My first 'Cointreau'

[Garouda]

Initially, I wanted to make ‘my first Rum’ from a molasses plus brown sugar cane wash.
Surprisingly, I got a lot of neutral and made Gin (a friend of mine, a connoisseur from London, loves it), some Pastis and here, some Cointreau.
There's also some Rum ageing on oak with a piece of tamarind charcoal.
The recipe is simple, one orange for half a litre of neutral. I used neutral @ 94% ABV.
-Suspend the orange above the alcohol, we used a small kitchen string. For the first two jars, my wife made knots, for the last one I made a needle from an old umbrella baleen and passed the string under the peel.

In each jar I got one litre of alcohol, in the first jar there were two oranges, four in the second and six in the last depending upon the size of the fruits.
Those are organic fruits from our orchard, and I took what was remaining, the season was finished ! I placed the jars in a wardrobe and the alcohol got a nice orange hue. I could get it clear using some active coal, but who cares...

-Leave it for about three weeks and add a syrup.
To make the syrup, for one litre of syrup, bring to boil 666 ml of water with 666g. of sugar.
After cooling, mix it to the alcohol. The end result was not very ‘clear’, anyway, drinking it ‘on the rocks’ will cause some ‘louching’ like for a Pastis, but not so strong.
The taste is great !

Cheers !

[bunny]

That looks pretty good.
Thanks for showing what to do with the liquid in the jar.

I did something similar but without any real planning.
I stuffed 6 or so clementines tight into a quart mason jar and filled with 96.5.
It sucked the color out of the skins almost instantly.
I left them a couple of days and then pulled out one of the clementines.
It was the best I had ever eaten.
As the days pasted the clementines escaped the jar so I eventually just refilled it with more clementines.
Interestingly the proof of the liquid in the jar dropped like a stone.
I'm sure I mixed it with something so as not to waste it, but I can't remember what.

[Garouda]

That looks pretty good.
Thanks for showing what to do with the liquid in the jar.

My pleasure, that's the purpose, sharing experience.

It was the best I had ever eaten.

Frankly speaking, the oranges were very juicy with a nice smell... I did not dare eating one because of the methanol, those fruits do have a lot of pectin.
I guess the amount of methanol would have been harmless anyway. Thanks for sharing, next time, I'll give it a try.

[Tummydoc]

That looks pretty good.
Thanks for showing what to do with the liquid in the jar.

My pleasure, that's the purpose, sharing experience.

It was the best I had ever eaten.

Frankly speaking, the oranges were very juicy with a nice smell... I did not dare eating one because of the methanol, those fruits do have a lot of pectin.
I guess the amount of methanol would have been harmless anyway. Thanks for sharing, next time, I'll give it a try.

Methanol is a fermentation product of pectin. You arent going to form it from maceration or vapor infusion.

[Setsumi]

That looks pretty good.
Thanks for showing what to do with the liquid in the jar.

My pleasure, that's the purpose, sharing experience.

It was the best I had ever eaten.

Frankly speaking, the oranges were very juicy with a nice smell... I did not dare eating one because of the methanol, those fruits do have a lot of pectin.
I guess the amount of methanol would have been harmless anyway. Thanks for sharing, next time, I'll give it a try.

Methanol is a fermentation product of pectin. You arent going to form it from maceration or vapor infusion.

+1 on Tummydoc. You should have eaten them.

[Garouda]

Methanol is a fermentation product of pectin. You aren't going to form it from maceration or vapour infusion.

This is not quite correct, I'm afraid. Methanol isn't a fermentation congener but comes from an enzymatic action (Pectinesterase) and you can even find some in your orange juice...
Pectinesterase (enzymes) cleaves methyl alcohol from the methylated polygalacturonic acid and is responsible for the undesired methyl alcohol content of fruit brandies. For the same reason, grain spirits, or molasses and sugar washes won't produce methanol. (sugar cane may have some pectins, 0.2%, which is not relevant here).
And as I wrote in my post, next time, I'll try one, or its juice...

[Demy]

I did that liqueur sometimes, it's very good. It is more delicate than a simple maceration of the skins. Many recipes plan to insert cloves on the surface

[Yummyrum]

And as I wrote in my post, next time, I'll try one, or its juice...

I wouldn’t bother . I’ve done this quite a fee times now and I find when I cut the Orange open ,it is a strange brown colour inside and didn’t taste very nice at all despite the liqueur tasting amazing .

However , I use a slightly different method and use sugar syrup at 40% abv . Then I don’t loose flavour diluting down from 95%

[Garouda]

I did that liqueur sometimes, it's very good. It is more delicate than a simple maceration of the skins. Many recipes plan to insert cloves on the surface

Indeed, I read this somewhere. I may try one half litre bottle only next time as I fear the clove strong flavour. Thanks for reminding.

[Garouda]

And as I wrote in my post, next time, I'll try one, or its juice...

I wouldn’t bother. I’ve done this quite a fee times now, and I find when I cut the Orange open, it is a strange brown colour inside and didn’t taste very nice at all despite the liqueur tasting amazing.

In fact, I found the recipe on a French website, and they explained they throw the oranges on their compost afterwards because all the goodies inside were gone.

However, I use a slightly different method and use sugar syrup at 40% ABV. Then I don’t lose flavour, diluting down from 95%

You're right, ⁣ mine is a bit on the strong side... My wife does not drink any alcohol and I got three two-litre bottles, so I just used available containers. I only have to refrain from taking too much of it...