A guest post from a friend who needed a place to share his recipe.
This recipe is based on looking at half a dozen regional
absinthe recipes. This recipe is
non-distilled for ease and legality.
Ingredients:
·
1 cup Wormwood
(grande wormwood)
·
3/4 cup Anise Seed (pimpinella anisum)
·
1/2 cup fennel (foeniculum vulgare
·
1/4 cup star anise (illicium verum)
·
1/2 cup hyssop (hyssopus officinalis)
·
3/4 cup peppermint (menta piperita)
·
1/4 cup angelica root (angelica archangelica)
·
1/4 cup calamus root (acorus calamus)
·
750 ml Ever clear
Directions:
·
Put wormwood, anise seed, and fennel in a large
glass jar with lid. I use 1/2 gallon
mason jars.
·
Add Everclear.
·
Stir herbs in jar every day for 2 weeks. By stir
I mean invert jar so that the herbs mix in the alcohol.
·
Strain out herbs. Use a jelly strainer, wine press, cheese
cloth and strainer, whatever you have.
Try and squeeze out as much of the liquid as possible, or let sit overnight
in jelly strainer.
·
Add the rest of the herbs and let sit for 2 more
weeks. Again, stir jar every day.
·
After two weeks strain again and store in
bottle. Store in cool, dry, place out of
direct sunlight.
·
This batch gives a very strong liquesce flavor
and scent. Most other notes are
subtle. The aftertaste is bitter, but
not overwhelming. Next batch I will use
less star anise (or omit it completely) and either increase the peppermint or
add wintergreen. Every time I drink it I
think it would be great with root beer, which made me think of using the
wintergreen.
Notes:
·
The green color comes primarily from the wormwood,
peppermint, and fennel.
·
The first group of herbs added is called the Maceration. Traditionally it was done with wine and then
distilled. The remaining herbs would
then be added, called the Finish. In
this recipe I follow this same procedure due to space limitations.
·
The three main ingredients of absinthe are
wormwood, anise, and fennel. They are
often referred to as the “Holy Trinity”.
·
Common taste/aroma/color enhancing herbs are
calamus, star anise, hyssop, angelica, coriander, Melissa, chamomile, roman
wormwood, mint, juniper and cardamom.
·
Wormwood wine dates back to Roman times.
·
Do not confuse Grand Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
with Common Wormwood (petite, mugwort, roman wormwood).
·
Thujone is the active constituent found in
wormwood. It is responsible for the
“absinthe effect”. Grand wormwood has a
much higher concentration than petite wormwood.
·
The anise is responsible for the louche effect
(clouding). It is caused by interaction
of the oil dissolved in high-proof alcohol, and the addition of sugar and ice water. A louche effect is
one of the markers to look for in “good” absinthe. It is also responsible for the appearance of ouzo.
·
Anise contains anethole, which contributes
to the absinthe effect.
·
Fennel also contains anethole.
·
Each of the herbs.
How to serve absinthe (French Method):
1.
Mix 1 part absinthe to 5 parts water (3 parts if
you don’t mind the taste). Put one shot
of absinthe in glass.
2.
Place tea strainer or absinthe spoon over
glass. Add sugar cubes as desired.
3.
Slowly pour water over sugar.
4.
Enjoy!
NOTE: Enjoy responsibly, and carefully. While the dangers of absinthe consumption are greatly exaggerated (it was partly political maneuvering, originally), the thujone content of individual harvests of wormwood can vary greatly, along with the extraction rate--meaning when you use wormwood at home, you cannot predict the amount of thujone in the finished product. --- Dun Gleanne
©
Dustin Shull, 2015. The Author of this work retains full copyright for this
material. The recipes, photographs and
other contents therein may not be used for any commercial purposes.
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