Nona's Liqueur #3

This is a simple but tasty drink that reminds me of something Italian grandmothers might make. It uses leftover skins and husks of citrus. It's quite pleasant on its own over an ice cube, and should make a bright spritz cocktail. It's easy, it just takes patience for the infusion.

We accidentally discovered a technique to make a citrus liqueur then made it intentionally. Subsequently, we simplified by collecting citrus skins from our fresh-squeezed orange juice, lemon and lime husks from cocktails, etc, and infusing clean-tasting vodka.  I'm repeating that here, with husks from our little lemon tree, skins from mandarin oranges, and so on. I expect to adjust based on what we have, and what tastes good. 

 12    Lemon husks (with or without zest, whatever we have)
  ?    Mandarin skins
  8    Lime husks
  2    Bay leaves
 1+ L  Vodka, clean tasting; I used Stroika from our supermarket
250 g  Palm Sugar

Stuff a 2L flip top jar with as much of the citrus peels as you can fit, add the Bay, then fill to the top with Vodka.

Let sit a month, turning occasionally.

Strain through coarse sieve. Squeeze the remaining pulp in your hands to extract a lot more infused Vodka.

Filter all the liquid through a fine mesh; I used a plastic cone coffee filter, but you could use a paper filter or fancy chinois.  I ended up with 1.3 Liters of flavored Vodka.

For my Vermut, I make a caramel, and may do so next time but I had Palm Sugar lying around so I used that since it already has a dark flavor reminiscent of caramel. For that caramel, I used 22% by weight of sugar to the liquid, and I had almost enough Palm Sugar, so I just used what I had.  Add the Palm Sugar, cover, and let sit until dissolved. 

Store in bottles for easy drinking, over ice, with a splash of sparkling water, perhaps even some cava.

This batch had an appealing citrus aroma. The sweetness was fine: not to austere nor too sticky. The  bitterness of the pith offset balanced the sweetness and gave it an amaro edge.

I think using plain white sugar would be a bit insipid, so next time might use caramelized sugar if I don't have palm sugar.

We've been enjoying Nona Spritz: 2 to 4 to 1 of Nona's Liqueur, Cava, sparkling water -- with ice.

Nona Spritz: very refreshing

2025-07-16 - 2025-08-16 Nona's Liquour #4

That was so good, we should always have it around the house. This time, I didn't use the Bay Leaf and used caramelized Sugar.

  1 Kg  Citrus husks (lemon, lime, orange)

  1 L   Vodka (clean tasting like Stroika)

250 g   White Sugar

 75 g   Water

Soak the Citrus husks completely covered in the Vodka for a month; I used a 2 L bail-top jar.

Squeeze, strain, and filter: I got 1.4 L of aromatic liquid.

Put the Sugar in a small sauce pan, add the Water, and bring to a boil;

don't stir, just let it reach a golden state at 188C/370F, then pour it onto a nonstick sheet to cool.

Roll it up or break it into pieces and place in the filtered liquor; let it dissolve.

Swirl to combine, serve.

Cider: relaxed, inexpensive, tasty

By stripping down our technique, we can make 6-7 750 ml bottles of tasty cider in under an hour for around a buck a bottle.

I leverage my homebrewing skills but take shortcuts to make a good fermented cider with minimal effort while not sacrificing quality. I think we’ve succeeded: it takes about 15 minutes to start the process, then maybe 30 minutes for bottling. Each 750 ml bottle costs about $1.00 - $1.50, and is pleasantly dry with a fine carbonation. We calculate a final alcohol of 5-6%, about beer strength.

We take advantage of store bought juice (“cider”) which we know is already sterile, and ferment in the same plastic bottles they came in. We reserve some of the juice for carbonation, to minimize the need for bottling-time added sugar. 

Unfermented “apple juice” is also called “apple cider” in the US. It’s OK if it contains ascorbic acid (vitamin C), but don’t use anything with potassium sorbate which will prevent fermentation.

Below, I list our versions in reverse chronological order: our most recent versions have the most streamlined technique. In a horizontal tasting of #1 (Farmers market juice, pricey), #2 (organic BJs juice, inexpensive), #3 (non-organic BJs), we preferred the taste of the #1, but the fizz of batch #3. At this price point and taste, we’re OK using store-bought juice.

2022-03-05 #5: Costco Mott's 2 Gallon

Reserved 800ml Gyle (calculator indicated 500ml for 2G would be 2.5Vol CO2, so 800ml is too much).

Added the yeast slurry from #4 to start fermentation, and reused airlocks.

Took about 2 days to start fermenting, we'd expected it to start much quicker;

next time, just use fresh yeast.

It took a much longer time to finish fermenting than we expected, finally slowing down after 3 weeks.

2022-04-03 FG was about 1.000 @ 75F, the Gyle (unfermented juice) looked to be 1.050 @ 60F, so we're still expecting 6% alcohol or so.

When we combined the fermented cider jugs into the bottling bucket, it started fermenting again quite vigorously. While I'm concerned that we've restarted fermentation, a 1.000 FG indicates it's pretty well done. 

Added 500 ml Gyle (juice) and bottled. Because of concern about fermentation, we put them in a plastic trash can lined with a plastic trash, and added a weighted lid: if any blow, this should contain the mess.

2022-01-29 #4:
BJs organic Honeycrisp Apple Juice

2 x 96 fl oz = 192 fl oz / 5.45 L Apple Juice $7.49

5 g (1 packet) Lalvin EC-1118 sparkling wine yeast: $1

Reserved 500ml / 16 oz juice.

Add 2 airlocks and their stoppers to a 32 oz / 1 L mason jar, add bleach and water, soak a while to sterilize.

Front: airlocks in jar of bleach water

Rinse jar and airlocks well.

Pour 250 ml from each jug of Apple Juice to the jar, seal and put in fridge for later carbonation.

We will end up with 5.45 - .5 =~ 5L fermented juice, and the reserved 500ml.

Place each bottle of juice on a flat plate so that you can move it without the bottom sagging and sucking the contents of the airlock.

Hydrate the yeast in 50 ml body-temperature water.

Hydrating yeast on left, reserved juice in center

Divide hydrated yeast between the two bottles.

Add Airlock.

12:00 Ferment until it stops bubbling, 3-7 days.

Reserved juice in front, fermenters in back

2022-03-05 Bottle

500ml reserved juice

Assuming same numbers as before: 1.5G=5.67L cider, OG=1.06, FG=1.01,  72F=20C.

Bump up carbonation to 2.5 Vol CO2.

Have 0.5 Qt (2C, 1 pint, 500ml) saved Gyle.

Calculator says I need 0.43 Qt = 400ml Gyle (500ml would push it too high) 

2021-05-02 #3:
BJs conventional Cider, recycled yeast

2 new 3 Qt bottles of BJs Cider, non-organic, about $6.

Same FDA sugar content as #2 so presume 6% potential alcohol.

Added yeast slurry from the previous batch, and topped with air locks. 11:47am

2021-05-28 Primed with Gyle + Corn Sugar: Calculations:

https://www.brewersfriend.com/gyle-and-krausen-priming-calculator/

1.5 G cider

2.4 vol CO2

72F at bottling

OG 1.06

FG 1.01

Gyle: 0.3 qt (10 fl oz)

Corn sugar: 0.4 oz

Shook Gyle with Sugar, added to priming bucket

Sterilized 6 750 ml + 2 350 ml swing-top bottles

Filled with a couple ounces left over, tasted tart, promising

Carbonation was very good, better than #1 or #2: fizzy but not bubbly like soda.

Value – quality / price – was excellent.

2021-04-17 #2:
BJs organic juice, Champagne yeast

2x 3 Quart bottles of BJs Organic (from concentrate) “cider” juice.

Bleach sterilize airlocks and mason jar with lid.

Remove a 8? ounces of each bottle to a sterilized Mason jar to make space for ferment, fridge.

Hydrate 1 pkt E-1118 Champagne yeast ($1) in water, adding a bit of juice from each bottle.

Add hydrated yeast back to each bottle.

Add Airlock.

16:00

2021-04-21 Topped up, OG

Took OG from reserved 32 ounces in fridge:

1.050 = 6% = 13 brix

Added remaining juice to cider bottles and recapped with airlocks

In 5 hours started bubbling again.

Looks healthy the next days, as of 2021-04-24.

2021-05-02 Bottle

36g Corn Sugar to some water, nuked

Bleached 8 750ml bottles

FG about 1.000, maybe a bit higher, so 6% ABV or a little less.

Filled 7x 750 bottles

2021-05-30 Tastes good, definite fizz

The earlier bottle we tried, maybe a week ago, had little fizz and Irene said she didn’t like the taste -- too apple-y. This one had definite fizz, and seemed apple-y in the aroma, but not in taste. After consideration, she pronounced it good -- worth doing again.

2021-03-?? Batch #1

1 Gallon Farmers Market apple juice “cider”

1 packet Saf Cider yeast, maybe 3 years old

Put a plastic bucket with the spigot in the dishwasher to “sterilize”.

Added apple juice.

Hydrated yeast (?) and added half way through juice to aerate.

OG was about 1.050

Started fermenting, with froth on top, and air lock bubbled.

After a couple days, ferment seemed stuck.

Added corn sugar boiled with some water.

After a week or two, the murkiness cleared out.

2021-03-14 Measure, Prime, Bottle

FG was about 1.002

Alcohol = (OG - FG) * 131 = 6.3%

17g Corn Sugar boiled in water.

Added for priming, waited a bit to distribute.

Washed 5 750mL flip top bottles in light bleach water, rinsed.

Filled from bucket spigot (very handy)

2021-04-03 Taste

Irene says “like scrumpy”. Just a slight funk. Barely carbonated, but if you hold it in your mouth, you can feel the carbonation; maybe like Spanish cider that’s “bullied”.

Chris: apple and slight funk in aroma; dry, a little tart, just a touch of apple in flavor. Body seems good, a little “thick” mouthfeel, not unpleasant.

Americans would want more carbonation, but I think this is OK; I'd bump it up just a little next time.

Liqueur di Marmellata di Pompelmo

I tried making scorched orange halves in sugar over the BBQ and forgot about them, leaving the sugar to caramelize very darkly and mercilessly stick the fruit to the pan. I figured I'd dissolve it by adding vodka, and a day later they'd come free. I let them settle and the taste was great: citrusy, dark, complex, amaro-like.  It tasted like an old fashioned liqueur you'd find in Italy, so I've come to think of it as "nona's liqueur".  I've also made it, the same way, with lemon and had the same tasty results.

This time, I'm trying on the stovetop with grapefruit, measuring the quantities to see if I can reproduce it reliably.

450 g Grapefruit (1 whole), halved, sliced
100 g Sugar
750 ml Vodka, clean tasting (I used Frïs here)

Sprinkle half the Sugar in a cast iron pan.
Lay in the sliced Grapefruit.
Add the remaining Sugar.
Let sit to absorb Sugar and draw out the juice.
Heat high and cook down, and begin to caramelize the syrup.
Continue, turning Grapefruit until it gets as dark as you can stand, it will start smoking.
Take off heat and cool.
Pour on Vodka.
Let sit to dissolve baked-on caramel.
Pour into jar and let mellow until your curiosity persuades you to drink it over an ice cube.

A Tonic for the Dog Days of Summer

Steamy DC summers call for plenty of gin and tonics, but the commercial tonics are sticky sweet and not very flavorful; trendy tonics like Fever Tree and Q are tasty but cost more than the gin -- awkward. So we made our own tasty tonic base -- a syrup -- following Jeffrey Morgenthaler's updated recipe from 2014.

Since we were working on our vermouths and chinatos we had the critical Cinchona -- quinine -- in powdered form. We made a tincture of 30g to 600 ml clean cheap Frïs vodka, a bit higher concentration than he uses, and strained through a coffee filter to produce a clear copper bitter elixir.

30 g Cinchona powder (mine's a very fine powder)
600 ml Vodka (clean-tasting)

Mix well, let sit a few hours, stir, and strain through a coffee filter -- this could take an hour or more

The rest of the recipe we followed pretty closely, adding a bit more citrus because denuding a grapefruit produced a bit more than the 30 g requested, and we had a half a lime lying around. We had the citric acid from Irene's cheese making and other kitchen experiments.  It was pretty easy: simmer the aromatics with sugar and water; off heat, strain then add some of the quinine tincture. I've decreased the sugar a bit and added a little fresh ginger.

20 g Citric Acid
10 g Gentian Root
2 g Cinnamon, broken into pieces
30 g lemon zest (2 lemons)
30 g grapefruit zest (1 grapefruit)
15 g Ginger, fresh, sliced very thinly
350 g Sugar
500 ml Water

Bring the aromatics, sugar and water to boil, reduce heat, cover, simmer gently for 20 minutes.
Strain, cool.

Add 45 ml (1 1/2 ounces) of the Quinine Tincture to the cooled aromatic syrup.
Refrigerate up to 2 weeks.

Straining simmered aromatics through sieve and coffee filter

Measuring ingredients that went into the tonic syrup

For a single drink, use 1 ounce tonic syrup, 3 ounce sparkling water, 1 1/2 ounce gin. Easy.

The payoff: beautiful, fresh-tasting G-n-T.

It has a fresh citrus taste, Irene got orange right away. It's flavorful without the chemical taste of commercial tonics, and it's not nearly so sticky.  We can also adjust the taste, perhaps lightening it up with a bit more sparkling water on hotter days.  

Good stuff, not hard to make. Nice color too, but we haven't tested to see if it glows under blacklight. :-)

Cremat: Catalan flaming coffee with brandy

Brandy and spices burning

We first had cremat by the beach at Can Gelphi in Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain;
it's wonderful on a cool evening.  Credible recipes on USENET and the
web cite Colman Andrew's Catalan Cuisine and the "new edition" of
Joy of Cooking; the only difference is 2 versus 3 sticks cinnamon.

Serves 4-6

8 ounces Spanish Brandy, warmed (I use Cardenal Mendoza)
12 ounces Dark Rum, warmed (I use Myers)
3 tbs Sugar, superfine (grind in coffee/spice grinder)
  Peel of 1 Lemon
3 sticks Cinnamon
4 cups Coffee, black, strong, hot

Warm the Brandy and Rum to make the alcohol volatile.
Combine with Cinnamon and Lemon Peel in a flame-proof dish,
preferably a large glazed ceramic dish; stir.
Carefully ignite the mixture; it will flare up and burn.
Let the mixture burn, stirring occasionally, until the alcohol has burned off
sufficiently for the flame to die out (or don't wait);
you can use a metal spoon to stir the coffee, lifting some and
drizzling it back into the dish for a spectacular pyrotechnic display.
Very slowly add the coffee, stirring well;
this should extinguish the remaining flames, but if not, blow it out.
Serve at once in individual cups.
After dousing flames with coffee

$Id: cremat.txt,v 1.3 2004/12/31 21:36:18 chris Exp $

Ginger Beer #1

I really like a spicy ginger beer, not the alcoholic one, the soda. Most are insipid or sickly sweet or both; some fake the spice with chili! The best I've come across is DG from Jamaica but Goslings (of the Rum fame) makes one now that's good. We made one years ago but it was difficult and messy. Bartender Jeffrey Morganthaler has a good write up on how he does it, including an instant one using an iSi soda siphon, which we just happen to have. It turned out well but we'll tweak it for the next batch. Here's our first take on his recipe, using the iSi.

1 ounce Ginger juice (see below)
2 ounces Lemon Juice, finely strained
3 ounces Mint Simple Syrup
10 ounces Ice Water

I took a "hand" of fresh ginger, scraped most of the skin off with the edge of a spoon, cut it up, and juiced it with a juice extractor we got from FreeCycle -- much easier than using a MicroPlane!  Juice a lemon and strain with a fine strainer to remove pulp. At this point, the liquid changed from a slightly green-brown from the ginger to a light salmony pink from the acid. Irene pointed out it was the color of sushi ginger -- exactly.

We had made mint simple syrup for cocktails so added that rather than plain simple syrup. For force carbonation, the liquid needs to be cold so we used ice water.

Add all the ingredients to the iSi, straining once more since lemon juice can foam up and bits of skin can clog the siphon's dispenser. For our 1.0L siphon (0.5L liquid volume) we used one CO2 charger, shook well, and let chill in the fridge for a half hour.

To serve, invert and dispense into iced glasses, and enjoy. After our initial taste test, we added some rum -- white for Irene, white with a touch of molasses-y black for me -- and had a variation on a Dark and Stormy.

What Worked, What Didn't

This wasn't as fiery-gingery as we'd like. Next time, bump up the ginger to 1.5 ounces. 

We might try freezing the ginger hand before extracting: some vegetables and fruits break down when their cells freeze and exude their juices when they thaw -- this might make the extraction more efficient.

For 2-4 drinks, this was a fair amount of work. Just setting up and cleaning the juice extractor was a lot of overhead. Next time, we'd use Morganthaler's preferred method of force carbonating a large batch with a CO2 cylinder and a clever Liquid Bread soda bottle adapter -- which we also happen to have. 

Aviation Cocktail (layered)

The Aviation is a classic cocktail but uses a couple of unusual ingredients. The Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur may not be in your liquor locker, but it's readily available. The Creme de violette is a more unusual, and wasn't available in the U.S. until 2007 but without it you don't get the deep sky blue fading to purple. I make this as a layered drink to mimic the sky, just throwing it together tastes fine, but is monochromatic like a Blue Moon cocktail.

 

This recipe is based on ColdGlass.com which discusses various gins and that the higher amount of lemon is more suitable for hot days; sweet lemons are not as intense as tart ones. I've tried upping the Violette and it becomes overpowering very quickly. Use the real Maraschino Cherries from Luxardo: they're pricey but worth it; the kiddie ones -- even the natural ones from Tillen Farms -- don't do the drink justice. I ended up making my own from farmers market cherries when they were in season; they're tasty but not as meaty as the definitive Luxardo ur-cherries.

Some folks I've served this to find it a bit too intensely lemony. When layered, the top is going to be mostly gin and lemon. You might suggest stirring the creme de violette through the drink to balance the tartness. Layer this drink into a martini glass -- it's stunning.

 

For 1 drink:

 

60 ml    2 oz  Gin 

15 ml  1/2 oz  Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed

10 ml  1/4 oz  Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

10 ml  1/4 oz  Creme de violette (Rothman and Winter)

 1       1     Maraschino Cherry (not clown-nose colored ones)

 

Combine the Gin, Luxardo Liqueur, and Lemon and shake on ice. Strain into martini glasses. Drop a Maraschino Cherry through the drink to the bottom of the glass; I like to dribble a few drops of the thick liquid that clings to them for color.

Carefully drizzle the Creme de Violette through the drink slowly and let it settle to the bottom as a layer.