Important: Safety Warning
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This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Manufacture of Cordials
Maraschino. (Superfine.) Charge of the Still, Water-bath.
Take 70 lbs. peach or apricot stones, wash with tepid water, and put them into a barrel, making a square hole, 4 or 5 inches, in the head for that purpose. Cover them with 35 gals. alcohol, 95 per cent, and let them steen for one month. Then put the whole (70 lbs. and 35 gals. spirit) into the water-bath and distill.
OBSERVATIONS.-1. Before distilling, add 4 lbs. of peach flowers. 2. Keep the fire at the same degree of heat, or the Maraschino will have an oily taste. 3.
When nearly finished, add 10 gals. water, to draw off the faints, which will do for another distillation.
Mixing.
Reduce the spirit above distilled to 82 per cent, and you will get 45 gals. If you have not that quantity, add spirit of the same strength to make it up. Then add 90 gals. sugar syrup, 32 degrees, Baumé.
NOTE. When you have not used peach flowers in the distillation, take 2 lbs. orris root powder, and steep it in 2 gals. alcohol, 95 per cent, for 15 days; then filter, and add it to the mixing, not to the distillation. 66 Anisette. (BOITARD. 135 gallons.) Charge of the Still, Water Bath. 20 lbs. green anise (washed in river water), 3 star anise (being careful to break the stars only), 1 lb. coriander seed (bruised), 40 gals. alcohol, 95 per cent.
Put the above into the water-bath with four gallons water, and distill. After distilling 35 gallons, add 10 gallons of water to bring off the faints; which may be distilled again. The first 5 gallons of faints may be added to the distilled spirit, which will give 40 gallons aromatized alcohol. Reduce this to 80 per cent by adding, say, 5 gallons distilled water, and then add 90 gallons fine white sugar syrup, 31 degrees, Baumé. This will give 135 gallons fine anisette.
Anisette. (CHAUVET. 135 gallons.) Charge of the Still, Water Bath. 20 lbs. green anise, 1½ 66 coriander seed, 2 drachms neroly, 72 lbs. star anise (break the stars only), “ 1½ orris root powder, 40 gals. alcohol, 95 per cent.
Treat precisely as in the last recipe.
MIXING.-Reduce the perfumed alcohol to 82 per cent, by adding 4 gals. water, and further add 1½ gal. double orange flower water and 90 gallons white syrup, 31 degrees, Baumé. Stir well and let it rest 5 to 8 days, then filter through blotting paper. This will give 135 gallonss superfine anisette.
Marasquino di Zara. (20 gallons.) Charge of the Still, Water Bath. 18 lbs. raspberries, " 6 orange flowers, “ 12 sour red cherries (Morello).
Mash the whole to a pulp with stones, macerate 24 hours with 7 gallons alcohol, 95 per cent, and 7 gallons
These are commercial distillery formulas, written for a licensed nineteenth-century liqueur house working in barrels and hundreds of gallons. Two separate things make them unusable today, and the notes below explain the vocabulary rather than adapt the process.
- Distilling is the first barEvery formula here begins with "Charge of the Still", and the anisettes call for redistilling 40 gallons of 95 per cent alcohol (the Maraschino, 35 gallons). Operating a still to concentrate beverage alcohol is a licensed activity in the United States and most other jurisdictions, and the volumes here are industrial, not domestic.
- The peach and apricot stones are the real hazardSeventy pounds of stones are the entire flavour base of the Maraschino. The kernels inside contain amygdalin, which enzymatic action converts to hydrogen cyanide; the almond aroma and the poison come from the same compound.
- "Keep the fire at the same degree of heat"This is the hinge instruction in the original, and it is about flavour, not safety: a rising temperature drags heavier fractions over and the spirit tastes oily.
- Water-bath stillA bain-marie still: the charge sits in a jacketed vessel heated by surrounding water rather than by flame on the metal, which keeps the botanicals from scorching. Every formula on this page specifies one for its seed and flower distillates.
- FaintsThe weak, muddy tail of a run. Adding 10 gallons of water near the end "draws off the faints" by steam, and they are saved for the next batch — a straightforward economy, since the tails still hold recoverable aromatics and alcohol.
- Degrees BauméA hydrometer scale for sugar density, not a temperature. Syrup at 31 to 32 degrees Baumé is a heavy syrup; the scale was standard in French confectionery and liqueur work long before Brix displaced it.
- Neroly, orris, double orange flower waterNeroly (neroli) is the essential oil of bitter orange blossom, sold by the drachm — about an eighth of an ounce. Orris root powder, from Iris rhizome, supplies a violet note and, as the note explains, stands in for peach blossom when none is to be had. "Double" orange flower water is a concentrated distillate, stronger than the culinary grade now sold.
- Green anise versus star aniseTwo unrelated plants used together: green anise is the seed of Pimpinella anisum, star anise the fruit of Illicium verum. "Break the stars only" means crack the woody husk without grinding the seed.
- If you want the drinkBuy a commercial maraschino or anisette, or use a current, tested recipe for a macerated cordial made with purchased neutral spirit. Nothing on this page should be scaled down and attempted.
Maraschino began as a Dalmatian specialty, distilled at Zadar — Zara under Venetian and later Austrian rule — from Marasca sour cherries with their stones crushed in, which is where the bitter-almond edge of the true article comes from; the Marasquino di Zara formula at the end of this extract is the closer imitation of the two, with its Morellos and raspberries. The "Superfine" version above it is candidly a substitute, replacing cherry stones with the far cheaper peach and apricot kernels, and it shows exactly what this kind of book was for: French and American liqueur manufacturers wanted to match the taste of a celebrated regional product using local material. The attributions to Boitard and Chauvet are to named sources, and the anisette pair is worth reading side by side — the same botanicals, but Chauvet adds neroli, orris and orange flower water and rests the mixture 5 to 8 days before filtering through blotting paper, which is the difference between "fine" and "superfine" as this book uses those words.