Cassis

Cassis
A couple of days ago I bottled up my cassis that had been laying in a bottle since July. The amount of liquid that resulted was smaller than I had hoped but still, you don’t want too much of a good thing (especially when it’s mostly vodka.) I got the recipe from The Cook and the Gardener and apparently the author got the recipe in turn from Madame Milbert, so if it doesn’t taste good then I have a few people I can blame instead of me. The cassis is prepared in two parts:
Firstly you need to pick enough blackcurrants to fill a large bottle. Wash them and pack them in. Then pour vodka over them and fill to the top. Seal and leave until the first week in December.
Strain the berries over a pan, squashing them to bring out the last bits of juice. What you should have is blackcurrant flavoured vodka (good enough for anyone, you might think) but the next stage is to make it thicken. Measure how much liquid you have and then add equal parts of both sugar and vodka. I have a quarter of a pint, so I added a quart of a pint of sugar and the same of vodka. Bring it to the boil until it starts to thicken but don’t let it get to the jelly stage. Bottle it into sterilised jars. And there you have Cassis – ready for Kir Royale on Christmas day!

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7 Comments on “Cassis”

  1. That looks wonderful – I made Schnapps and also a raspberry vodka – they taste divine, as I am sure that yours will too.

  2. Thanks! – I also found out recently that you make limoncello in the same way. Just put some lemon rind in a bottle and fill it with vodka in the same way as cassis. Then follow the rest of the recipe. I’m sure you can treat any fruit in the same way.

  4. I tried this early feb with raspberrys and i have just finished it tonight. I have to say im so impressed with it. I will have to make more of it next summer.

  5. Thanks for the recipe for cassis. I shall start some off today with my glut of blackcurrants.

    I have been trying to find small amounts of eaux de vie at a resonalbe price for this but will use vodka as it fits my budget.

  6. Pingback: Vocab Lesson: Hammam and Cassis

  7. Had loads of blackcurrants this year so am trying your recipe as we are all very fond of kir. However my cassis mix seems to be fermenting like mad and trying to release the gases can be a messy process (when we realised this was happening because of a slight ooze from one of the lids, and unscrewed the bottle, we had a blackcurrant fountain all over the kitchen!) Now I am releasing the gas on a daily basis because I’m scared one of the bottles will explode and kill someone. Any tips?