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Dutch Noyeau
Peel finely the rinds of five large lemons, or of six small ones, then throw on it a pound of loaf sugar that you have freshly pounded, two ounces of bitter almonds, chopped and pounded; mix these with two quarts of the best Schnappes or Hollands, and add six tablespoonfuls of boiling milk. Fill your jars with this, cover it close, and put it in a passage or hall, where people can shake it every day. Leave it there for three weeks, and strain it through some blotting paper into another bottle. It will be ready to drink.
This is an infused liqueur rather than a distilled one, but the flavouring agent at its heart is the problem: bitter almonds are the traditional source of noyau's character and they are also a source of cyanide.
- Bitter almondsBitter almonds contain amygdalin, which releases hydrogen cyanide when the kernels are crushed and left in contact with moisture — precisely what this recipe does for three weeks. Two ounces, pounded and steeped, is not a trace amount, and the toxin passes into the spirit and through the filter with the flavour. Unprocessed bitter almonds cannot legally be sold for food in the United States and are restricted elsewhere.
- No cooking step removes itHeat and time can drive off hydrogen cyanide, which is why commercial almond flavouring is made from bitter almond oil that has been processed to remove it. Cold maceration in spirit does the opposite: it extracts and holds the compound. The six tablespoons of boiling milk do nothing to change this.
- Strength is unmeasuredThe recipe gives no indication of how strong the resulting drink is meant to be or what a serving looks like, so there is no way to judge exposure. Two quarts of finished liqueur is a great deal of it to have standing in a hallway.
- If you want to make noyauUse a current recipe from a modern source. Present-day versions build the almond note from sweet almonds, apricot kernel extract prepared for food use, or bought almond essence, and they specify quantities that have been assessed.
- What the other terms meanFor reading rather than making: Hollands and Schnappes both mean genever, the malty Dutch juniper spirit; loaf sugar is refined sugar broken from a cone, the equivalent of plain white sugar today. Straining through blotting paper is a period method for clarifying a cloudy infusion, a coffee filter in all but name.
Noyau takes its name from the French for the stone or kernel of a fruit, and the whole family of such liqueurs — crème de noyaux, ratafia de noyaux, the Italian and Iberian kernel cordials — is built on the marzipan-like perfume that the pits of peaches, apricots, cherries and bitter almonds give when steeped in spirit. The "Dutch" here points at the base spirit rather than the technique: genever was the everyday strong drink of the Low Countries, and flavouring a rough spirit heavily was one way of making it palatable.