alcohol of the highest quality. You can take various types of currants, but do not use rotten berries, otherwise the smell will transfer into the drink. In addition, several leaves of dark garden currants will be useful for infusion. This component will give a very pleasant and rich smell.
Ingredients
- 0.7 l of vodka;
- 5 dark currant leaves;
- 0.7 l of water;
- 900 g red currants;
- 900 g sugar.
Step-by-step recipe for traditional redcurrant liqueur
Pour the currants into a bowl and rinse thoroughly, then transfer to a napkin to dry. We tear the berries from the branches, throw them into a jar, and from time to time add dark currant leaves. They also need to be washed and dried. There is no need to use plastic or alloy; glass is perfect for tincture.
Pour the prescribed amount of vodka into the red currants, close, and use a tight lid. Leave for 5 weeks. Be sure to shake the jar at least once every 3-4 days. You can keep it in a warm place and even in the light; from time to time the tincture is specially placed in the sun.
After 5 weeks, we begin making the liqueur itself. First, put water and sugar on the stove, bring to a boil, boil for three minutes and cool. Then we take out the tincture, strain the vodka from the red currants, and lightly squeeze the berries.
Mix the vodka tincture with the cooled sweet syrup; do not add hot liquid. Pour the purchased liquor into bottles with tight lids and put them in the refrigerator.
Instead of currant leaves, you can use any others for making. Mint gives a very good smell, but we take half as much. A pleasant and rich aroma will be given to the drink by cherry leaves, which are often used when making homemade alcohol.
Option 2: A quick recipe for redcurrant liqueur at home
It will take not 5 weeks to make such a liqueur, but only 5 days or even less. That is why the recipe can be classified as a frisky option. It is better to take ripe and soft currants; they will give off excellent taste and color.
Ingredients
- 500 g currants;
- 500 ml vodka;
- 650 g sugar;
- 300 ml water.
How to quickly make redcurrant liqueur
We sort through, wash the reddish currants, first put the berries in a bowl and crush them with a pestle. Under no circumstances do we use a blender; we do not need to crush the seeds, nor do we need to turn the berries into puree.
Place the crushed berries in a jar, fill with vodka and place on the windowsill. Don't forget to close it tightly so that the alcohol doesn't evaporate. Shake once a day. We insist 3-5 days.
Before straining the tincture, prepare the syrup. Just combine sand and water and boil for two or three minutes. Leave to cool.
Strain the tincture twice. First, drain through a strainer, use a spoon to strain the berries, and remove. Then we pass the liquid through gauze folded in four layers. After this, all that remains is to combine the tincture with the syrup. It is better to let the purchased liqueur sit in the refrigerator for a day.
If during squeezing, pieces of berries have escaped into the tincture, then the straining function must be repeated. There should be no flakes or sediments in the liquor.
Option 3: Fragrant redcurrant liqueur at home
Recipe for a slightly spicy and very fragrant redcurrant liqueur at home. The drink is perfectly suitable for winter; it has a warming smell of cinnamon and ginger, but at the same time they do not interrupt the taste of juicy berries. We must take cinnamon in a stick; the powder is not suitable for use. The ginger is only the freshest; you can buy the root at the grocery store.
Ingredients
- 1 kg of red currants;
- 1 kg sugar;
- 1 cinnamon stick;
- 8 g ginger root;
- 0.75 l of vodka;
- 0.6 liters of water.
How to cook
The cinnamon does not need to be crushed, but it is better to break it or break it into several parts. Wash a piece of ginger, remove the grayish skin, then cut it into several slices.
Place currants with cinnamon and ginger in a jar. Add vodka to them. We make the most ordinary, but very fragrant tincture. Leave it for at least two weeks.
We make syrup from prescription sugar. Fill the sand with water, melt it over low heat, then boil for a couple of minutes, leave until it cools.
Strain the tincture, do not forget to squeeze the juice from the red currants. Then add the prepared syrup and stir. We remove the finished liquor for storage.
If you want to get the most spicy liqueur, then add cloves to it, you can throw in a few lemon balm leaves and star anise. Add all this in small quantities. Because the infusion time is long, in any case you will end up with a drink with a very pronounced odor.
Option 4: Homemade redcurrant liqueur “Half-breed”
In this liqueur recipe, not only reddish, but also dark currants are used. For fastening, you can take vodka or dilute alcohol with pure water. Additionally, you will need brown sugar for the liqueur. If you don’t have it, then you can use snow-white sand, but the end result will be a slightly different taste.
Ingredients
- 2 cups red currants;
- 2 cups dark currants;
- 200 ml water;
- 2 cups coffee sugar;
- 800 ml vodka.
Step by step recipe
Place the washed red and dark currants in a bowl, mash with a pestle, transfer to a jar and fill with vodka. Cover and leave warm for a day. Then stir again, close, and put in the refrigerator for a week.
After seven days, drain the tincture and carefully squeeze out the berry pulp. Strain the resulting liquid twice.
Pour brown sugar with water and place on the stove. Cook the saturated syrup, let it boil for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool to room temperature.
Mix currant tincture with coffee sugar syrup. We leave the liqueur for a couple of days, then filter it again through gauze or narrow cotton cloth (a medical system of cells and intercellular substance, united by a common origin, structure and functions) . Pour the drink into bottles and seal.
If suddenly it was not possible to pick currants in equal proportions, then you can take more burgundy or dark berries. This will affect the taste, but the liqueur will turn out in any case if you do not go beyond the indicated proportions.
Option 5: Homemade redcurrant liqueur with lemon
The recipe for a cool drink with the smell of citrus and the taste of red currant. Vodka is used to strengthen the liqueur, but it can be replaced with diluted alcohol. Lemon juice is added here during infusion, but you can prepare syrup with it, there is no exact rule.
Ingredients
- 1 kg currants;
- 0.9 kg sugar;
- 0.8 l of vodka;
- zest of 1 lemon;
- 600 ml water;
- 0.15 kg of honey;
- 50 ml lemon juice.
How to cook
We try to remove the zest from the lemon in not very small pieces, you can use ribbons, the snow-white part does not have to get in. Wash the reddish currants, dry them a little, and dump them along with the zest into a jar. Fill it all with vodka, which should completely cover the berries. We close it and put it in a warm place for three weeks.
Prepare the syrup. Boil water with sugar. Add lemon juice, if you did not add it immediately when pouring the red currants with vodka. Let the syrup cool and only later add natural honey. Stir until it dissolves completely.
We take out the berries, strain the tincture, mix with the prepared syrup. Pour into a jar, put on a lid, and put in the refrigerator for a day.
We take out the currant liqueur and strain it again through gauze rolled up in 6 layers. If sediment has formed on the bottom of the jar during the day, we try not to touch it and leave it in place.
Pour the finished liqueur into bottles. By the way, you can throw a spiral of fresh zest into each one, which will make the liqueur even more exciting.
Various pharmaceutical herbs are often added to liqueurs. They are used for healing purposes and are not suitable for many people. It is important to add ingredients in the indicated quantities, and also drink medicinal liqueur.
Homemade currant liqueur recipes
Currants are a fragrant berry that will not only decorate jam, compote or pie, but will also show itself unsurpassed in home-made sweet liqueur. It is not without reason that the famous French Crème de Cassis is prepared using dark currants.
Dark currant liqueur has the most striking taste and aroma, because this type of berry is more saturated with essential oils. But the reddish and snow-white varieties of currants, widely distributed in the gardens of our country, also produce a pleasant alcoholic drink, the sweetness and strength of which can be adjusted to taste. Typically, the strength of liqueur ranges from 15 to 50 degrees.
Individual manufacturing
Currant liqueur is prepared from available and cheap ingredients: berries, alcohol component, water and sugar. With all this, it is not recommended to save on ingredients, because high-quality raw materials produce a worthy drink that would not be shameful to put on the table in any company.
Currant liqueur also has one fundamental advantage - it can be prepared, if necessary, from frozen berries, which gain sweetness after exposure to low temperatures. To do this, the currants are thawed and consumed together with the released juice.
The alcohol on which the berries are infused can be vodka, alcohol or cognac, but moonshine is not suitable for extracting juice from currants; it will only kill the summer smell of the liqueur. Or you need to choose a proven product that has undergone two-stage distillation. In order to shade and enrich the currant liqueur, honey, dark currant leaves or cherry leaves, and clove buds are added to it if desired.
Dark currant recipes
Blackcurrant liqueur differs from its brothers in its rich dark color and tangible aroma of sun-drenched berries. When consumed wisely, this is a drink with immune-supporting properties that is essential for colds.
1st, basic
- dark currants – 1000–1200 g;
- vodka – 2 bottles of 0.5 liters or 1 liter of alcohol diluted to 40 degrees;
- sugar – 1 kg;
- water – 3 glasses, approximately 750 ml.
- currant leaves - 7-9 pieces, optional, to improve the smell of the liqueur and give it a special sourness.
- Before preparing blackcurrant liqueur, you need to carefully sort through the berries, removing ridges and substandard fruits: moldy, dry, unripe fruits.
- Wash and dry them if dirt or dust has accumulated on the skin. When the currants are unstained, you can skip this step.
- Lightly mash the fruits with a wooden spoon or masher so that the torn skin allows the juice to escape without crushing the seeds.
- Place the berries and washed crushed leaves in a jar or bottle and fill with vodka.
- Close tightly and leave to infuse at a warm temperature for at least a month, 35–60 days. The mass must ferment, but not mold. Inspect it, shaking the container for any 5 days.
- Strain the tincture using a sieve, gauze or cardboard filter. Squeeze the berries dry so that you can use them completely. Throw away the cake or use it for flavoring and enriching grain or sweet distillates.
- Pour syrup made from sugar and water into it. It needs to simmer over low heat for about 5-10 minutes until foam forms, and then cool.
- Leave the tightly closed dark currant liqueur for another 7–10 days to gain strength and rational taste. You can taste it or send it to bottles until it suits you.
Using the same recipe, it is possible to make liqueur from snow-white or red currants, but without combining either type with dark ones. Cognac will give you an exciting taste if you use it as an alcoholic base. The expected strength of the drink is 15–17 degrees. If you want the strongest drink, then instead of vodka you should use 60% alcohol. The shelf life will be up to 3 years.
2nd, a la Creme de Cassis
This dark currant liqueur was created as an imitation of the famous especially sweet French drink, which is good both in its pure form and as an ingredient for cocktails with snow-white dry wine or champagne (Kir and Kir Royal, respectively).
- 1.5 kg of washed dark currants;
- 1.5 l brandy;
- 0.5 l of water;
- 1 kg sugar.
- Sort the berries, mash a little until the skin cracks.
- Place in a suitable sized container and pour in brandy.
- Cover with a tight-fitting lid and keep in a cool place for 2 months.
- Filter from currants, which have given color and taste to alcohol.
- Create regular sweet syrup, cool it and mix with berry infusion.
- Pour the almost finished dark currant liqueur into small bottles and keep for another week in a dark place.
- It is recommended to store in the refrigerator and consume immediately after opening.
Two redcurrant liqueur recipes
With cherry and raspberry leaves
This redcurrant liqueur is made with cherry and raspberry leaves. This is due to the fact that this variety of currant itself does not have any colorful taste properties. Therefore, additional ingredients are added to the recipe for red currant liqueur, designed to give the drink the most noteworthy notes. And it won’t let you down with color either: a pleasant light ruby color scheme will remind you of summer with its rich tints.
Red currant liqueur will amuse you with its unobtrusive and soft aftertaste with a slight sourness that distinguishes this berry.
Manufacturing development is similar to other liqueurs:
- Prepare cherry leaves (100 pieces) and raspberry leaves (20 pieces), washing and drying them. Then put them in 1 liter of boiling water and boil over low heat for 20 minutes in a saucepan covered with a lid. Then cool and strain.
- Red currant liqueur uses only a small amount of berries - only 0.5 kg. It is necessary to wash them, remove leaves and grains, add 0.5 kg of sugar and knead.
- Pour 0.5 liters of vodka and add 1 teaspoon of citric acid. Pour in the decoction of the leaves, close and leave for a month.
- Filter the drink and bottle it.
Express method
This redcurrant liqueur will be ready in just a week, which is very convenient for urgent needs. For 1 kg of berries you will need 0.75 liters of vodka, 800 g of sugar, 0.5 liters of water and a few leaves from a dark currant bush. This amount of ingredients will yield approximately 1.7 liters of liquor.
The production process is simple. Pour sorted currants, crushed leaves into a glass container, pour in the alcohol component. Keep in a warm place or on the sunny side for exactly 7 days. Boil syrup or dissolve sugar in warm boiled water. Separate the berries from the tincture, mix two waters: vodka infused with currants and sweet syrup. Filter again and bottle the liquor.
From snow-white currants
Snow-white currant liqueur is viscous, rich and sweet, as befits a true fruit liqueur. This is also a relatively fast recipe: more than a liter of a beautiful drink will be ready for the table in just 2 weeks.
The principle is the same: prepare a tincture of currants (0.5 kg) and vodka (0.5 l) for a couple of weeks, mix with syrup from sugar (0.5 kg) and water (0.5 l). Now you can treat your friends and family with homemade clear yellow liqueur.
Use
Connoisseurs of homemade alcohol will treat themselves to home-made liqueur after a hearty lunch, knowing that this drink is a good digestif that helps digest food. In this case, it is best to serve it in small glasses with a stem.
The berry liqueur can be savored in small sips or drunk in one gulp, feeling an instant warmth spread throughout the body. The taste of currant liqueur is more fully revealed if the drink is at room temperature.
There are several other methods for introducing currant liqueur:
- diluted by adding water or ice;
- as an additive to tea, coffee, cocoa instead of sugar;
- as an ingredient for desserts, baked goods, ice cream;
- in cocktails, for example, with juice.