Sunday, June 8, 2014

Strawberry Rum. A summer after dinner shot or a curious cocktail


 
Summer is here, the trees and gardens are groaning with fruit.  Are you fed up with making jam and chutney, I am?  Then try this amazing and easy to make brew.


 
 
In my local supermarket in Ibiza the price of strawberries is staggeringly little!  €1.50 for 500g of strawberries and 37.5% ABV, cheap white rum is coming in at just €9.50 per litre.  It would be rude not to put them to good use!

Ingredients

·         1kg Strawberries (You can even use overripe, but not mouldy ones)

·         1kg granulated sugar

·         1.5l cheap white rum

Method

·         Remove the ‘hulls’ and cut the strawberries into halves, smaller for big berries.  Don’t worry about a bit of dust on the fruit.  The alcohol will kill any bugs and it will settle to the bottom and be decanted out when you the finish making the product

·         Put the cut fruit into a large preserving jar as in the photograph

·         Pour in the sugar

·         Pour in the rum

·         Shake well, immediately and then intermittently until the sugar dissolves in the rum/fruit juice mixture.

·         Put the jar in a cool dark cupboard

·         Shake the jar daily for a week

·         After a week, leave the jar alone for a month or so, longer if you have the patience. The fruit will gradually settle to the bottom of the jar.

·         When you are happy that no more flavour can be extracted, strain the fruit from the rum.

·         Finally return the strained rum into a clean, second, preserving jar.  Add the whipped up whites of two eggs to the part finished rum, stir well and watch as bits of fruit pulp and “stuff” flocculates (settles) to the bottom of the jar.

·         Allow the settling process to continue for about a week, or until the rum above is brilliantly clear.

·         Carefully decant the clear rum into clean jugs without disturbing the “goo,” in winemakers speak these are called the ‘lees,’ on the jar bottom.

·         Finally bottle the finished rum in clean, clear, used white wine bottles and seal them with plastic ‘corks.’

·         Label and date the bottles.

·         Put one in the fridge ready to drink, store others on their sides in a wine rack.

Drinking

·         Either

·         Any time - Drink iced as a shot after dinner

·         Summer - Pour over ice, add a good sprig of mint, a slice of orange and mix 50:50 with soda water or fizzy lemonade.

NB‘s

·         More lees will appear, try to pour drinks without disturbing them, they’ll do you no harm – it just doesn’t look good to serve a cloudy drink (Unless of course it is bottled Worthington’s White Label IPA!)

·         You can use many different kinds of fruit to make similar brews.  Limoncello is made from lemons in a similar way (use the zest and the juice, not the pith) and works very well.  Apricots are good too, although the flavour is more delicate.

·         I’ve tried to reuse the strawberries filtered from the jar, but find that they have little or no flavour.

·         The decanted lees, both first and second pouring, can be saved and used when/if a cake mix calls for booze to be added!

1 comment:

  1. Hola! I've just nominated you for a Liebster Award - you can find out what it means and what the rules are here: http://osyth.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/id-like-to-dedicate-this-award-to/ :)

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