At the time of harvesting, it often turns out that a lot of apples did not wait when they were carefully removed from the branches, and themselves plopped to the ground. The bruises appeared on the bulkheads from the impact. Apples are still good, tasty ... But the product is already illiquid, especially since the fruits quickly decay due to these dents. What to do with such fruits? You can bake a pie - "Tart Taten", for example, or charlotte. But there are not so many apples in baking - a kilogram, well, two. And if you have a garden, and you are racking your brains, where to put twenty kilograms of illiquid fruits? And then the homemade tincture of apples comes to mind. It is so tasty that for the sake of its preparation you can even bother to go to the market and buy fruit yourself. And then, after three or four months, when winter comes, savor the amber drink and remember the summer. Do not think that the preparation of tinctures at home is associated with cunning moonshines, which will occupy two-thirds of the area of your apartment. No, this process is simple and easy. In this article we will talk about how to make apple tincture at home. You just have to follow the step by step instructions. We will provide some recipes so that you can choose the one that suits you best.
Some more theory
Tinctures, liquors, balms ... All these alcoholic drinks are easy to make at home. But the process of their production is different. In Russia, until the sixties of the eighteenth century, only liqueurs knew. Fruit went through wine fermentation. They filled their drink with juice, gained a degree. With the introduction of the state monopoly on vodka and, accordingly, the cheapening of the product, there was also a tincture of apples at home. This drink is being prepared in a radically different way. Fruits are simply poured with alcohol (or vodka) and insisted until alcohol and juice become a single organic whole.
Tinctures were given different names. If no water was added to the drink, such heavy alcohol was called "erofeich." Herbal tinctures were called balsams. By the way, they were often used for medical purposes. Often drinks were called by the name of the product from which they were made: anise, pear, cherry. Of course, not all herbs and fruits can be infused. For this purpose, only those fruits (as well as seeds, spices and herbs) are suitable in which there are biologically active substances and essential oils. Therefore, the apple variety is of great importance. Some are good for cider, while others are good for liquor. And, of course, thanks to folk savvy, there were many recipes for how to make tincture from apples. We will consider only some of them.
Ingredients
The main and decisive components in tinctures are, of course, fruits and alcohol. This short list of products seems to significantly narrow the recipe list. However, experimenting with types of alcohol, apple varieties and flavors such as sugar or cinnamon, you can get a lot of different tastes of drinks. Sweet, like liquor, homemade tincture of apples with a strength of thirty degrees has a pleasant taste and can be served with dessert. Do not forget about bitter fruit drinks, like Benedictine. Such tinctures can be used as a remedy for colds. If apples pour alcohol, then you can achieve a fortress of forty-five degrees, which is very popular with the stronger sex. And fruits can be insisted on vodka or moonshine. What can we say about the apples themselves! Fresh - Antonovka or white filling, dried with a light aroma of haze, and even small, heavenly ... Adam's apple tincture is also good for its healing properties. The preparation of all these drinks is different in technology. Some of them will be ready in two months, while others can be savored in a week and a half. The manufacturing process can be accelerated by warming the drink to fifty degrees. Store tincture in a dark and tightly corked bottle in a cool place.
Tincture of apples on vodka
This is the most common ingredient for homemade alcoholic beverages. Vodka is easier to get than alcohol. But do not think that you can use the cheapest and low-quality brand for filling. No, vodka should stretch, not flow, warm, not burn. The taste of the resulting tincture directly depends on the softness and quality of alcohol. But apples can be taken illiquid. All the same, we will remove from them all the bruises and wormholes. So, the first recipe. Tincture of apples on vodka, prepared according to his instructions, will be ready in two months.
There is a lot of debate about whether to peel the fruits. Many agree that the skin gives the drink a piquancy. In any case, apples should be washed, and then cut them into narrow slices, simultaneously removing bruises and a core with seeds. We put this raw material (it should be two and a half kilograms) in a large bottle. Pour apples with vodka - you will need a liter and a half. Now you need to dilute it with water. To achieve a harmonious taste, you need to take seven liters. To prevent a thermal reaction, water should be cooled. We wrap the bottle with gauze and expose it to the sun for two weeks. Shake the contents daily. After that we filter the infusion. Add two kilograms of sugar to the liquid and put in the sun for two days. Then we stand another ten days in a cool place. And only after this time we filter through cheesecloth, bottle and cork. The drink is ready after three weeks of storage.
Quick recipe
There are several ways to speed up the cooking process. This recipe for tinctures from apples recommends not keeping the bottle in a cool and dark place, but keeping it in the light (preferably on a sun-drenched window sill) for two weeks. Container volume also matters. Take only a dozen large apples of the sour variety, cut them, as in the previous recipe, and pour the same amount of vodka. We will not add water and sugar. Just cover the neck of a three-liter jar with a paper lid so that the tincture “breathes”. After two weeks, carefully strain the liquid, pour the drink into bottles. And already we remove them in a dark and cool place. Savor the tincture right away. As you can see, this recipe is very simple and, most importantly, quick. It is good for early varieties of apples, when you can hope for two weeks of clear, sunny weather.
Lady's drink
Cooking tinctures from apples according to this recipe will take you only a week. Cut the fruit together with the peel into thin slices. We throw out the core with seeds. An apple in this form should be a kilogram. We put fruit slices in a three-liter jar. Fill with a liter of vodka. We cover the container with gauze or a cover of oiled paper. It is important for us that the liquid “breathes”, but at the same time that insects do not get into it. We put the jar in a cool and dark place. In a week, all fruits will be crowded at the very neck of the container. Carefully separate the liquid from the apple pulp. Separately, prepare the syrup. Dissolve two hundred grams of granulated sugar in half a liter of water. The syrup is brought to a boil, and then cooled to a temperature of forty degrees. Dissolve in it a few pinches of ground cinnamon. We mix both liquids and carefully filter into two 0.75-liter bottles. The resulting tincture of apples at home has a beautiful golden yellow color and a pleasant sweet and sour taste. You can store it not in the refrigerator, but in a cabinet to protect it from direct sunlight.
Cognac tincture
Thanks to such an alcoholic base, the drink acquires an interesting aroma and taste. Apples for tincture should be selected solid, preferably late grades - rahnet, pepin, calvil, pear, Antonovka. We grind them together with the peel - but, naturally, without seed boxes and rotten parts. One and a half kilograms of apple pulp will require a liter of cognac. Fill fruit slices so that the liquid level is a centimeter or two above the fruit layer. At first, cognac easily covers all apples, but after a few seconds it is absorbed in the flesh. Therefore, you need to wait a quarter of an hour to add alcohol. This recipe for tinctures from apples prescribes us to seal the jar with a nylon cover so that the cognac does not disappear. The container should be in a warm and dark place for about ten days. After that, drain the liquid. Cognac-soaked apples can be used for desserts. Pour half a liter of water into a saucepan, set on fire. Gradually pour three hundred grams of sugar. Stirring, bring to a boil and cook for another five minutes, regularly removing the foam. Then cool the syrup to room temperature. Mix it with cognac. After two to three hours, cognac tincture of apples at home is almost ready. It remains to filter and bottle. The strength of this drink varies from fifteen to twenty degrees. It can be stored for more than a year in a dark and cool place.
On the moonshine
Before telling how to prepare tincture of apples on this type of alcohol, we note that in this case a sweet drink will not work. The fact is that in contact with sugar syrup, moonshine gives an unpleasant aftertaste. But the tincture is quite strong - about thirty-five degrees. Moonshine should be of the best quality - transparent, without a yeast smell. We chop a kilogram of apples in the same way as in previous recipes. Fold in a three-liter jar, sprinkle with ground cinnamon and vanilla (five grams each). Fill with a liter of moonshine, cork and put for ten days in a dark, warm place. After that, we drain the liquid through gauze folded into several layers. Manipulation with apples can be repeated if you still have a liter of moonshine. But the second tincture of apples on moonshine will be ready in two weeks. We filter the liquid through cotton or paper filter into bottles and cork. In a cool room, such an alcoholic drink can be stored for years.
Homemade Calvados
In fact, this elite French drink is made by sublimating cider. He is insisted for at least two years in oak barrels. After Remarque sang the unique taste and aroma of Calvados in his "Arc de Triomphe", the distillate gained the fame of "Bohemian" (like absinthe). Our tincture of apples at home loses a little to the famous forty-degree drink in the fortress, but is not inferior to it in a unique aroma. Therefore, we took the name in quotation marks.
Apples (two kilograms) are better to take different varieties with a predominance of sweet and juicy. Cut their flesh into small cubes, put it in a jar. Add two bags of vanillin, stir. Pour a liter of vodka. Under the nylon cover, the bank should be in a dark place for two weeks. Then we filter the liquid through the fabric, squeeze the apples. We cook syrup from one hundred and fifty milliliters of water and two hundred grams of sugar. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Pour vodka infusion slowly. Add half a glass of alcohol. Cool to room temperature and bottle. This tincture of apples for alcohol and vodka is served in cognac glasses as a digestif. Homemade Calvados goes well with coffee, chocolate and fruit. The drink should be at room temperature.
With the scent of haze
Of course, it’s easier to take a couple of handfuls of dried fruits to make such a drink, but it will turn out to be tastier if apples themselves are dried. This can be done in an oven or hot air grill. Three to four ripe fruits of the Antonovka variety (together with the peel) are cut into rings and dried in the oven at low temperatures. We put it in a three-liter jar, pour a tablespoon of sugar. Pour vodka or diluted alcohol. Experts recommend pouring a little concentrated apple juice without pulp. We cork the jar and hold for about two weeks. When the color of the liquid becomes amber, it can be filtered and bottled. Dry apple tincture is ready for use in a month.
Apple liqueur
We clean and fry five to six large juicy fruits and rub the pulp with large chips. We put it in a jar of a suitable size, but so that it fills no more than three-fourths of the volume of the container. Squeeze lemon juice there. We make sure that no seeds or pulp of citrus get into the jar. We fill the jar to the very top with alcohol. It is desirable that the air gap between the liquid and the capron cap is minimal. Tincture of apples on alcohol should stand in a warm and dark place for about a month. Strain the liquid into the pan, squeeze the fruit pulp. Add seven hundred and fifty grams of sugar and set on fire. Sometimes it happens that little liquid comes out - or the apples are not juicy, or the alcohol is slightly weathered. Then in the syrup, you can add clarified apple juice. We filter the liquor through cotton wool, bottle, tightly cork. It should be stored in the refrigerator door or cellar for no more than six months.
Apple-honey tincture
The drink is both strong and sweet. One and a half kilograms of apples are cut into thin slices, removing the core and seeds, but leaving the peel. We put it in a three-liter jar, pour one and a half liters of alcohol diluted to the desired strength with chilled boiled water. Close the container tightly. We insist about ten days. After that, we filter the liquid through cheesecloth. Pour one and a half liters of water into a separate saucepan. We heat and dissolve in it a glass of granulated sugar and two or three tablespoons of honey. Mix both liquids. Alcohol tincture of apples with the help of these sweeteners (sugar and honey) can be strong and not very, like liquor or balm. Well, later we need to strain the liquid through a makeshift filter from a piece of cotton wool, screw the caps on the bottles and send them to a cool dark place.
Adam Tincture
Maclura tree belongs to the genus mulberry. It hails from North America, but has taken root perfectly in the subtropical zone of Europe. It is found in Ukraine (especially in the south of the country) and in Russia (North Caucasus). Maclura has long been valued for the strong and elastic wood from which bows were made. And the fruits of the tree have a lot of healing properties. Popularly, these green hard balls are called adam apples, although the maklura has nothing to do with the juicy and tasty fruit. Her fruit is absolutely inedible and even poisonous. But in pharmacology maclura is used very widely. Antibiotics and various ointments are made from it.
The basis for drugs is tincture of Adam's apple. The preparation of this healing balm is possible at home. Here is the easiest recipe. Cut macaroni fruit into pieces, put it in a jar, tightening the layers. Fill with diluted fifty percent alcohol in a one to one proportion. A container for tincture must be selected suitable so that the layer of air between the liquid level and the lid is as small as possible. To languish alcohol balm is necessary for at least two months, and preferably more. A sign that the tincture has reached the desired condition will be its color - strong tea.
Ointment and drink
Grind three to four fruits of maklura in a blender, squeeze the juice. Mix it with vodka. We observe the proportions: we take five alcohol for one part of the juice. After a few days, the turbid liquid will be divided in two. At the bottom there will be a thick milky juice, and on top there will be a clear alcohol solution. Separate both fractions into separate containers and store in a refrigerator or a cool place. Based on milky juice, ointments can be made. If you mix it with vegetable oil (in a proportion of one to two), then the resulting liquid can treat eczema, dermatitis, bury it in the ears with otitis media. And alcohol tincture from adam apples is used internally for migraines, hypertension, and even cancer. Start taking it with one drop three times a day, gradually increasing the dose to a coffee spoon.