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RASPBERRY BRANDY (sometimes called Raspberry Ratafia)
Strip the stalks from a quart of freshly-gathered ripe raspberries, put them into a bowl, and pour over them two quarts of genuine brandy. Stir the fruit in the liquor, and bruise it well, cover it closely to exclude the air, and let it soak for ten or twelve days. Add half a pound of loaf sugar boiled with two or three table-spoonfuls of water till it is a clear syrup. Stir this well in, strain the liquor through a jelly-bag, and bottle it. At the end of a fort-night pour it out gently, filter it, and when bright and clear put it into fresh bottles; cork these closely, and store for use. Or, bruise the fruit a little, and gently draw the juice from it. Add half a pint of good brandy to a quart of the juice, together with a quarter of a pound of sugar boiled to syrup. Strain the liqueur, and bottle closely. A larger proportion of sugar may be used if liked.
A cordial made by infusion rather than cooking, so the only real variables are the fruit, the strength of the spirit, and how patiently you filter. Two methods are given: the first is a true brandy infusion that keeps indefinitely, the second is a much weaker sweetened juice that does not.
- Imperial measuresCassell's quart is 40 fl oz, so a quart of raspberries is about 5 cups (perhaps 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb) and two quarts of brandy is roughly 2.27 litres, about 2.4 US quarts. A half pint is 10 fl oz.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar broken from a cone, prized for its purity. Ordinary granulated white sugar is the direct equivalent; half a pound is about 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons.
- "Genuine brandy"The insistence is aimed at the heavily adulterated spirit sold in the period. Any drinkable grape brandy at 38-40% ABV works; the fruit will mask a rough one only so far.
- Cool syrup before addingThe recipe does not say to cool it, but boiling the sugar and water to a clear syrup and letting it cool before stirring it in is safer for the raspberry aroma, which is volatile; adding it hot may also lose a trace of alcohol.
- The filtering is the pointRaspberry pulp carries fine haze that a jelly bag will not catch. The two-week rest before the second filtering lets the sediment drop so the liqueur can be decanted off it; a coffee filter or fine paper does the final polish. Do not squeeze the bag at either stage.
- The second method will not keepHalf a pint of brandy to a quart of juice gives roughly 8% alcohol by volume, well below the level that preserves. Treat that version as a fresh cordial, keep it refrigerated, and use it within a couple of weeks; sealed bottles of sweet low-alcohol juice can ferment and build pressure.
- Yield and useThe first method gives roughly 2.5 litres of liqueur, depending on losses in straining, at somewhere near 30% ABV. Served in small glasses after dinner, or spooned over ice cream and used to soak sponge for trifle.
Ratafia was the general English and French term for a spirit sweetened and flavoured by steeping fruit, kernels or spices, and by the eighteenth century it covered everything from cherry and blackcurrant cordials to the almond-scented biscuits still sold under the name. Raspberry versions were a standard use for a glut of soft fruit in households that already had brandy in the store cupboard, and recipes for them appear in English domestic manuals from at least the 1700s alongside cherry brandy. The name is often traced to the same root as "ratify", the drink being what was poured to seal an agreement, though that derivation is traditional rather than settled. What Cassell's records is how routine the technique was: no heat, no skill, only ripe fruit, sound spirit and the willingness to wait a fortnight for the sediment to fall.