Cranberry Liqueur

"I always associate autumn with cranberries. Here is an elegant liqueur that's really easy to make (and a treat to receive as a Christmas or hostess gift). If giving as a gift, be sure to allow enough time (in days) for the fruit to fully infuse the liquor. Cooking time is actually infusion time. UPDATE: After the liqueur is made, try using it to make Rita L's cocktail A Jolly Christmas Special Cosmo or Red Hot Lovers Cosmo (recipe #109007), or if you give the liqueur as a gift, you might want to give the recipient a copy of Rita's recipe to go with it!) "
 
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photo by mersaydees photo by mersaydees
photo by mersaydees
photo by Rita1652 photo by Rita1652
photo by Rita1652 photo by Rita1652
photo by Rita1652 photo by Rita1652
Ready In:
288hrs 20mins
Ingredients:
4
Yields:
1 quart
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ingredients

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directions

  • Combine cranberries with 2 cups sugar.
  • Add water and boil 4-5 minutes until skins start to pop.
  • Remove from heat and cool.
  • Put in a mixing jar, add vodka and shake vigorously.
  • Cover and leave to infuse at least 7 days, shaking or stirring occasionally.
  • Pour thru a coarse strainer and discard berries.
  • Let rest 3-4 days.
  • Without shaking the jar, decant only the clear liquor into another jar, leaving white residue in the original jar.
  • The white residue can be put thru a paper strainer (I use an unbleached coffee filter) until liquid is clear; add the strained liquor to the already decanted liqueur.
  • Combine liqueur with 2 more cups of sugar and shake vigorously until sugar is absorbed.
  • Let clear overnight and bottle.

Questions & Replies

  1. I’m not using store bought cranberries. Can you include the amount of cranberries in cups as well as in pounds?
     
  2. How long can I leave the cranberries sitting in the vodka before straining and bottling? And can I "bottle" it in a mason jar? Does it need to be sealed or refridgerated at that point?
     
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Reviews

  1. I made a batch of this delecious drink, and it's wonderfully simple and sooooo good. I used 4 layers of cheesecloth for straining the berries from the liquid, and found there was ablsolutely no residue, so I could skip No's 8 and 9 in the recipe. I tied up the cheesecloth and hung it from a hook to drip overnight. I got 2 1/2 liqueur bottles from it. I did make cranberry liqueur for about 4 years now, (using 4 different recipes,) and this is the simplest by far. I found other years that letting it set for about a month in a cold room or refrigerator improves it's taste. Yum!!!
     
  2. I made this so I could try Rita's A Jolly Christmas Special Cosmo so I cut the recipe down to 1/4 as I wanted to try a smaller portion before committing that much vodka.. For us, the final liqueur is a bit cough syrupy, but I would make it again stopping at step 8 as we loved the cranberry infused vodka. At steps 8/9 I didn't have any white residue so I just strained it again through a very fine mesh sieve.
     
  3. This is not my final review. I`m up to #4. Have to wait a week to taste and finish the directions. I just wanted to post the picture up to this point. I posted Dec 2, 2004 Sorry I took so long! The Holidays has me spinning! OK maybe it`s this delish drink! Sweet but very good. Great to make cosmos with. It`s a vibrant red. Wonderful for Christmas. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. I added one of my cake because I just couldn`t discard the cranberries so I made my Recipe #63302 with them. Posted Dec 23, 2004.
     
  4. Delish! This is a great holiday drink! We sip it straight up but it would also be good with soda and a twist of lemon. It sat marinating in cranberries for nearly a year in our second home! The cranberries were not usable and had to be discarded but the liquer was awesome. We highly recommend this recipe. It also makes a great gift.
     
  5. This is awesome and worth the wait! Thanks, echo echo, for posting such a festive classic!
     
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Tweaks

  1. Use 100 proof vodka because it pulls more flavor out of the cranberries.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

[SINCE I HAVE WELL OVER 200 COOKBOOKS, I SUGGEST THAT ANYONE EXPLORING MY COLLECTION CLICK ON 'AUTHOR'S ORDER' AT THE TOP OF THE RIGHT HAND COLUMN BEFORE PROCEEDING. I'VE ARRANGED THEM SO THAT COOKBOOK SERIES OR SIMPLY COOKBOOKS ON RELATED TOPICS APPEAR TOGETHER, WHICH SHOULD MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND THE ONES THAT INTEREST YOU.] In 2004, I moved home to New England after many years living in the South. Often I go walking in the morning with my sister, who lives near me on the Maine coast--we truly live in a beautiful place. I share a love of ACC basketball with my brother in upstate New York. Nowadays, I rely heavily on Kitty Rosati's Heal Your Heart book (lots of low-sodium recipes) and Donald Gazzaniga's No-Salt, Lowest-Sodium Cookbook. Other cookbooks I frequently use are Weil & Daley's The Healthy Kitchen and Cooking Light's Five-Star Recipes cookbook. From January 2005 to September 2008, I hosted the recipe tagging game <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/bb/viewtopic.zsp?p=2192193">ONE-TWO-THREE HIT WONDERS</a>, taking four months off in late 2007, during which the tireless, compassionate and totally wonderful Game Forum Hosts <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/88099"> ~Nimz~</a>, <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/67656"> justcallmetoni</a>, <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/157425">Lauralie41</a> and <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/428885">Andi of Longmeadow Farm</a> with incredible kindness of took over my workload. I loved hosting the game and the players there were and are the best, but competing obligations required me to give it up and it's now ably presided over by HokiesLady. In 2008 my dear sister finally joined Recipezaar. Her chef name is Sagadahoc (the county in Maine she lives in). My popular Recipe #89132 is actually her recipe--check it out sometime, it's great! She eventually realized how useful having several cookbooks can be, so I gave her a premium membership as her birthday present in March 2008. Some of my favorite sources of recipes are the public cookbooks of other Zaar chefs. I have over 100 bookmarked to refer to occasionally, but some of my favorites are from the following: In January-February 2007, the Chefs of 1-2-3 Hit Wonders hosted a Cook-a-Thon for veteran Zaar member Sharon123 while she was undergoing chemotherapy at Duke University. The entire group of recipes tagged, cooked and reviewed for the Cook-a-Thon are contained in: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbook.php?bookid=123948">Sharon123's Cook-a-Thon Cookbook</a></li> <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/58104">~Rita~</a>: Thanks to her stunning photographs, she has one of the most beautiful cookbook lists at Zaar. Her cookbooks focus on a variety of inspired topics, many of them health-related, and the introductions often provide an encyclopedic disquisition on the topic at hand. Some stand-outs: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/27685">Edible Flowers</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/33443">Honey Honey You`ve got me wanting you!</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/33123">Recipes I named after zaar chefs</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/33325">Menopause</a></li> If you've been around Zaar any length of time, you probably know that <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/4470">Bergy</a> writes wonderfully detailed and helpful recipe reviews and has also contributed a wealth of wonderful recipes of her own. 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Cookbooks of hers I find especially handy include: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/27896">Chicken Recipes</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/45020">Then There Were 2</a></li> As I mentioned above, while I love the cuisines of all regions of the world, my favorite is Greek, and the following from <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/49168">Cookiegirlandi</a> is chockful of great Greek recipes: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/30983">It's All Greek</a></li> (Another great way to find Greek recipes is to go cirectly to evelyn/athens' <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?chef=80353">recipe list</a> and then sift for Cuisine-->European__>Southern-->Greek. She currently has 142.) UPDATE: <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/80353">evelyn/athens</a>, host of the Greek Cooking Forum and Greek food expert extraordinaire has a cookbook of her own Greek fecipes that could be the only reference you'll ever need for Greek cuisine: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/76021">Greek Cookery</a></li> I'm not a vegetarian, but I do eat meatless meals a fair amount of the time. I've observed that <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/37449">Sharon123</a> is a great one for cooking fare that's healthy and tastes great, which is why I trust and turn to her: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/41407">Yummy Vegetarian Dishes</a></li> If I want to cook something to eat with my friends, the go-to person is <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/6258">Miss Annie</a>: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/26048">Recipes for Entertaining</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/26046">Pot Luck /Picnic Recipes</a></li> <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/1533">Dancer^</a> is single-handedly responsible for tons of great salad dressing and seasoning mixes posted at Zaar. See the evidence in her cookbooks: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/33143">Dressings & Vinaigrettes</a> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/34918">Spice and Herb Mixes</a> If I'm hanging out in heaven a hundred years from now, I'm hoping to find they've had the good sense to make <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/169969">NcMysteryShopper</a> and <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/8688">Bev</a> the twin bartenders there, so after I go to my final reward I can continue to imbibe offerings from Cheryl's Book #99544, Book #148198, Book #90314, Book #73634, Book #75595, Book #74074 and Book #70836 cookbooks and Bev's Book #86058 and Book #124180 cookbooks. These ladies know how to set 'em up and I know how to chug 'em! <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/member/39547">Julesong</a> was one of the first to take advantage of the multiple-cookbook option of premium membership in a big way. For awhile she held the record for most cookbooks at Zaar. 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Other than keeping my sodium intake low most of the time for my blood pressure, I don't follow any particular one of the popular diets, but rather am just an old-fashioned calorie counter. This means that I can find gold in all the varieties of diet cookbooks--low-fat, low-carb, weight watchers, diabetic (even though I'm not). Ones I've found useful include: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/34472">Low Carb, SB Diet Recipes, WW </a> - Barb Gertz</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/64175">Healthy, Low Fat and Low Cal Cookbook</a> - Hazeleyes</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/27730">Low Carbing It</a> - The Dancing Cook</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/25930/92/ls=h">Side Dishes Recipes in Weight Watcher's Core Recipes</a> - toni gifford</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/30696">Weight Watchers Recipes - Flex Program</a> - toni gifford</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/33151">Recipes with WW points</a> - Dancer^</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/34888">Can this really be lowfat?</a> - Shirl(J)831</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/33588">WW Core Recipes I Have Tried</a> - ladypit</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/60453">Low Fat</a> - PaulaG</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/33882">Lowfat and Lovin' It</a> - rochsann</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/36682">Low Fat Favorites</a> - Kree</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/30403">Watch My Weight!</a> - KCShell</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/50427">Steaming Recipes</a> - LittleKiwiChook</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mail/view?msgid=367012">Low Fat NOT Low Taste cookbook</a> - Theresa P</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/38141">Guiltless Indulgences</a> - WaterMelon</li> When I'm looking for cheap or easy or cheap AND easy, these cookbooks come in handy: <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/51062">Budget Cooking</a> - Lvs2Cook</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/51066">Cheap and Easy Cooking</a> - Lvs2Cook</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/31285">College Favorites</a> - .::.Blink.::. </li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/41334">Cheap to Make, Easy to Make</a> - KathyLBel </li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/38218">College Cooking</a> - Julesong </li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/28166">Easy Weeknight Recipes</a> - Vote_for_Pedro</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/34003">Food on a Dime Recipes</a> - peacefulnightdove</li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/52627">Frugal Gourmet</a> - Carolyn H </li> <li><a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/mycookbook/book/42873">Got Leftovers? 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Check out what HIS favorite Zaar chef cookbooks are, as well as see his own wittily titled cookbooks <a href="http://www.recipezaar.com/cookbooks.php?mid=183964">here</a>. <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/purplechefhat.gif" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"> <a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a372/eebrag/MyThreeChefs.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a> <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/beartag_1_1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"> <img src="http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/adopted_1_1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting">
 
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