1925 Drinks Long & Short by Nina Toye and A H Adair

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Drinks—Long and Short

CILIEGE SOTTO SPIERITO (Cerises a I'eau-de-vie)

The cherries should be ripe, firm and well- flavoured. Morellos are particularly good, but anyjuicy, well-flavoured cherry will do. Cut the stems to within an inch of the fruit. Pack them without squeezing, stem upwards into glass bottles, and put amongst the cherries to each quart bottle, four whole cloves, three bitter almonds blanched,a bay leaf,and astrip oflemon peel cut so thin that no white appears. Sift a cupful of castorsugarinto each bottle,fill up with pure spirits of wine, cork and seal. The bottles should be kept for two years before using. The longer they are kept the better, up to, say, seven or eight years. SLOE GIN Take fine ripe sloes after the firstfrost. Prick each in four or five places and fill the bottles about three quarters full. Putin a strip of thinly pared lemon peel, three or four cloves and two blanched bitter almonds to each bottle. Shake in a cupful of crushed candy sugar and fill up with Plymouth gin. Two bottles of gin should fill ,three of the sloe bottles. Cork and seal. Shake the bottles by turning upside down daily for six months. At the end of a year strain off the liquor, bottle and seal. Sloe gin is im proved by keeping for a year or two before drinking.

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