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To Make Cherry Brandy

A method for making cherry brandy by steeping cherries in a cask with water and brandy, then adding sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 3 ingredients
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To Make Cherry Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and steep

  1. Get equal quantities of morello and common black cherries.

  2. Fill the cask with the cherries.

  3. Pour one gallon of boiling water into the cask.

  4. After two or three hours, fill the cask with brandy.

  5. Let the mixture stand for a week.

Draw off and steep again

  1. Draw off all the liquid.

  2. Add another gallon of boiling water to the cask.

  3. Fill the cask again with brandy.

  4. Let the mixture stand for a week.

Finish

  1. Draw the whole mixture off.

  2. Empty the cask of the cherries.

  3. Dissolve one pound of brown sugar in each gallon of the mixture before pouring in brandy with water to reduce the strength.

By Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Morello and common black cherries (in the method)
Supply the main fruit flavour and colour that the brandy draws out.
Brandy (in the method)
Extracts flavour from the cherries and gives the finished liquor its alcoholic strength.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and rounds out the fruit flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolve the sugar before adding brandy. Sugar dissolves far more readily in water-rich liquid than in strong alcohol. If the sugar is not fully dissolved before the brandy goes in, it can settle or crystallise rather than sweeten the whole batch evenly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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