August 1, 2009

Homemade gooseberry liqueur for mental and physical tiredness


Have you ever heard of "youthpotion"? I bet you have.
In 1974 in one of the Tibetan monastery somebody found a recipe named "youthpotion", dated IV-VI BC. This magic mixture is the oldest known recipe for homemade liqueur.
In many cases the processes and ingredients are guarded secrets.
One of the most beneficial for the body liqueurs is gooseberry liqueur, because gooseberry itself is surprisingly beneficial. Not many of us are aware, that gooseberry is one of the most valuable and nutritious fruits in the garden. If you don't have it yet, get yourself one still this season. Gooseberry is reach in anthocyanins, pectins, gamma-Linolenic acid (GLA), vitamins A, B, C, E, P and easy to assimilate copper, phosphorus and iron. This is why its good to invite to your garden 1-2 gooseberry (Ribes grosullaria) shrubs, so you can pick them even while working.
If you have more than one shrub and you don't use pesticides, you can use mature fruits for preparing gooseberry liqueur, which is recommended by folk medicine as strenghtening mentally and physically, also having anti-fever effect.

How to make gooseberry liqueur?
Ingredients
1 kg of any organic gooseberry, 1 litre of alcool 50%, 1/2 kg sugar, 1 vanilla pod, piece of fresh ginger, jar that can be tightly closed, colander, coffee filters, bottles (which can be tightly closed).

Recipe
Rinsed with running water gooseberry, place in the jar. Mash gooseberries, add sugar, vanilla and ginger. Add alcool, close the jar and place it for 2 weeks in the sunny spot. After 2 weeks strain everything first with colander in order to remove bigger pieces, and after that use coffee filters. Then decant precious liquid to bottles. Store it in dark and cool place.
Dosing
1 tabespoon twice a days.
I wonder if in your country there is traditon of preparing this kind of liqueurs.
In Poland tradition goes back to middle ages and was cultivated by monks, aristocracy and nobility as remedies for many discomforts.
Recently we can see this kind of products in the shops, but they have nothing to do with real homemade liqueurs, that are more reach in valuable ingredients and are in reach of everyone, because they can be made at home.
These kind of liqueurs sometimes are not sweet at all and are ment to be drunk in very little amounts either as aperitifs before meal or after meal for helping digestion.
We make it. Do you?

4 comments:

chuck b. said...

No, not where I'm from. But it sounds intriguing.

I infused vodka with ginger once, and some orange peel and brown sugar. It was divine.

Do you grow black currant there (Ribes nigrum)? It's supposed to be very good with chocolate.

Yolanda Elizabet Heuzen said...

Great post my dear and I will try to make that gooseberry liqueur. I love making stuff like that especially when it's so good for your health. So thanks!

Darla said...

We don't make it here, sounds like we should though..

Mia said...

Usefull information, never knew gooseberries where that healthy. I will try that liqueur !!

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