Grow Your Own Magazine

Just read andrewo's post (pre Xmas) about favorite crops and saw the mention of schnapps made from rhubarb!! We got tons of rhubarb and see loads chucked out on other allotments. Would love the recipe please!! If it doesn't work out I'm sure it would make a fantasic weedkiller too!!! Thanks.

Recipe please!! Rhubarb is the only thing that grows in Shetland to a height of 6 foot! and we have masses of it. Must be the long daylight hours in May/June, but we struggle to keep up with it before it goes to seed. Rhubarb jam is the traditional recipe at the SWRI teas here, so a snapps recipe would go down well!

I think that Nigella did one - will try to find it on another forum - can't remember which one!

It has taken me all this time to search the web forums for the recipe, then I could not remember which forum wanted it.

Here it is - hope you make it after all this

Oh flaming heck it won' tlet me post it.

Any way it was Nigella Lawson's from Nigella Bites, - hang on I will have another go.

Rhubarb Schnapps

Approximately 1kg rhubarb, to make 600g trimmed weight
300g caster sugar
1 litre of vodka, plus more if needed
2 x 1 litre jars
1 x 1 litre bottle

Chop the rhubarb and divide it between the two jars. Add 150g sugar to each jar, put the lids on and shake well. Unclip the lids and pour 500ml of vodka into each to fill. If that doesn't fill them, then pour in more.

Close the lids, put the rhubarb somewhere cool and dark for at least 6 weeks and up to 6 months. If you remember, shake the jars every other day for the first month or so.

Strain into a jug, then pour into a bottle.

From Nigella Lawson's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'.

That is definitely my good deed for the day - I don't even drink!

thanks...thats very kind of you! hope you feel better soon!

Beyond the call of duty! Cheers. Hope you feel better soon.
Jennie

Excellent. As with Jennie, I seem to have no problem with rhubarb - and there are only so many crumbles and jars of jam I can make, so anything unusual is a bonus - my OH may like this too given the vodke base
Cheers, hope you feel better soon.
Rat

The recipe above is exactly the one I use, do remember to shake the bottles every day and filter of the rhubarb after 30-40 days. Tastes like peaches and I have done it with the cheapest vodka going and the taste is wonderful, sweet and deadly - we had three short glasses and we were pretty much dislocated from our legs.

Remember, only the stalks.

Andrewo

Thanks.....I wonder if this would work with frozen rhubarb??

Probably best not to risk it and spoil the vodka. Was thinking that the ice crystals might have changed the structure of it in the freezing process because when it is defrosted it is not the same texture is it?

If you are brave you could give it a try and let us know

We'll all be round for a tasting session!

You could try and see what happens. Doing something similar with blackcurrants for wine.

Andrewo

Mmmmm.... sounds lovely.... it's the only thing I had in my garden when we moved in last year, and being the only one who eats rhubard in this house most goes to waste... not this year... hhhooooooo nooooooo....

got to try it... it sounds exactly what to make soon as the rhubarb is through, ready just in time for xmas...it will get the parties going with a swing, yum yum....might even tak some to aussie with me....going in october

You expect it to taste of rhubarb but it has got a peachy taste, beware though it tastes good and is really strong, last christmas my partner and I were waiting for friends to come to us for dinner and we had three shot glasses in 45 mins and were legless. We answered the door with bright red faces and slurring, how we served the meal I do not know - but surprisingly, no hangover and my rhubarb is starting to come through now!

Andrewo

Sorry Andrewo.... get totally legless and have no hang over...??? Sounds perfect.

At 26, I think I could have a few friends queing up for a bottle.... I went on the hunt last night and have the litre of vodka (never drink the stuff so it'll survive until the rhubarb has grown fully) but sadly lacking the 2 one litre jars.... but that won't stop me. I'm on a mission... I won't waste garden produce two years in a row!


(That's my excuse anyway)

You could do it in a barrel, plastic ones cost roughly £8-9 from wilkos and you just make the recipe for that size. You just have alot of schnapps!

Andrewo

... think I could handle that... just

My boss (the one who believes supermarket veg taste better than home grown) asked me to dig out his rhubarb and chuck it this afternoon as they don't eat it, so I now have another 5 crowns to add to my existing stock - might need to look for a 45 gallon drum for my schnapps
Rat

I had that, when I left my allotment I took five of the ten crowns and inherited on the same day, four more from my Dad. Not only is it good ground cover but it is a versatile crop.

__________________
Andrewo
www.andrewoldham.co.uk

Heres an alternative, using the bluebery bush you got from GYO...yes?


For best result, use fresh blue berries. The berries must be fully ripe when you pick them.

Direction:

• Rinse the blue berries carefully.
• Leave them to dry in the shade - on paper towel.
• Use a clean glass jar with tight-fitting lid.
• Fill 1/2 - 2/3 of the jar with blue berries.
• Fill up with clear, unflavoured vodka - 40% alcohol content (80 proof).
• Steep for at least 3 months in a dark place at room temperature, 18-20°C (64-68°F).
• Shake lightly and taste it from time to time.
• Strain and filter your infusion into a clean glass bottle or jar with tight-fitting lid.

You can serve your blue berry schnapps after it has settled for a couple of days. It has a nice, fruity taste.
Or you can store (age) it for 4-6 months or even longer in a dark place at room temperature before serving.

__________________
Geordie

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure

I now have four blueberry bushes as I went a little mad and bought more so Blueberry schnapps will be more my thing as this is the first year I will be able to harvest my Rhubarb. Last year I had to just look at it and admire it. This year it is all booked for crumbles until the crown gets bigger!
Jax

Geordie, yes I got that subscription freebie... If the fruit manage to get past the mouths of me or my son, they'll be turned into alchol....

Thanks for the suggestion!

__________________
Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Hi! yes me again, I cannot see the point of adding Vodka to anything. I have posted a way to distill anything that you brew. This will give you a schanpps of over 60%, the last schanpps I had was about 45% alcohol which you can never acheive buy adding vodka 40% to anything, it gets weaker!!!
I hoped this site was about doing it for yourself not just paying for the feeling that you had made it yourself. I Really look forward to replies to see if I have got it all wrong.

Hi Brewer and welcome to the vine. The rhubarb schnapps’ is a bit of an on going joke on the vine