Over the Christmas break, I decided to decant all of the bitters that were quietly infusing in their mason jars. If you’ll remember, I had started out with a bunch of stuff that I though would work, and submerged the whole works in overproof Canadian Whisky.
Over the next day or so, all of the dried ingredients, including the dried cherries, absorbed lots of the liquid, and easily doubled in volume. For reference, this is a 1 L mason jar. I didn’t do much over the next 10 days except shake it, and after the 10 days, I changed my plans. I was originally going to take out all of the bittering ingredients, and macerate in more dried cherries, but, after tasting it along the way, I decided it had developed a nice cherry flavour, so at Day 10, I poked in 1/2 a vanilla bean, and 1 3-inch stick of cinnamon (the genuine article, not cassia bark!), and let it sit for another 3 days.
I also decided at that point that plenty of the natural sweetness of the cherries was present in the bitters (it also added a nice viscosity to the final product!), so no need to do anything more but wait!
After another 3 days of infusing, I decanted the lot, taking out the solids. I decided to strain the bitters in two steps — first, straining through a coffee filter:
And then I strained a second time through a Brita filter. when you do this, make sure your filter is cleaned out, soaked, but any residual water shaken out of the charcoal filter.
This is what is left — for reference, this is a 500 ml mason jar, and the final yield was double what you see here
Real Food Made Easy Cherry Bitters
- 7 0z. dried, unsweetened cherries
- 0.5 oz. dried lemon peel
- 1 T dried cherry bark
- 1 T wormwood
- 5 cloves
- 1 tsp licorice root
- 1 oz. fresh ginger, sliced
- 650 ml 100 proof whisky (I used Canadian Club)
let sit for 10 days, shaking daily. After 10 days, add the following, and let sit for 3 more days:
- 1/2 vanilla pod, split
- 1 3-inch dried cinnamon stick
Decant the bitters, and strain through a coffee filter to remove all the particles.
So now you have your bitters, go enjoy them in a Manhattan! 2 oz. Rye, 1 oz. Sweet Vermouth, 3 dashes of your tasty cherry bitters. This is best with Rye or Canadian Whisky — not Bourbon.
