Gertie's Crabapple Liquer

Classification: liquer, crabapple liquer, spirits

Source: Darren George (Darren.George@UAlberta.CA), September 14, 1995

This recipe is basically a sophisticated version of a 'Yuckaflux' (which, for those of you not educated in Alberta, involves an extremely large pail, several kilos of fruit, several botles of alcohol, and a baseball bat), but is much, much better.

Instead of crabapples, you can also use chokecherries (with scotch); raspberries (with rum), or saskatoons (with gin). I've also tried cantelope (with vodka), which wasn't bad, and plum (with vodka), but this turned out rather prunish tasting.

Ingredients: (for 1 quart)

4 quarts crabapples
4 cups sugar
3 cups vodka

Procedure:

Take a 4 quart mason jar, and fill it with crabapples that have been washed and quartered (you could take the stems and cores out, but it makes no difference and is a lot more work). Add 4 cups of sugar and three cups of vodka. Store the jar on its side, turning once every day for 16 days to get the sugar to dissolve. After 16 days, filter out the fruit bits (Gertie recommends using a knee-high nylon stocking, as this can be suspended for a few days to get every last drop out), and bottle. This recipe can be done on nearly any scale from 1 qt. to 4qt. (I've never seen a mason jar more than 1 gallon), and two bottles of vodka will normally yield about five bottles of liqueur.