Crème de Cassis Triple Threat

[NormandieStill]

OK. First of all it's more of a double threat and a bit more, but that looked rubbish in the title line.

Act One - Crème de Cassis

Ingredients:
- Cassis (blackcurrant) berries.
- 95% Neutral (or thereabouts)

1. Rinse the berries and remove any stalks or leaves. Put them in a large jar and pour over the neutral until the berries are covered. Close the jar and put it somewhere to macerate for a week (I think a couple of days may be enough, I don't see a difference after a week).
2. Pour out the maceration into a glass or stainless container through a sieve to separate the alcohol. Put the berries to one side. Measure the volume and abv of the collected liquid. The abv reading is probably not 100% accurate but should get you close enough for non-commercial use.
3. 1. Now comes the maths. If you don't want the explanation of what and why, then skip to the next step. Crème de cassis de Dijon is a controlled appellation and one of the published requirements is a minimum of 400g / litre of sugar and most commercial offerings are around 16-20% abv. I've made this at 25% abv which seems to work quite nicely but you can adjust to taste. If this was a simple dilution then we'd just add water to reach our target abv. If we didn't care about the sugar content, we could dilute with the same quantity of simple syrup. But to reach a target sugar concentration, we need to make a specific sugar solution to dilute with. Sugar dissolved in water occupies about half it's weight in volume. In real terms 1kg of sugar dissolved in water takes up about 500ml of space. So if you dissolve 1kg of sugar in 1 litre of water you get 1.5 litres of simple sugar.
      Let's use a worked example. Imagine we recover 800ml of alcohol at 65%. First we work out how much volume we need to add to our collected maceration to reach our target abv. Total alcohol = 800ml x 0.65 = 520ml. Target abv = 25% so total volume = 520 / 0.25 = 2.08 litres. The added volume is total volume - maceration volume = 1.28 litre.
      Now for the sugar. If we are making 2.08 litres then the total sugar content should be 400g x 2.08 = 832g sugar. We know that once dissolved that will occupy 416ml, so our recipe for the syrup is added volume - 416ml = 864ml water + 832g sugar (Which is pretty close to a simple syrup, but obviously the maths varies depending on the collected abv!)
   2. TL;DR Plug your numbers in here (volumes in ml, weights in grams)
      Total Volume = (Collected Volume x Collected abv) / Target abv
      Sugar (g) = Total Volume x 400
      Proofing Water = (Total Volume - Collected Volume) - (Sugar / 2)
4. Make a syrup using the values you just calculated. Heat the water a little in a pan and stir in the sugar. Heat and stir until the liquid is transparent. Let the syrup cool.
5. Once cooled, add the syrup to the maceration and stir well. It'll be tasty straight away, although I tend to find the syrup leaves a strange "flatness" on the tongue (ever tasted simple syrup made from beet sugar?). After 24 - 48 hours some magic happens and the flavours come together. The alcohol and sugar act to form a roundness in the mouth which coats the tongue with the fruit flavours from the berries.
6. Enjoy on ice (if you've got a sweet tooth), or pour a measure into a wine glass and top up with dry white wine (borgogne aligote is the standard) or sparkling wine.

Act Two (One and a bit?) - Distiller's Treat
This is a wholesale copy of the Panty Dropper(tm) method. Take the berries that you saved from Act One and put them in a bowl / jug / saucepan. Sprinkle some sugar over them, mixing them up a little to distribute the sugar over all the berries. Cover and leave for at least 24 hours. At the end of this period some juice will have collected. Pour this out into a container and put to one side, and sprinkle some more sugar over the berries. Repeat this until you feel that the amount of juice being extracted is not worth continuing. I find that three rounds works for me. Do not throw the berries away. At this point you have a sort of crème de cassis, but you have no idea of the abv, nor the sugar content. In my experience it tends to be slightly more intense (and maybe a little more tart) than the result of Act One, but you don't get a lot. You can either mix it back into the crème, or childishly keep it to yourself, refusing to share with anyone.

Act Three - Jam
If you have white cupboards in your kitchen. Or a white worktop. Or a white apron. Or anything white within about 2m of where you're preparing this, you might want to sign the divorce papers now! This. Will. Stain.

1. Weigh the berries that you had left over from Act Two. Per kg of berries you want to add 800g of sugar and the juice of 1 lemon (~45ml). Put them in a saucepan and heat and stir (and stir... and stir). You can crush them a little as you go. At first you won't believe that the dry mix of sugar and berries could ever simmer but it will. And when it does, turn off the heat.
2. Using a fine sieve over a pan, crush the berries with a spoon to separate the flesh from the pips and skins. If you have one of those tomato deseeding gadgets, this would be a great time to use it. Otherwise you're in for a bit of work. When you're done, you'll have a pan full of berry flesh and juice which is giving off a faint alcoholic vapour.
3. Put the pan back on the hob and start heating, and stirring (again). If you have a sugar thermometer, you're aiming for 104°C. Careful. It sneaks up on you quickly. If you don't, put some plates in the freezer before you start step 1. Then when you start to see bubbles forming on top of other bubbles, take a plate out and spoon a drop onto the plate. Let it sit for a minute and push through it with your finger. If it forms a skin and wrinkles, then it's ready to pot. Pour into sterilised jam jars, screw on their lids and wait for the satisfying popping sound as the the lids pull down under the vacuum as they cool.

If after cooling it's seems a little too liquid, either save it for putting on ice cream, or reheat it and try again. There's no alcohol left by this point so you can share it with your kids. And it's amazing how much flavour is left in the berries after the maceration.

[The Booze Pipe]

Looks fantastic thanks for the write up! We use crème de cassis in cocktail’s, especially with bourbon for the Renewal. Macerating in neutral at 95% seems a little high. Would it work as well at a lower proof like 60%?

[NormandieStill]

I've tried both. In my experience you lose about 30% abv to the water in the berries so if you start with 95% you end up with about 65%. Starting with 60% you get about 30% by which point you're just adding sugar and no water to proof down. The flavour seems a little more bitter at the lower abv although it's not a good comparison because the berries were from different sources.

[MooseMan]

Wow thanks for the comprehensive write up NS!

Have you tried substituting with Blackberries?
If so how do they compare?

I pick many kilos of these every year for hedgerow reds, and I sometimes have to buy some black currant to make up my ratios, so if I can get a decent result using Blackberries I'm onto a winner.

[NormandieStill]

Have you tried substituting with Blackberries?
If so how do they compare?

I pick many kilos of these every year for hedgerow reds, and I sometimes have to buy some black currant to make up my ratios, so if I can get a decent result using Blackberries I'm onto a winner.

I started with blackberries but the wild ones growing around my house don't make great berries. I used exactly the same method as described here.

Not tried blackberry wine. I have a sloe wine which is drinkable young and one remaining bottle of 4 year old elderberry which might finally be coming of age. I'm a little scared to find out in case it's really good and I have to wait another 4 years to get some more!

[amh71]

Thanks, definitely on the list to try.

I do a hedgerow red that is approx 50:30:10:10 elderberry, blackberry, sloe, blackcurrant. Very disappointing in the first year, you can pick up that smell of cat piss that elder has but after 2 or 3 years is pretty good. A very small number were forgotten about in a corner of the cellar so made it to 12 years and were a decent imitation of port.

[The Booze Pipe]

I’m not even sure if we can get fresh black current berries in the States

[MooseMan]

I’m not even sure if we can get fresh black current berries in the States

Probably because they only thrive in places that are mostly cold and wet! Lol

[The Booze Pipe]

I’m not even sure if we can get fresh black current berries in the States

Probably because they only thrive in places that are mostly cold and wet! Lol

It’s cold and wet 9 months out of the year where I live. Just a quick search, and they grow like crazy here I see some fresh frozen for $10/pound.
I honestly have not seen these growing fresh in my area. 10/lb isn’t cheap.

[The Booze Pipe]

I've tried both. In my experience you lose about 30% abv to the water in the berries so if you start with 95% you end up with about 65%. Starting with 60% you get about 30% by which point you're just adding sugar and no water to proof down. The flavour seems a little more bitter at the lower abv although it's not a good comparison because the berries were from different sources.

Did you try with frozen berries? All those cells get ruptured, so you might get a better extraction, and less loss.

[tommysb]

Any idea why it's called 'Creme de cassis', when there isn't any cream in it? Creme de menthe is the same kind of thing....When I hear 'Creme de ....' my instinct would be for something a bit like Baileys or other Irish Creme type things.

[MooseMan]

Any idea why it's called 'Creme de cassis', when there isn't any cream in it? Creme de menthe is the same kind of thing....When I hear 'Creme de ....' my instinct would be for something a bit like Baileys or other Irish Creme type things.

I'm pretty sure the word creme originated from early 1800s, had a meaning different to the modern word cream.
Something to do with sugary liquids maybe?

[MooseMan]

Have you tried substituting with Blackberries?
If so how do they compare?

I pick many kilos of these every year for hedgerow reds, and I sometimes have to buy some black currant to make up my ratios, so if I can get a decent result using Blackberries I'm onto a winner.

I started with blackberries but the wild ones growing around my house don't make great berries. I used exactly the same method as described here.

Not tried blackberry wine. I have a sloe wine which is drinkable young and one remaining bottle of 4 year old elderberry which might finally be coming of age. I'm a little scared to find out in case it's really good and I have to wait another 4 years to get some more!

NS thank you for this.

I typed a fairly long worded reply earlier today regarding BlackBerry wine, but for some reason it disappeared?

Edit
Found it!

[MooseMan]

Have you tried substituting with Blackberries?
If so how do they compare?

I pick many kilos of these every year for hedgerow reds, and I sometimes have to buy some black currant to make up my ratios, so if I can get a decent result using Blackberries I'm onto a winner.

I started with blackberries but the wild ones growing around my house don't make great berries. I used exactly the same method as described here.

Not tried blackberry wine. I have a sloe wine which is drinkable young and one remaining bottle of 4 year old elderberry which might finally be coming of age. I'm a little scared to find out in case it's really good and I have to wait another 4 years to get some more!

Thank you, that's much appreciated. I will be doing this as soon as picking season starts!

Blackberry works really well in combination with elder and currant as a young red, I make literally gallons every summer, recruiting the family as my picking army.
I generally go with 75/20/5 BlackBerry/Elder/Currant depending what I have.
I reserve a couple of gallons of the wine, then when it's fermented dry I sugar feed the main bulk by dissolving a kilo at a time into some of the reserved wine, until it won't take any more, generally 15-16abv.
This makes a robust and medium bodied wine that stores very well.

As coarse as this might seem, I now have so much of it by the end of each summer that I no longer bottle more than around 6-8 gal, mainly for gifting. The rest I store in bulk and rack it into 6 gal vessels with a tap for running into a decanter as needed.
It's just too much bottling work otherwise.

[NormandieStill]

Thanks for the wine recipes. I'll have a go this year. Just need to be organised enough to pick and freeze the elderberries and blackberries when they come into season.

[Dougmatt]

I’m not even sure if we can get fresh black current berries in the States

Probably because they only thrive in places that are mostly cold and wet! Lol

Black current growth was banned in the US in the early 1900’s due to carrying a fungus called white pine blister rust which was affecting the US lumber trade. The federal ban existed until 1966 and most states have lifted their ban also. Because of that even today, very little is grown in the US and they are very hard to find. There are a few places in the US starting to grow and produce which is good to see.

We love cassis at our house, Thanks for sharing this write up and if I can ever get my hands on fresh berries, I look forward to trying this.

[NormandieStill]

We love cassis at our house, Thanks for sharing this write up and if I can ever get my hands on fresh berries, I look forward to trying this.

We've finally got our first black currant bush in the ground this year, so we'll see how it goes, but everyone says they're one of the easiest, least-demanding plants around. My first batch of berries came from a lady locally who's blackcurrant bush is now about 2m across. She gets so many that once she's picked what she wants for the year, she just invites folks to take what they want. I got about 4kg from memory! I think it'll take a few years to get that far, but if you've got a space in the garden, do consider growing some yourself... assuming you can get hold of the plant.

[The Booze Pipe]

I finally got a chance to pick some wild elderberries. I thought they might make a good substitution for the black current for creme de cassis. Thinking about which method to use... the first method described with the simple syrup or do "panty dropper" method. Any thoughts, suggestions?

[Black Bull]

Wonder if it would work wit Mulberries ?

[NZChris]

Wonder if it would work wit Mulberries ?

This method should work with any strongly flavored berry, so if you have some try them. I'm still waiting to get my first decent crop from my tree. If you have fruit, you go first and report back please.

[The Booze Pipe]

So I just completed all three acts of this liqueur with wild Elderberries! the liqueur is absolutely delicious, very fruity. And I've been making bagels, so we'll see how the jam worked out tomorrow!

I found a source for Black Currant berries, so that'll be my next go with it sometime soon.

[NormandieStill]

So I just completed all three acts of this liqueur with wild Elderberries! the liqueur is absolutely delicious, very fruity. And I've been making bagels, so we'll see how the jam worked out tomorrow!

I found a source for Black Currant berries, so that'll be my next go with it sometime soon.

Well done for going all the way!

I've got some elderberries in the freezer, I should give it a go with them. Need to make some more cassis as we're now out again.