Fortified wine with an extract of medicinal herbs, spices, alpine wormwood added to it is traditionally called vermouth. In general, the word itself, if translated from German, means “wormwood”. Of course, you can buy this drink very popular among the people (not to be confused with the Soviet version of the infernal hemorrhoid mixture) and in any nearby supermarket. But real and correct, it will pull a good penny, as it is imported. Fortunately, there is a recipe for vermouth at home, and not one! In addition, people who love everything homemade and natural, it will be interesting to cook it yourself. Well, try a vermouth recipe at home? And then with great pleasure we will drink homemade and tasty.
Main ingredient
Unlike home-made absinthe, this fortified drink will not go to bitter wormwood, the one with a high content of thujone, but its lighter relative, which grows in meadows in Western Europe, is alpine. It plays the main role in the question of how to cook vermouth at home, and in some varieties of this alcohol its concentration in the total mass of the components can reach 50 percent.
Some other components
In addition to wormwood, manufacturers of famous world brands can add about 200 different spices with herbs to this drink. Undoubtedly, the exact recipe by companies is always kept in the strictest confidence. But the main ones are known: yarrow with mint, cinnamon with cardamom, black elderberry with nutmeg. Also in the vermouth you can find a quinine tree (bark), an oak tree and tansy, as well as a shandra, which gives characteristic bitterness. And also zest of lemons, immortelle with St. John's wort, juniper (berries), rosemary and lemon balm, lemon wormwood and chamomile. Here is a rather complicated composition of the resulting vermouth drink.
A bit of history
There is an opinion that the well-known physician Hippocrates put his hand to the product of this alcohol (and then probably himself applied to it). The first large-scale production was established in 1786 in Turin by Antonio Carpano. And since then, this drink has won many hearts and countries, being very popular in its pure form, and as a component for a variety of cocktails. Almost all world famous Vermouths are produced in Italy, in the traditional homeland of this drink. Martini and Campari, Cinzano and some others. The French also release it and drink it with great pleasure.
Vermouth. Home-made recipe
First of all, advice: get electronic (accurate) scales if you are going to make this drink constantly and personally, since the weight of herbs and spices is relied on in tiny amounts, sometimes even less than one gram. The first and most popular vermouth recipe at home involves separately preparing the essence of herbs with spices and separately - fixing wine material, to which we will later add a herbal decoction to taste.
DIY Essence
The quantity is indicated for one liter of essence prepared by soaking in alcohol (maceration). We need (in grams): wormwood - 30, thyme - 10, tarragon - 1, elderberry - 6, coriander - 2, zest of lemon and orange - 2 each, peppermint - 5, nutmeg - 5, fennel - 1, elecampane - 1, rosemary, cinnamon, yarrow, rosehip, St. John's wort - 5 each, ginger, cloves, chamomile, calamus, vanilla - 3 each. 75% alcohol is needed - less than a liter. We begin to cook vermouth at home. The essence of the recipe is as follows. All of the above ingredients are placed randomly in a jar with a capacity of one liter and poured to the top with ethyl alcohol. Shake a little and set aside to insist (it takes about 3 weeks) in a not too warm, but dark place (a closet or basement is suitable). It is necessary to periodically stir the composition. Wormwood is very important again. We use only its inflorescences, upper leaves. In no case are the stems - they will give unnecessary bitterness.
End product preparation
After 21 days of insisting, the mixture will need to be filtered through the folded gauze and squeezed out well. You can even drive through a filter from cotton wool. We no longer need herbs, but they can be safely sent to a cube for distillation to flavor moonshine (meaning the second distillation). Next, take a liter of dry wine and add 65 milliliters of alcohol to it, but already 95 degrees alcohol - fixing it this way (use grape alcohols as much as possible, for example, homemade strong grappa, chacha). At the next stage, boil a syrup of 120 grams of sugar plus 60 milliliters of purified water: just heat and dilute the sweetness in water until it is completely dissolved (you can not boil it). Add the chilled syrup to the wine fixed with alcohol. We introduce 5 milliliters of the prepared essence there (it is most convenient to measure with an ordinary medical syringe. Some researchers from Bacchus also add a larger amount of essence, but here we already act according to our own taste: this ingredient can be almost doubled. Everything, the vermouth recipe at home has been carried out. The resulting vermouth remains to be poured into glass spinning bottles (0.5-1 liter), tightly corked and put in a warm place to insist. It will be enough to wait one month, but the best Do not tolerate two - these days the taste will be balanced and will become a wonderful and fragrant flavor bouquet.
Dry or sweet?
Actually, only white and dry wines were previously used for home-made preparation of such drinks, but the Catalan style has recently appeared, which suggests the basis - semi-sweet red wine. In the above recipe, dry, neutral white is recommended for use, and if the sweetness is insufficient, it is better to just add a little more syrup. Of course, not everyone will like dry vermouth, but only it, according to tradition, is suitable for cocktails such as Dry Martini.
Dry Martini Cocktail
The traditional classic Dry Martini is prepared simply: one part vermouth and six parts gin. By the way, many famous people loved this cocktail. For example, Winston Churchill. And Nixon, one of the presidents of the United States, loved "hotter": that is, a larger amount of gin - 6-7 servings. And at the time of the famous prohibition in America, Dry Martini was preparing 2 to 1 in order to save precious gin. So, in a glass for mixing, insert a bar spoon and pour ice. Pour in both ingredients and mix in circular rotations. We strain the resulting drink into the boiler glass through a strainer. Garnish with olive on a skewer or a twist of lemon peel. “Dry martini” is supposed to be drunk in several sips (and you can prepare the next portion).