Inspired by a recent posting on the health benefits of Cranberries, I’ve decided to share my secret recipe for Cranberry Liqueur.
Actually, this isn’t my recipe. It was given to me several years ago by a friend who got it from another friend’s Russian grandmother.
Regardless of where it came from, it is an excellent recipe, if kind of messy.
NOTE: These instructions are verbatim as they were sent to me. If you are under 21, or if alcohol offends you, please stop reading now.
1. Take one (1) liter of Everclear Grain Alcohol 😉 and 2 kilograms of cranberries (fresh, I’m guessing).
2. Put all of the cranberries through a meat-grinder and put into a large container (3 litter glass jar).
3. Pour all of the grain alcohol over it.
4. Let it sit for 3-5 days.
5. Then strain what’s in the jar through a gauze (the medical kind). You gotta squeeze what’s left in the gauze to get all the liquid
out of it. Collect all the liquid in any big container and discard the cranberry leftovers.6. Then separately make sugar syrap: boil 4 cups of water (1 litter) with 2.5 cups of sugar. You’ll want to boil it on low/medium heat, stirring continuously until the sugar completely dissolves in the water. Make sure to watch it so that the sugar does not burn and stick to the pan. It’s easier to start by pouring hot (boiling water) over the sugar.
7. Let the sugar syrup stand and cool down.
8. Pour the syrup into the ‘cranberried’ alcohol stirring well. Chilling is good.
9. Taste it. If all went well – invite a bunch of friends over and get hammered.
That is the original recipe, here are some notes that were included for your reference.
Okay, so I use a 750 of Everclear since you can’t buy a liter anywhere that
I’ve found. That means you need 3/4 of all the other ingredients: 1500g
cranberries, 3 cups of water, 2 cups sugar.Most people don’t have a meat grinder in their kitchen, so I use a blender.
The trick to using the blender is to rinse the cranberries down into the
blades. You don’t want to water down the drink, so I recommend rinsing it down
with Everclear. Also, I only did about a cup of cranberries at a time so that
I didn’t overwhelm my blender; yours may be more powerful than mine, though.Most people also don’t have medical gauze laying around their house, so use
cheesecloth. You may have to get creative on just how to strain the cranberry
solids out, but last time I lined a sieve with the cheesecloth and then poured
portions of the liquid through.Lastly, cranberry juice stains everything including counter tops, floors,
clothes and especially your hands when you’re ringing that stuff out. If you
spill some, I wouldn’t wait to wipe it up… I also usually use a glass bowl
instead of plastic, unless you want pink bowls.
I can’t emphasize how good this recipe is… if you like cranberry.