CREME DE CASSIS OR CREME DE MURES

CREME DE CASSIS OR CREME DE MURES image

Yield 1 L or so.

Number Of Ingredients 3

For the black/red current liqueur: 1 L of "Eau-de-Vie" (Water of life). Which is, in effect, a very strong white alcohol to put the fruit in; at 40% or more. You can use Vodka if you can't get Eau-de-Vie. 5-7 cups of black (or red) current berries. If you can't get those, then get blackberries (Creme de Mures).
1 kg of Sugar
If you make the blackberry liqueur instead you'll also need about 1/4 L of water, and 500 grams of blackberries per 1/2 L of alcohol, and 350 grams of sugar.

Steps:

Cut and mash the black-current berries and place them in a bottle filled to the top with the alcohol. Let sit 3 months. (Black currents can be bought in July, so, leave until October). In October put the current and alcohol mix into a large pan and bring to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn it off. Now filter the current alcohol/juice to remove the berry bits. For about every Liter of strained current alcohol/juice you'll add about 3-4 cups of sugar and another cup of eau-de-vie (or vodka). Combine this all in a sauce pan and warm until the sugar dissolves. Then put into jars and let sit. You could drink the creme de cassis (blackcurrent) now...but... the longer it ages the better it gets. For blackberries you crush the berries and put in the eau-de-vie for 24 hours: 1/2 L alcohol per 500 grams of blackberries. Then strain to remove the blackberries, keep them and the alcohol. Take the fruit and now put them in 1/4 L water for 24 hours. Again strain out the fruit. Now mix the blackberry water and the sugar (350 grams of sugar to 1/4 L of blackberry water). Now mix the sugar/blackberry-water and alcohol all together. Filter and put it in bottles. It's ready to drink, though letting it age a bit only makes it better.