Cassis Recipe

[Wicce]

Does anyone out there have a recipe for making cassis?  I've got a potential glut of blackcurrants this year and I'd love to try making cassis.

Mary

[Teamedup]

I'm sorry I really don't understand what you want to know.

What you have said is the same as  'I have a glut of cassis and I want to make blackcurrent'.

 

[Patf]

Do you want to make blackcurrant syrup? If so try this link:http://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette.cfm?criteria=cassis&num_recette=1655    Comments say it's more like a coulis. Pat. ps it doesn't seem to work.

[Wicce]

It's the alcoholic recipe I'm after.  I know I've seen it somewhere but for the life of me can't find it.

M

[Alexis]

I had a look on google and they came up with a few bizarre recipes!  Well, bizarre to me!

You can see from www.cassis.com that the original recipe involved a neutral alcohol ie alcool d'fruit or vodka.

Worth a try.  More interesting than jam, anyway.

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi,

(For what it's worth, I understood your request from the title).

Here's the recipe I used. Beware, you may find the pectins globulate when adding the alcohol. I didn't like this when I first made it. After 3 years in bottle, it's delightful. (You might feel it's worth reducing quantites!) I've also got a few french language recipes which are a bit different, can you read them?

@@@@@ Now You're Cooking! Export Format

Creme De Cassis

5 kg ripe blackcurrants
5 liter red wine
8 kg approx sugar *
4 liter approx eau de vie blanche **

* Use 800g sugar for each litre of juice - see recipe
** Use 1 part of eau de vie at 40% per 3 parts syrup.

Macerate the fruit in the red wine for about 48 hours. Ideally in the sun. Little by little, smash up the fruit in the blender, then press well in a cloth to extract all the juice. When all done, measure the volume and add 800g sugar per litre of juice. Put into a jam pan and put over low to moderate heat to dissolve sugar. When dissolved, warm gently to about 140F and start timer for 15 minutes. When timer goes off, stir gently and check temperature. Repeat 2-3 times, then set timer for longer intervals (say 1/2 hour.) Make sure temperature stays steady, as it shouldn't rise above 160F. After some time (>2
hours) the volume will have reduced slightly and the liquid will have become slightly thicker. Remove from heat and cool.

Using a mug, transfer 3 measures of syrup into a clean container, followed by 1 measure of alcohol, added while stirring carefully and continuously, until all the syrup is added. Towards the end, adjust the volumes maintaining the ratio of 1 part of eau de vie to 3 parts of fruit syrup.

Pour into sterile bottles, cork and leave a couple of days before drinking.

Recipe Jane Grigson's Fruit Book
MMed IMH

Yield: 14 litres

 

[Alexis]

Blimey!  Fourteen litres!

We will ALL be able to come and try it!  I bet we don't use a bottle a year. (Only if the muscadet is a bit argh and the enamel drops off my teeth)

[Wicce]

[quote]Hi, (For what it's worth, I understood your request from the title). Here's the recipe I used. Beware, you may find the pectins globulate when adding the alcohol. I didn't like this when I first ma...[/quote]

Hi Ian.  Wow!  14 Litres.  You can come again.  Is the taste o.k.?

 

Mary

[Ian Hoare<br>All the best<br>Ian<br>La Souvigne Corrèze<br>http:www.souvigne.com]

Hi,

Grin! Yes 14 litres is rather a lot. But I run a B&B, and crème de cassis is one of the mixers I suggest for an apéritif kir. I am not even sure if I did it in that quantity, it's just how it was stored in my recipes database. Anyway, it has improved steadily over the last 10 years (grin again) so I don't think it was a bad idea to make it in these quantities. You should see how much Vin de Noix I make each year (very soon now, as it's usually made between St Jean and Bastille day)!! I see no reason why you shouldn't cut down the recipe to just one kilo of blackcurrants, though that won't do much to use up your glut!

And yes it does taste nice - now. But I was woefully disappointed when I first made it. I think if I made some again, I'd be tempted to use one of the other recipes I've got, in the hopes that it wouldn't need _quite_ such a long cellaring.

[Missy]

[quote]It's the alcoholic recipe I'm after. I know I've seen it somewhere but for the life of me can't find it. M[/quote]

My recipe from 'derrière les fagots'

In a 'Le Parfait' 1 + 1/2 litre jar (1 bocal, 2 bocaux), put in your clean blackcurrants lightly mashed up to about an inch from the top.

Pour 'sucre en poudre' over. About 1 quantity sugar to 3 quantity fruit. Don't ask me in pounds or grams. My cooking is all done and measured 'au pif!' Shake the jar that the sugar reaches the bottom layers of fruit.

Then fill up to the top with 'alcool à fruits' or 'eau de vie'.

Close the jar airtight.

Leave (Oooh! Temptation!) for MINIMUM 3 months!! Just from time to time give the 'bocal' a good shake because the sugar will settle to the bottom and make a sort of jam whilst leaving the top layer of fruits dry and bitter. Just turn them upside down every 14night or so. You should not have any leak if you closed the jar tightly and properly..

Hopefully after 3 months you will have something drinkable.

Open the 'bocal', strain through a cheese/muslin cloth over a funnel in a bottle and decant the 'liqueur' and have a merry time!...

Now?... Wonder what that is at the back of my pantry?...

Would you believe it! 2 jars of the stuff still not decanted which I put there about 4 years ago!!

Oooh this thirst which has suddenly appeared!! Now what excuse to celebrate?!?!?!?!

[Iceni]

Ian, any chance of the Vin de Noix recipe pls. I really fancy making some as we have 2 large walnut trees in the garden - just hoping we have a crop as we have one whole plum on all the plum trees round our field - frost again for the second year running.

Thanks

[Trishaa<P><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>Trisha<EM><FONT><P><P><IMG height=198 src="http:www.gifmania.co.ukDisneyWinniejpoohlef.gif" width=133><P><P> <P>]

Hi Ian,   I too would love the Vin de Noix recipe pls  it sounds scrummy . 

Going back to the main thread, in the Amanda Hesser 'The Cook and the Gardener' she has a recipe for cassis, whilst it starts off as alcoholic, she macerates the blackcurrants in the eau de vie (or vodka) after picking them in June/July.  Then in December she boils the fruit, alcohol and sugar before straining it into the bottles!   So the end product must be totally alcohol free presumably.  In the same book she has a recipe for Raspberry and Cherry Eau de Vie which I'm going to have a go at.

I was given a bottle of homemade cassis from the lady we bought our first house from.  I've still got some left although it's now 15 years old and as she's since died it's got sentimental values.  I'd love to find out Selange made it, it's fantastic stuff.