Discuss - whole fruits/finished liquor?

[distiller_dresden]

So I have opened a can of worms in my head with creativity and it got me wondering. Not only what whole fruits macerate, because of skin and what not (not withstanding vessel size and alcohol amount as considerations), but are there any that the seeds/nut/pits might be toxic?

So obviously the berry/apple/pear family is already in; I'm macerating some apples and pears in apple brandy as we speak.

This weekend I'm going to be shopping to later next week begin whole fruit maceration of my 'juicyfruit' brandy made with blueberries, mangoes, black cherries, and pear juice concentrate. This led me down the well to begin with. My thoughts are including an asian pear, a bosc pear, a honey mango, a red mango, and a 1/2lb of ranier cherries (to keep the color light/not darken my brandy). My only thoughts on mangoes are, well as with any fruits doing this with, if you have options of varieties, get the most firm varietal available. THEN get the least RIPE selection you can in the store, so the mangoes I choose will be the firm ones, not the super soft ones, as they will get REALLY soft, as have my Fuji apples in the brandy that started off really really firm when I put them in (they still haven't sank though, and I don't think they ever will).

I put an asian pear in my apple brandy, 1 (to 4 Fuji apples) and it sank immediately, so I think 'sink or swim' has something to do with fruit density and weight compared to the alcohol gravity -- not the 'brix' gravity, the liquid gravity/density. Wonder what a mango will do - but could use thoughts on red mangoes, should I just get two honey mangoes?

I'm not worried about the honey mango, but what about the red mango; is the skin too thick - will it macerate/soak up eventually? Is there anything bitter/toxic/foul in the nut/pit?
And what about the cherries - I seem to have something in my brain about small amounts of cyanide in cherry pits, is that true?

And to further the discussion (with thanks to CatCrap - this one's all you buddy!) whole maceration - PINEAPPLE! Would that work? Is the skin too hearty? How freaking AMAZING would that look, though? I have these awesome 2.5 gallon barrel glass jugs that could do it...

I think you'd want to not do bananas, they would brown up I think, and possibly mush through the skin after it broke down with jostling the bottle. Plums/most stone fruit would work fine, and probably be great as they'd get the bitterness of the skin too.


So - other options - go nuts, this is a whole crazy thing, what fruits aren't we even ever imagining?? Who is going to macerate the first whole breadfruit in some liquor??

What about papaya?

[panikry83]

As long as it has sugar in it, yeast'll turn it to alcohol. Have to break though the skin tho and macerate it. Otherwise, it'll take a few season to break down enough, and by that time it'll be rotten.

[distiller_dresden]

No I'm not talking about fermenting; I'm talking about flavoring/appearance/presentation, as in this:
Calvados Pays Auge Pomme Prisonniere

Fruit into your finished spirit as an added flavor boost/presentation piece.

I have a gallon of apple brandy, which had some pear juice concentrate in the mash, which has 4 Fuij apples and 1 Asian pear macerating whole in it while it ages off until the fall. When I 'bottle' it, into quart jars, then each jar will get one apple and a fourth of pear.

[distiller_dresden]

Just to clarify I changed the title to whole fruits/finished liquor from, "whole fruits that macerate." The use of maceration I'm interested here is as in, "In food preparation, maceration is softening or breaking into pieces using a liquid. Raw, dried or preserved fruit or vegetables are soaked in a liquid to soften the food and/or absorb the flavor of the liquid into the food."

In this usage we're putting whole fruits into finished spirits, whatever proof you've gotten your spirit down to for imbibing, and then you put fruit of your choosing into it for aging/presentation or both and the liquor will inundate the fruit over some time, and in turn the fruit will share it's essence with the spirit. Typically you'd leave the fruit in, and if an option you'd refill the container with the chosen spirit to keep up that added effect it's being given by the added fruit maceration. Or, once finished you can also come up with a great culinary use for the whole fruit, some kind of wonderful delicate dessert like in the case of my pear and apples in the brandy, something with caramel and heavy cream or ice cream, or maybe creme brulee (mmmmmMMMM).

Or you can just slice up the fruit once the liquor is all gone and eat the slices with friends and catch a wicked buzz that way lol.

But the spirit of the post is to hopefully get ideas from everyone else if you've done this with fruits, what you've used and what you've put it in, or what fruits we might not be thinking of that it could be possible with.

[distiller_dresden]

So my latest usage is in a gallon (proofed down) of my 'juicyfruit' brandy, which was originally mashed in as mango, black cherry, blueberry, (-whole fruits) and then pear juice concentrate. Copying the apple in a bottle idea, which yields about 19-20oz of brandy, I figured 6 bottles (wide mouth quart jars) when I DO bottle it. So right now in a big 2.5 gallon glass barrel jar I have the gallon of brandy, 2 Bosc pears, 1 Asian pear, 3 Honey mangoes, and 3/4 lb of Rainier cherries. I didn't use black cherries because I didn't want to darken/lose the beautiful amber color I got from aging it on Japanese maple and sugar maple dominoes, as well as some used light toast French oak cubes, and a used med toast American oak domino.

It's been two weeks on fruit now, I haven't tested it yet, curious how it's developed as the fruit should be mostly soaked, though nowhere near fully developed how it will into the brandy.

My other project is 90 oz of apply brandy that was mashed in with some pear juice concentrate and all apple cider/some juice, with 4 Fuji apples and 1 Asian pear. That's been about 6 weeks on fruit now.