Fortified wine with added extractmedicinal herbs, spices, alpine wormwood traditionally called vermouth. In general, the word itself, if translated from German, means "wormwood". Of course, you can buy this very popular in the people's drink (not to be confused with the Soviet version of the hellish bolnogolovnoy mixture) and in any nearest supermarket. But the real and the right one, he will draw on a good penny, as imported. Fortunately, there is a recipe for vermouth at home, and not just one! In addition, people who love everything home and natural, it will be interesting to cook it with your own hands. Well, shall we try the recipe of vermouth at home? And then with great pleasure we'll have a homemade and delicious drink.
Unlike home absinthe in this fortifieddrink will not wormwood bitter, one that with an increased content of thujone, but the lighter her relative that grows in the meadows in Western Europe is Alpine. She has a major role in the matter of how to make vermouth at home, and in some varieties of this alcohol, her concentration in the total mass of the ingredients can reach 50 percent.
In addition to wormwood manufacturers of world famousbrands can add to this drink about 200 different spices with herbs. Undoubtedly, the exact recipe by firms is always kept in the strictest secrecy. But the main ones are known: yarrow with mint, cinnamon with cardamom, black elderberry with nutmeg. Also in vermouth you can find a cinchona tree (bark), a woodpecker and tansy, as well as a shandra that gives characteristic bitterness. And a zest of lemons, an immortelle with St. John's wort, juniper (berries), rosemary and lemon balm, lemon grass and chamomile. Here is a rather complicated composition of vermouth drink.
There is an opinion that the product of thisalcohol put his hand (and then surely he himself was applied to it) the well-known physician Hippocrates. The first large-scale production was established in 1786 in Turin Antonio Carpano. And since then this drink has won many hearts and countries, being very popular both in its pure form and as a component for a variety of cocktails. Almost all the vermouths that have gained worldwide fame are produced in Italy, in the traditional homeland of this drink. Martini and Campari, Cinzano and some others. The French also release it and drink with great pleasure.
First of all, advice:to get electronic (accurate) weights if you are going to prepare this drink constantly and with your own hand, since the weight of herbs and spices is relied on in scanty small amounts, sometimes even less than one gram. The first and most popular recipe for vermouth at home is a separate preparation of essences of herbs with spices and separately - fixing the wine material, to which we later add a herbal decoction.
The amount is indicated for one liter of essence,prepared by soaking in alcohol (maceration). We will need (in grams): wormwood - 30, thyme - 10, tarhun - 1, elderberry - 6, coriander - 2, lemon and orange peel - 2, peppermint - 5, nutmeg - 5, fennel - 1, elecampane - 1, rosemary, cinnamon, yarrow, dog rose, St. John's wort - 5, ginger, cloves, chamomile, ayr, vanilla - 3. You need 75% alcohol - less than a liter. We begin to cook vermouth at home. The recipe for the essence is as follows. All of the above ingredients are stacked arbitrarily in a jar with a capacity of one liter and poured to the top with ethyl alcohol. A little shake and leave to insist (need about 3 weeks) in a not too warm, but a dark place (a closet or a basement is suitable). It is necessary to stir the composition periodically. Very important, we repeat, wormwood. We use only its inflorescence, the upper leaves. In no case are the stems - they will add unnecessary bitterness.
After 21 days of infusion, the mixture will need to befilter through folded gauze and squeeze well. You can even drive through a filter of cotton wool. We will no longer need grasses, but they can be safely sent to a distillation cube to flavor moonshine (meaning the second distillation). Next, take a liter of dry wine and add in it 65 milliliters of alcohol, but already 95 degrees - in this way fixing it (if possible, use grape alcohols, for example, home-made strong grappa, chacha). In the next stage we will weld a syrup from 120 grams of sugar plus 60 milliliters of purified water: only heat and dilute in water the sweetness until it dissolves completely (you can not boil it). The cooled syrup is added to alcohol fixed with alcohol. We inject 5 milliliters of prepared essences (it is most convenient to measure with a conventional medical syringe, some researchers from Bacchus add more of the essence, but we already act according to our own taste: this ingredient is permissible to be increased by almost half. The resulting vermouth remains poured over glass twist bottles (0.5-1 liter), tightly closed and set aside in a non-warm place to insist. It will be enough to wait one month, but better Do not suffer two - for these days the taste is balanced and will become a wonderful and fragrant flavor bouquet.
In fact, for home cooking likedrinks used to use only white and dry wines, but recently appeared the Catalan style, which assumes the basis - a red semisweet wine. In the above recipe, dry, neutral white is recommended for use, and if the sweetness is insufficient, then just add a little more syrup. Of course, dry vermouth will not like everyone, but only, according to tradition, it will be suitable for cocktails, such as Dry Martini.
Traditional classic "Dry martini"is prepared simply: one part of the vermouth and six pieces of gin. By the way, many famous people adored this cocktail. For example, Winston Churchill. And Nixon, one of the US presidents, loved "hot": that is, more gin - 6-7 servings. And during the famous dry law in America, Dry Martini prepared 2 to 1 in order to save precious gin. So, in a glass for mixing we insert a bar spoon and we cover ice. Pour the two ingredients and stir in a circular rotation. We strain the obtained drink into the boiler glass through the strainer. We decorate with olive on a skewer or twist of lemon peel. "Dry martini" is supposed to drink in a few sips (and you can prepare the next serving).
