Cherry pouring is a great option for a home-made alcoholic drink that is ideal for any occasion. It is very simple to prepare it, just know some of the tricks of the process and its features, which we will consider further.
What is liquor
Not everyone correctly imagines what cherry filling is. This drink is an alcoholic product, which is made on the basis of alcohol, the role of which, as a rule, is vodka or homemade moonshine.
It should be noted that you can buy such a drink in any wine-vodka store, however, if you make it at home, you can enjoy a product that will be better not only in taste, but also have a brighter aroma and color.
There is a huge amount of tricks, thanks to which the cherry liquor turns out to be especially tasty and heady, however, the main secret of quality is the use of natural components, and not chemistry and artificial colors, from which the store product is made.
Ways to make cherries
There are a large number of recipes for this drink and many of them include various technologies for preparing the drink. All of them have one thing in common - ripe cherries of excellent quality are used as the main ingredient.
As for the methods of preparation, the most popular is the insistence of berries on alcohol, which is cognac, vodka, moonshine, as well as other strong drinks. If you want to make a low alcohol drink, you must use the technique of berry fermentation. To do this, they should be filled with sugar and sent to a warm place for the formation of a natural process.
In ancient times, the ancestors were engaged in the preparation of kirschwasser - a drink made by fermenting a dark variety of cherries, combined with ripe cherries.
And finally, another technology for preparing a cherry alcoholic beverage involves distilling it from homemade mash - in this way you can get real vodka made on a berry basis.
General principles of cooking
In order to make a tasty drink, you need to know about some basic principles of its preparation. First of all, the main ingredient is prepared - berries. They need to be folded into one large container and filled with the required amount of alcohol. Now the container with berries and alcohol should be sent to a cold place, closed. For a certain period between the berries and alcohol, the necessary exchange of properties will occur. After the alcohol acquires a cherry flavor, aroma and turns crimson, the drink will be ready.
In order to change the taste and color characteristics of the product, many culinary experts experiment with the volume of water, alcohol and sugar, as well as with varieties of berries. Practice shows that to give a special taste and aroma, to prepare ripe cherry liquor, it is very successful to use various spicy spices such as cloves, cinnamon, etc. In some cases, the formulation even involves the use of vanillin.
How much sugar do cherries need? As a rule, the most suitable amount of “sweetener” is determined individually in the recipe. However, in spite of this, there is still a classical volume that is considered by the most experienced movers to be the most optimal - about 400 g per kilogram of fruit. This ratio of sugar and cherry makes the drink moderately tart and strong enough to get drunk on a small amount of drunk.
How to choose the main ingredient
Practice shows that the most delicious is a drink made from correctly selected berries, because their initial taste is of no small importance for the final result. So, what kind of cherry berries will be ideal for making liquor?
To create a very tasty and truly intoxicating drink, you should choose juicy, fragrant and, most importantly, ripe fruits. They should not have any damage, especially rotten areas. As for the taste, it is advisable to use fruits with a sweet and sour taste to make a homemade alcoholic beverage.
It is possible to prepare a cherry liquor with pits or without them at all. If you follow the first option, then at the exit you can get a drink with a more original, spicy taste, reminiscent of almonds. However, being a fan of such a special taste, it should be understood that certain substances are in the composition of the bones, which with a very long interaction with an alcoholic drink can not only spoil the overall taste, but also turn into a real poison.
For the preparation of the drink, experienced moonshiners are advised to take fresh fruits. However, some recipes include the preparation of cordial from frozen cherry and even dried.
Classic liquor
Everyone who at least once in their life tried a home-made alcoholic drink with a cherry flavor probably dreamed of reproducing it on their own, and without making any special effort. This recipe for filling provides for the preparation of this drink according to the simplest and most classic version.
To create it in this way, you need to take a three-liter glass jar and lay in it a kilogram of pre-washed ripe cherry berries. Bones from them do not need to be removed.
The fruit must be filled with a couple of glasses of sugar, and then pour cognac so that the alcoholic drink covered the fruit completely, and the container was filled with it to the very edges. After that, the container with the future drink should be tightly closed with a lid and sent to a cool place, for example, to the cellar. In order to make the taste of the beverage more pleasant, you must shake the container with it every two days.
After a couple of weeks, the berries and the resulting tincture should be divided among themselves. The fruits need to be again covered with a couple of glasses of sugar, mixed and set aside again for a couple of weeks.
As soon as the allotted time has passed, you need to strain the mass and drain the resulting liquid to a previously prepared tincture. Now you need to close the almost finished liquor with a lid and send it to a cold place for 3-4 months. After this time, the drink will gain its best taste and will be ready.
On vodka
In order to make cherry juice on vodka, you need to thoroughly wash a liter jar of fruit with seeds, then pour them into a three-liter glass container and fill with the same amount of sugar. Now the berries must be poured with high-quality vodka so that the alcohol reaches the level of the "shoulders" of the container. In this case, the contents of the jar should not be mixed.
Now the container needs to be tightly closed with a lid and sent to a cold place for several months (3-4). After the allotted time, a delicious alcoholic drink will be ready. Admirers note that the vodka liqueur prepared in this way is very saturated, it has an amazing aroma, as well as a beautiful color.
As for the strength, this indicator for a drink made according to such a recipe is around 30-35 degrees. In the event that, as a ready-made option, it is necessary to obtain a liquor having mild taste, you should take a base with a small indicator of strength.
With spices
In order to make a spicy alcoholic drink at home, you should take a three-liter glass jar, washed cherry fruits and 400 g of granulated sugar. These two ingredients must be laid out in layers in such a way that the berry mass occupies more than half the volume of the entire container. After this, the mass must be sent to a warm place. After some time, the process of fermentation will begin in it. It should be done so that it lasts about a week.
After the allotted time, pour quality alcohol into the berries of the cherry with sugar to fill the jar completely. After that, spices should be included in the total mass, including half the cinnamon sticks, as well as about a dozen clove buds. If you wish and have such an ingredient, you can also pour a pinch of wormwood color - it will give a special unusual taste to the drink.
In this form, it is necessary to insist the resulting mass, previously tightly covering it with a lid. After three weeks, the liquid must be drained by laying the fruits separately. After 3-4 months of insisting the alcoholic beverage in a cold and dark cellar, it will be ready.
Kirschwasser
The ancient kirschwasser recipe was known in antiquity. The original taste of this drink can conquer any gourmet. In the modern world, it is especially popular in such European countries as Great Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland.
In order to cook it, absolutely all connoisseurs of the original recipe for this drink recommend using fruits of a special variety. Both cherries and cherries selected for it should have the darkest color, a very sweet taste and a small stone.
At the initial stage of cooking kirschwasser, it is necessary to take two of its main ingredients (cherries and cherries) in equal proportions, wash them and then remove the bones. Now the fruits should be ground in any convenient way so that a homogeneous mass is obtained from them.
After that, they should be folded into one dish made of wood (this is done according to the original recipe) and let it brew in this form for 4 weeks. Throughout this period, every other day, you need to open the container with the contents and mix its filling so that air escapes.
After the mass is ready, it must be driven away like ordinary moonshine, and then poured into glass or, even better, clay bottles, and then let it brew for several months before gaining a fortress.
Practice shows that in the field of bar art such a drink serves as an excellent basis for the preparation of delicious and original cocktails.
It often happens that at the exit the drink acquires a slightly unpleasant aroma and its taste is somewhat specific. In this case, you should overtake it again - so you can achieve an excellent result.
No alcohol
Perhaps for some it will seem surprising, but you can prepare the liquor without the use of alcoholic beverages. To do this, take a couple of kilograms of fresh berries, wash them thoroughly, separate them from the stalks, and then put them in a container for cooking. Before this stage, you can also previously remove the seeds from the fruit, but you can not do this - then the drink will have an original taste and special aroma.
After making preparations, add 800 g of sugar to the berries, mix everything thoroughly, pour in a glass of purified water there and leave it in this form in a warm place. First, you need to install a water seal on the container, which at home can replace an ordinary rubber glove.
In order for the fruit to roam better, in this recipe for liquor it is proposed to either pierce each berry with a needle beforehand, or slightly knead the fruit with something before going to a warm place. During fermentation, the glove will fill with air and inflate. When it falls again, it will be necessary to strain the resulting mass through cheesecloth, squeeze the fruits well and, spilling on a glass container, send it in a closed form in a cold place for several months.
The ripe cherry cherry prepared in this way will be ready in literally 4-5 months. In its finished form, to your taste, it is more like a wine. As for the possible shelf life, it can be as long as three years.
Fragrant
Especially aromatic and unusual in taste will learn the liquor made on the basis of two types of combined alcohol. For its preparation, you should take a kilogram of ripe and correctly selected berries, rinse them. Now you need to separate half the total mass of berries and remove seeds from them. After this, the fruits need to be combined in one bowl, add half a kilogram of granulated sugar to them, and then, after mixing, let it brew for a certain period.
As a rule, this process takes several days. Ultimately, sugar crystals should completely dissolve, and juice should form from the berry mass. As soon as this happens, pour alcohol into the berries. To prepare tinctures according to this recipe, you should add 750 ml of fruit brandy and a third of this volume of rum (you can use both light and dark). For a change, brandy can be replaced with the same volume of cognac.
Now you need to mix the ingredients well, close them tightly and send them to a warm place for insisting for one month. After this period, you need to strain the mass and pour the liquid into a glass container. Experienced moonshiners do not recommend tasting such a drink earlier than six months later.
Useful qualities of filling
Perhaps, now someone will be surprised, but the cherry liquor, prepared at home, has a number of properties useful to the body. However, in order for them to appear, it is necessary to use it in a small amount.
In particular, the regular use of such a drug helps to stabilize the level of hemoglobin in the blood, as well as the metabolic process.
If you drink cherry liquor-free vodka in small quantities every day, then this process helps to improve the composition of gastric juice, as well as stabilizing the level of appetite in humans. In this case, food will be much better absorbed.
Some immunologists claim that a modest consumption of the drink in the cold period will significantly improve the body's immunity. This is due to the fact that in the berries, on the basis of which the drink is made, there are a large number of vitamins and useful components necessary to maintain the normal functioning of the body every day.
What portion of drink is considered optimal? Doctors recommend consuming no more than 50 ml of liquor every day before meals.
Why liquor tastes different
In practice, it very often happens that, following the same technology, using the same ingredients in a precisely defined quantity, a different drink is obtained. What is the secret of this phenomenon? It is quite simple and lies in the fact that the taste of home-made cherry liquor directly depends on the quality of its main ingredient.
It should be noted that the taste of the finished product is affected by the weather conditions under which the berries ripened, in particular, the amount of rainfall - this primarily affects whether the fruits are juicy and sugar. The taste of the drink also depends not only on the variety of the berries themselves, but also on the quality and degree of purity of the water on the basis of which it was made.
Practice shows that the amount of chemical fertilizers used in the process of growing trees, as well as directly during the ripening period, negatively affects the taste of cherry filling.