I am subscribed to the Townsends YouTube channel, sometimes it’s interesting historical accounts or how to videos. Other times it has 18th century recipes, which we occasionally make. The one for Pan-Fried Pork Chops in Gravy and Chicken Wings are so good they have become regular meals for us.
Another one that piqued my interest was Cherry Bounce, because I love cherry pie, cherry coke, and Cheerwine. I decided that I wanted to make it and in late July, I was in Baltimore for work so we took a drive to Butler’s Orchard. In the video, he uses sour cherries and I missed that season by a couple weeks, so I ended up buying 4 qts of sweet cherries.
It took me awhile to figure out a good system for juice extraction. First, I tried to push them through our colander.
Waste of time
Then I tried to rub them against a wire strainer and that didn’t work either.
Finally I squeezed them through a tea towel by twisting it.
3rd attempt
While I was doing this, Daisy was eagerly grabbing any cherry bits I dropped.
Daisy the Australian Shepard
Our other dog, Smoke would pick up a piece and then spit it out, then look confused because obviously we were giving Daisy something good and him garbage.(this is the same dog that would tear apart a sandwich and leave the lettuce and tomato on the ground for Daisy)
Smoke, the late great Huskimo
I got around 6 1/2 cups of juice from the cherries and from this I separated 1 1/2 cups that I simmered for 5 minutes with few chunks of nutmeg, 1 cinnamon stick, and 2 cloves.
Once this cooled down, I strained it back into the rest of the juice.
In the video, he says to use a cup to a cup and a half of sugar, but because I used sweet cherries, I added a 1/2 cup sugar and it tasted sweet enough to me.
Then I added 1 1/2 cups of Laird’s Apple Brandy and put it into canning jars with a paper towel as the lid.
Only got 4 jars worth.
Then I put it on the top shelf of my pantry for 2 months and put a real lid on them and put them in the fridge.
When I drank it, it wasn’t as strong as I was hoping, but it tasted amazing. It was like drinking a cherry pie.
While I really liked it, considering the expense, time, and effort required, I’m not sure I will make this again.
I say that now, but if I happen to be near an orchard in cherry season, I might change my mind.
I do have a couple questions for the professional home brewers out there.
He said that you have to use fresh cherries and then let it breathe so that it can ferment, but wouldn’t the brandy kill off the yeast?
Is there anything I should have done better or differently?
This was my first time making any drink like this, the only other batch drink I make is Alton Brown’s Aged Eggnog. If you’ve never made that, you’re missing out.
Neat article, thanks. The brandy would only kill the yeast if it had a high enough concentration.
I’ll have to compare the Alton Brown eggnog recipe with DoubleEagle‘s side by side sometime. (Scroll down just a little bit — recipe is right near the top)
That looks like the same recipe.
This looks delicious.
wouldn’t the brandy kill off the yeast?
It’s been a while since I’ve been brewing. If I remember a high enough amount of alcohol will drive the yeast to dormancy. The amount required depends on the yeast.
Port is sweet because grain alcohol is added to stop the fermentation at a certain point. I don’t know enough about it to determine if the full amount of sugar would have overcome the brandy.
Good lunch today Ron.
That drink does sound really good but that’s a ton of work. I can’t imagine leaving an unsealed jar in my pantry and not risking tipping it over in 2 months…
Good to see you too.
We have a shelf that’s high enough we only keep stuff we don’t use often.
Yes. Neph may also chime in momentarily. More sugar for more fermentation would have made it stronger. I did a bunch of things called GlibGlub where I copied off old wine recipes. This is very similar.
More than two months would make it work with the giant amount of sugar recommended. That recipe would have lots of fermentation to do.
Also a packet of yeast is added in recipes I have for cherry wine. The recipes I have also recommend 10 months minimum wait.
Never thought about more sugar for fermentation.
That might explain why it wasn’t as strong as I was hoping.
Yes. It takes crazy amounts of sugar.
Fantastic article! I really enjoyed it.
I used to have a juicer. I think I would like to replace it.
Neighbor and I have been plotting to make up some batches of wine.
This sounds good. Now and then I find some Ranier cherries in the grocery….maybe I will try them. Sour cherry sounds best but I would settle for sweet.
Cherries around here are good but I couldn’t afford 10 pounds for something like this right now. Maybe if I ever plant a tree or 3.
Here is the recipe from “Folk Wines, Cordials and Brandies” which I steal from regularly. Fantastic book if you can get a copy. Remarkably similar to what you did, just with yeast and sugar:
10 lbs cherries, any kind.
2 gals. water
1 ½ to 3 Ibs. sugar per gallon of juice (see step 4)
½ 0z. yeast (2 packages)
1. Wash the cherries thoroughly and then leave them to dry or rub them dry with a towel. Put them in a crock. Mash them well with a wooden spoon or with your hands. If you like a nutty flavor, break up half a fistful of the pits and add them to the fruit.
2. Cover the fruit with the cold water and let stand for two days, stirring it a few times each day.
3. On the third day, strain off the juice, pressing it through a heavy cloth. Throw away the cherry pulp, but return the pits to the liquid.
4. Now add the sugar. The amount will depend on how sweet the cherries are, and how sweet a wine is wanted. I generally add 1½ pounds sugar to each gallon of sweet cherry juice, and 3 pounds sugar to a gallon of sour cherry juice. I like a dry wine, but if you like it sweet, add another half pound or pound of sugar to the amount I suggest. Whatever amount you put in, dissolve it well.
5. Heat the liquid to lukewarm.
6. Dissolve the yeast in ½ cup warm water and add it to the liquid.
Cover and set in a warm place (70°). Let it ferment; this will take from ten to twenty-one days.
7. When fermentation has ended, strain, fine if necessary, decant, and bottle.
The wine should not be drunk, tempting as it will be, for at least ten months; but it is best to drink it all within two years, since the cherry flavor is evanescent.
Looks interesting
The cherry juice extraction technique should be useful, and you don’t need a brandy to add alcohol. Win! Preps you for future cherry wine bootlegging once the democrats ban alcohol again.
Evan is puzzled why you’d find Evan’s spice to be evanescent.
I sparkle, baby.
Fermentation of cellulose and of pectin yields methanol (wood alcohol). It seems to me that removal of seeds and pits would be prudent.
As little as 10ml of that shit will blind you and a bit more will kill you.
Cherry pits have cyanide. Bigger problem than wood alcohol I think.
Give the wine a nice almond flavor. 🙁
Coffee time before Fellowship this morning, and a newcomer had some interesting take on Ukraine, based upon his upbringing (75% of his grandparents were Quakers). His opinion was that if the very powerful invader isn’t coming to kill you, then you are best served by surrendering and letting things play out without all the bloodshed. He asked us to imagine what might have happened if the Continental Congress made nice with the Crown, or if the North had just told the South “good riddance,” or if Czar Nicholas had reformed Russia and then stayed out of WW1. He pointed out that Ukraine had won its independence without bloodshed in 1991 and could possibly do so again when Putin died, so why fight on until all your cities are pulverized and tens of thousands killed? He agreed then that the best course in Gaza is for Hamas to surrender immediately and spare the “innocent” population. What thinks the commentariat of knowing when to hold and when to fold, and live to fight another day?
I mean no disrespect to your friend but I have a very different take. He discounts the quality of the life you would have under the invader and his implicit assumption is things will improve when the current tyrant dies. I think I would have lost my mind had I lived in Hungary or Poland before the USSR rolled in. If the CCP were to invade our shores, I would rather die than live under their rule. Patrick Henry was right.
And he’s assuming the invaders won’t take the military age men out to a ditch.
HAMAS won’t surrender to save Pali lives since their entire operational scheme is to cause as many civilian deaths as possible.
The Ukes died under Stalin, died some more under Hitler, died yet again under Stalin 2.0. They see Putin and won’t give another Russian government a chance to kill them some more. I see and agree with their POV.
I won’t live under a socialist regime. Better to die free on a battlefield than die as a prisoner at the side of a ditch, or even “survive” in their workers paradise.
(I guess I fail the pacifist test.)
Correct on all counts. I’ll see you in the bunker
Same here.
the trouble is I dont see many people fighting for liberty and freedom. I see a bunch of savages vying to see which monkey can put their paws on the other monkey’s necks.
Fuck them.
I don’t want to put words in the guy’s mouth. He wasn’t arguing pacifism but that sometimes when facing an enemy more powerful, discretion is better part of valor? Patrick Zelensky might prefer death over surrender but should he impose that preference on his fellows?
What discretion mean in this context? Wait for the emperor to die? Guerrilla warfare a la Viet Nam? Something else? Serious question.
All Zelensky had to do was not bomb the ethnic Russians living in Ukraine. They opposed him politically and tyrants cannot abide that. He refused to quit despite Putin’s warnings. The day I see him on a spit I will be satisfied. The day I see both Zelensky and Putin on spits I will have a party.
Of course they are both products of their respective cultures so the people there are liable to end up with the same or worse.
Fuck it. Not my circus. The war mongers and money launderers here need to stop giving those people our money.
“Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and their freedoms.”
— L L Cool J, I think
I thought it was Michael Ironside.
That’s an awful lot of pie flying around the sky.
Why surrender when God is on your side and your enemy are infidels worthy only of death?
By the way, Zelensky is a two bit thug tin pot motherfucker who started that war . I am rooting for the Ruskies but dont think we should get involved in any way whatsoever.
Our dog absolutely rejects fruit and vegetables (except french fries) too.
Smoke was the pickiest dog I’ve ever owned.
Did he have any cat friends?
I had a dog who could distinguish between popcorn and cardboard in midair.
My dog would eat cheery tomatoes off the vine and dig carrots out of the ground, she ate everything edible. She could kill a possum, tarantula or snake and want to keep it.
Same – our doggo is. not. having. it.
“Animal protein, muthafucker, do you speak it?!”
I, uh, may or may not have dropped some swiss cheese on her food one time. She now appears, in total silence, behind me when I’m ready to add some swiss to my eggs (my daily routine). I think she’s hoping I’ll break my neck tripping over her and she can get the cheese.
What’s her take on eggs?
Something to be devoured immediately, when proffered.
But they’re not as deliciously stinky as the swiss cheese (Boar’s Head Imported Swiss, yo), so don’t get the same attention.
(in short – she’d eat the eggs off my dead body, but after the cheese)
Good girl.
Alton’s aged egg nog is OUT OF THIS WORLD. The year I did it, I made it on Labor Day weekend and drank the first one the day after Thanksgiving. The ones closer to Christmas were the best.
I’ll have to read through the comments to see how your fermentation questions are answered.
Milei, an ultra-liberal economist, …
Wow, an AP article that doesn’t call Milei “far right.”
Someone is getting fired tomorrow.
I do something similar to that with Cherries and Champagne malt,
/Works every time
Not MD 20/20
Champagne yeast…
+ Ripple
Indian Summer Montmorency Cherry Juice, Tart Cherry Juice with Real Fruit, 46 fl oz
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Indian-Summer-Montmorency-Cherry-Juice-Tart-Cherry-Juice-with-Real-Fruit-46-fl-oz/10307359
Available at Walmart. My little country grocery store carries.
I make mead with it all the time. Wonderful flavor after fermentation.
So, the recipe/process you used is confusing me. Generally, you would ferment first, then add brandy later to boost the ABV of the product.
You have 6 1/2 cups of juice with no alcohol. Add 1 1/2 cups of brandy (probably 40 proof or so, thus 20% ABV). Now, your going to make me do some fucking algebra.
You’ve got about 3.75% ABV in the starting product. This is not enough to prevent spoilage long term, but probably enough to stop wild yeast from getting a fermentation started.
So, next time, pitch wine yeast first. Wait until fermentation is done. Then add brandy.
Agreed, add alcohol last, if at all. If you use yeast and a ton of sugar you might not need the brandy at all.
Cherry juice is pretty high in sugar. Similar to table grapes. You can pitch yeast into plain cherry juice and get 7 to 9 percent ABV in the product (cider levels).
Just watched the video. It’s supposed to work the way you did it.
For quick and easy drink without all the crushing and pressing cherries:
Use bottled cherry juice. I like to use two parts tart red cherry and one black cherry.
Use wine yeast if you can get it. Use bread yeast if you can’t.
You can try adding the brandy up front. Wine yeast will not be affected negatively by the presence of alcohol when you add the yeast.
Thanks for the suggetions.
You are welcome.
I really enjoy these types of hobbies. I kinda/sorta wish I got into them more myself. Not having space, especially in the kitchen, was a tremendous obstacle the last ~`15 years, mostly spent in Asia. I did kinda/moreso! with cheese. I got as far as cottage cheese! I do love it. (Pro Tip: *Prepares umbrella to block tomato barrage* add a dash of pepper. Livens it up.) In the future, I can see myself getting into something along these lines. Something to share with someone, especially. Thankfully, I’m into all sorts of things. (Hrm. Only a half euphemism.)
“…the same dog that would tear apart a sandwich and leave the lettuce and tomato on the ground for Daisy.” Uh–huh. Dogs don’t share. Also, tomatoes don’t belong on sandwiches. I love tomatoes. But not on sandwiches. *Opens Protection-Umbrella again*
That dog hated veggies enough that he didn’t mind if Daisy ate them.
Southern Living‘s version of cherry bounce just has you prick the cherries, as they’ll fully infuse over the coming months.
Looking at what they do, as well as Ron’s recipe, I’d probably pit all the cherries, then run the finished fruits through a citrus squeezer before straining to remove the solids.
But that’s what makes these old recipes so much fun — you can experiment, tweak, etc to your heart’s content.
You may call me…The Transcender.
Hi! I’m Steve.
Hello Steve? Are you Firsting? I’m Firsting.
I may be Forty-Fiving. I was stewing over my substantial fuck-up yesterday. I’m certain much hell and nasty talks await.
Bro…is…Trans?
Trans is hard.
No kink shaming!
But when your bitch burp you smell my balls in the air.
Cherry Bounce.
http://tinyurl.com/myvmed59
NSFW.
403 error for me.
Forbidden? I dont like that word.
Old Jaque Pepin has a little technique for preserving cherries in vodka that I like. I don’t use Karo syrup, just plain old white cane sugar. Tasty.
Just watch the first thirty or so seconds of the video, is all you need to do.
He’s the best.
I can highly recommend his memoir.
My favorite bit – he was the “chef” for Howard Johnson’s – the whole chain – for a decade.
So, why would they add brandy at the start of fermentation. Well, it will kill off lots of spoilage organisms that can ruin the wine. And it won’t hurt the good yeast. Modernly we do that with sulfite compounds.
Sometimes, being a libertarian, I feel like a rube. I believe in free markets and organized chaos. That they allocate resources better than any government or corporation. That not only is this rational, but the only fair method of allocating resources.
I’m listening to conspiracies on UFO disclosure and it often comes back to energy. It would be too disruptive and this or that. And it’s not that I inherently believe the conspiracy theorists as much as that it is plausible. The people ruling us in the private and public sector don’t believe in markets, though they sure as shit benefit from them and rig them in their favor. I totally could see the shadowy cabal inside and outside government shrugging off nearly free energy because it would be too disruptive.
I’ve always argued this was nonsensical. That there would be plenty of money to be made transitioning away from fossil fuels (not to mention if we had anti-gravity tech, we’d have weaponized and used it by now). But do the people who rule us really believe that? Probably not. They are nice and comfortable in the current order which they firmly control.
But it’s plausible, and we see it on a daily basis. I see libertarians have an almost knee jerk reaction against organized labor (I get it) and to defend big corporations. We are their version of useful idiots in some ways.
I have no issues with organized labor as long as they are not in bed with the state. I think there are just as many libertarians that are anti big corp and claim big corporations would not exist without government as libertarians defending big corporations. I am in the middle. I think big corps have their place- could not have semiconductor fabs without them- but it is clear they are too in bed t=with the state themselves and focus more on profit than on good products because that is where the profit is. Both unions and corporations have been skin-suited and corrupted by big government.
This is different than how we do it in Romania. Here we do not crash the cherries (sour cherries are used most often) We just take the stones out and leave them whole. For me I do not need to add additional sweetener, but if I do I prefer a little honey to sugar. But we put the whole cherries ion a jar with the sugar and the alcohol (usually everclear style neutral grain spirit) And we leave it for a few months. After we strain most of the liquid through a strainer and eventually some cheese cloth, and some of the cherries are put in a smaller jar and covered in alcohol to preserve them, and are used in cakes and such. My mom makes a chocolate cake with whole boozy cherries inside, and it gives a nice taste to it when it take a bite with a cherry.
That sounds delicious
Stupid fucking server errors. I demand to speak to a manager.
Get up and get down, Glibs.
☕
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9N6DMP9pIoc
🎶🎶
The site did not like my first several music choices. 😡
https://youtu.be/RHeybe7s_BU
Let’s split the difference: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cjrEpeFfDGY
Good morning, Sean & Roat!
Morning.
Good morning, U! How are you today?
Better.
I spoke to my supervisor regarding my foot and got permission to work remote this week in hopes that not having to keep shoving it into a shoe to get to and from the office might help recovery time.
I’m also using less gauze as the issue has localized and it results in less pressure if I must put on a shoe.
I think I’ve also gotten back on a normal sleep schedule in time for work.
👍 (“toes up” has a far less positive connotation.)
🤔😨
What happened to your foot?
it tragically turned into a meter
I’ll get up but my getting down days are long gone.
Yep, if I get down too much now my back’s jacked up for a week.
Good morning, Teh Hype & Stinky!
Only three countries made it out of the 20th century relatively economically unscathed: the US, Australia, and Canada.
Even the Great Depression wasn’t that bad relative to all-out communism, socialism, and world war.
https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1759758756928512073
this means the US should pay its fair share for coming out unscathed. To me, not anyone else. I am willing to settle out of court for 1 billion. Canada and Australia 100 mil each.
Can we pay you in 1980s Zimbabwe dollars?
each country can use their own dollars its only fair.
100 Mil is pretty cheap. I mean, $0.10?
The Ukrainians’ problem wasn’t the Russian forces invading. It was their own government (at the behest of a variety of foreign governments) was forcing them to fight.
I guess they could have refused, and be shot as traitors. It only takes a few such executions to get other people to fall in line.
There are plenty of Ukrainians who were willing to fight. Not all. But I knew an engineer living in Germany who went back willingly. As one anecdotal example.
And the problem was the Russian forces invading. If they didn’t invade there would be no reason to fight.
The Russians just needed more lebensraum.
Yeah, I didn’t express that exactly right. I was following the “what if” question earlier.
Supposing that the majority of Ukrainians decided to not fight, they would have been forced to by the Ukrainian government, is what Inwas trying to say.
The American War for Independence was fought because the colonists discerned that the British government (Parliament, not the Crown) had basically demoted them from citizens to subjects.
The North was not being invaded by the South. It was the “more powerful invader”. The North saying “good riddance” would be equivalent to Russia saying “good riddance” to Ukraine.
fantastic analogy