Myrtle Liqueur

Myrtle Liqueur

»» Italian name: Liquore di Mirto

Cooking Recipes (Sardinia - Italy)


Ingredients:

• 300 g of myrtle berries
• 300 g of alcohol for food
• 250 g of water
• 250 g sugar

Preparation:
The pattern of home-prepared provides, in sequence, the alcoholic infusion of ripe berries to macerate in alcohol at 95 °, recovering alcoholic extract, by draining and pressing any, the addition of cold sugar syrup or sugar and honey, bottling, and finally, maturation.
There are several recipes for the preparation of Myrtle liqueur, so what follows is a description of one of the possible variations.
The freshly picked berries should be washed thoroughly to remove dust and other impurities.
The presence of leaves is not a bad thing, indeed, gives aromatic properties by virtue of the active volatile content in the leaves.
After washing the Myrtle berries are left to dry for a few days letting them lay in a thin layer to protect from dust.
Now move the berries in dark glass containers that will be filled with ethyl alcohol at 95 °.
The amount of alcohol to be used is important: alcohol is just completely submerge the berries because too much would give a poor extracted components.
The containers are left exposed to light for several days, after which should be kept in a closed throughout the period of maceration, which should last about 40 days total.
After maceration, the extract recovered by the drain berries.
With a small press can recover an additional amount of extract to increase the yield, but if you force the too pressing to obtain a liquor with distinct properties tannic, so you must choose a reasonable compromise between yield and quality.
The extract is filtered using filter paper towels.
Meanwhile, prepare a syrup by dissolving sugar in hot water an appropriate amount.
This is the most difficult step because a small error can markedly affect the organoleptic quality of the final product.
The degree of density of the syrup depends on the alcohol content and the degree of sweetening desired.
The recipes offer generally average quantities by weight composed of 300 g of berries, 300 g of alcohol and syrup obtained by dissolving 250 g sugar 250 g water, however it is more efficient to operate in volume terms by a preliminary test on a small quantity: preparing a syrup with sugar and water ratio of 1:1 and adding cold alcohol extract.
The relationship between volumetric syrup and alcohol are guidelines as follows:
to obtain an alcohol content of 30%: 65 ml of syrup added to 35 ml of extract, to obtain an alcohol content of 34%: 60 ml of syrup added to 40 ml of extract.
These statements are only policy because it would be necessary to assess accurately determine the alcohol content of alcoholic extract departure.
Anyway, once the preliminary test carried out considering the possibility of developing a more concentrated syrup, if you want a sweet liqueur, or more dilute liquor if you want a more "bitter".
The evaluation should provide that the maturation process accentuates the sweet taste because it mitigates the effect of astringent tannins.
Anyway this is very subjective evaluations related experience.
Once prepared, the liquor is transferred into the bottles.
Bottling is typically used classic Bottle 75 cl or 50 cl bottle lyric, preferably dark glass.
Before consuming the liquor is recommended that a retention of at least 1 or 2 months for ripening.
During storage may be appropriate to make a transfer or a second filtration to remove sediment, but often this is not necessary.
It is quite useless, however, try to eliminate the possible formation of flocculent suspensions reflections clear: it is a physical-chemical phenomena that can not be removed by simple filtration.