Recipes From Boireau's "Traitement Pratique des Vins" (1876)

Sweetened spirits with various flavors

Moderator: Site Moderator

Post Reply
NormandieStill
Distiller
Posts: 2075
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:17 pm
Location: Northwest France

Recipes From Boireau's "Traitement Pratique des Vins" (1876)

Post by NormandieStill »

I found these recipes while looking for a history of distillation in France. I've tried to copy out the index, but this seems to be one part of the book that has not been OCRed. So please find below the five pages of the index to the list of recipes. I'll be translating and adding below a few of these that interest me, but if anyone sees anything that they are interested in, just let me know (By PM maybe to avoid cluttering the thread too much), and I'll copy it out here and provide a translation. Those I've looked at have been for large production quantities, so recipe scaling will be left as an exercise for the reader.
Index-Liqueurs-1.png
The majority of this is the description of basic techniques and equipment for extraction, infusion and distillation. The final few entries are non-distilled infusions and some distilled infusions of flowers.

For the rest, please see my brief dictionary of useful French at the bottom of this entry. Google translate will get you any others. A lot of the drinks themselves have the same names today as they had in the late 19th century!
Index-Liqueurs-2.png
Index-Liqueurs-3.png
Index-Liqueurs-4.png
Index-Liqueurs-5.png

Glossary
Abricot - Apricot (Admit it... you didn't need my help for that one!)
Cannelle - Cinnamon
Cassis - Blackcurrant
Coing - Quince
Eaux - Water
Feuille - Leaf
Framboise - Raspberry
Girofle - Clove
Huiles essentiels - Essential oils
Merise - Cherry (Cerise in modern French)
Miel - Honey
Noix - Walnut
Prune - Plum
Teinture - Tincture
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo

A little spoon feeding *For New & Novice Distillers
NormandieStill
Distiller
Posts: 2075
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:17 pm
Location: Northwest France

Re: Recipes From Boireau's "Traitement Pratique des Vins" (1876)

Post by NormandieStill »

So a first one, which is extraction from blackcurrants:
Infusion de cassis. — Infusion de cassis vierge : On choisit les fruits bien mûrs, on les jette dans un fût sans les écraser et on les couvre avec des eaux-de-vie de vin à 60°. Après quinze jours d'infusion, on soutire le liquide clair que l’on met à part et qui forme l’infusion vierge. On retire le mare du fût, on le foule et l'écrase complètement, puis on le remet dans la futaille et l’on y verse de l’eau-de-vie à 50°, une quantité égale à la première infusion. Après avoir bien remué, on laisse en repos quinze jours et on soutire : on obtient ainsi l'infusion deuxième ; on verse alors dans le fût une quantité toujours égale d'eau-de-vie à 45°, et on agite le marc complètement et à plusieurs reprises; on laisse macérer encore un mois, en remuant de temps en temps, et on soutire de nouveau. On achève enfin d'épuiser le mare en le soumettant à la presse et en distillant les marcs ou leurs eaux de lavage.
Blackcurrant infusion: Choose well ripened fruits, put them into a barrel without crushing them and cover them with grape brandy at 60%. After 15 days of infusing, draw off the clear liquid which is the virgin <in the sense of extra-virgin olive oil> infusion.
Remove the berries from the barrel and crush them completely, then put them back into the barrel and add brandy at 50% of the same volume as the first infusion. After mixing well, leave for 15 days and then draw off the liquid. This is the second infusion.
Now add the same volume again of brandy at 45% and stir frequently. Leave to macerate for a month, mixing occasionally and draw of the liquid again. We can finally extract the last of the flavours and alcohol by pressing and distilling the left-overs.
Cassis. — La liqueur de cassis est le produit de l'infusion alcoolique du fruit, à laquelle on ajoute quelques litres d'infusion alcoolique de framboises afin de lui donner un parfum plus prononcé. Nous avons parlé en détail des infusions diverses des fruits. Certains liquoristes, dans le but d'employer une moindre quantité d’infusion première, y ajoutent des infusions de feuilles de cassis, de girofle, de la cannelle, des couleurs rouges artificielles. On ne peut obtenir ainsi qu’un ratafia commun; on ne devrait employer que l’eau distillée des feuilles de cassis pour augmenter l'arome des cassis communs, parce que l'infusion directe des feuilles avec le fruit donne une saveur peu agréable.
Crème de cassis. — Surfine :
Infusion vierge de cassis. 5 litres
Infusion alcoolique de framboises 1
Sucre raffiné 5 kilog., ou sirop concentré 4
TOTAL
Produit, 10 litres; alcool, 30 pour 100 en moyenne ;
sucre, 500 grammes.
Blackcurrants (Cassis) - Blackcurrant liqueur is the product of an alcoholic infusion of the fruit, to which we add a few litres of alcholic infusion of raspberries in order to give a more pronounced nose. We have talked in detail about various fruit infusions. Certain liquorists, in the goal of using a smaller quantity of the first infusion, add infusions of blackcurrant leaves, cloves, cinnamon, artificial red colouring. Doing that will only make a common ratafia; one should only use distilled waters of blackcurrant leaves to augment the nose of blackcurrants, because the direct infusion of the leaves gives a disagreable flavour.

Creme de cassis
Virgin infusion of blackcurrants - 5 litres
Alcoholic infusion of raspberries - 1 litre
Refined sugar 5kg or 4 litres of concentrated syrup
Produces 10 litres; alcohol 30% on average.
Sugar, 500g per litre.
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo

A little spoon feeding *For New & Novice Distillers
NormandieStill
Distiller
Posts: 2075
Joined: Wed Dec 30, 2020 10:17 pm
Location: Northwest France

Re: Recipes From Boireau's "Traitement Pratique des Vins" (1876)

Post by NormandieStill »

Requested - Recipes relating to raspberries (framboises)
Fraises, framboises. — Ces deux fruits, ainsi que les cerises, les merises, peuvent se conserver par infusions alcooliques, et entrer en diverses proportions dans la composition des ratafias et des marasquins. Les fraises et les framboises donnent aux liqueurs de fruits un arome très délicat; la framboise a des emplois multiples ; elle entre sous forme d'esprit, ou même de simple infusion, dans un grand nombre de liqueurs de table, à part les ratafias ; infusée avec le double de son poids de bon vinaigre, elle sert à la préparation des sirops de groseille, framboise, etc.
Translation - Strawberries, raspberries - These two fruits, as well as cherries can be preserved by acoholic infusion, and used in varied proportions in the composition of ratafias and marasquins. Strawberries and raspberries add a delicate aroma to fruit liqueurs; raspberries have multiple uses; in the form of an esprit or just a simple infusion in a large number of liqueurs, aside from ratafias; infused with twice their weight of good vinegar, they serve for preparing cordials of raspberry, currants, etc.

Notes:
The book talks about "esprits" (lit. spirits). These are redistilled infusions, what we commonly refer to here using the german word geist. The author promises more details in Tome II, but in this book they recommend making them with 10kg of fruit per 20 litres of alcohol at 86%. Letting them infuse for a day, then adding 10 litres of water and distilling in a bain-marie still, or with a false bottom. For flower or leaf geist, they recommend 5kg per 20 litres.

Some searching brought Tome II where they provide the following recipe for a raspberry infusion:
10kg of fruit
12 litres of alcohol at 85%
Macerate for 20 days, then draw off the liquid and filter. This is your first or virgin infusion.
Crush the fruit and macerate for a month in 12 litres of 50%.
Press and filter to obtain a second infusion of lower quality, or distill in a bain-marie to obtain a geist.

This is the raspberry infusion that is called for in the Creme de cassis recipe I posted earlier
"I have a potstill that smears like a fresh plowed coon on the highway" - Jimbo

A little spoon feeding *For New & Novice Distillers
Post Reply