Dear Christmas Ladies,
Well, the Cordial is actually having a ball in the jar. The top has fizzed up and there is about an inch of fizz on the top. The top part is singing opera and the bottom part is doin' the rock and roll.
Jim walked by the jar yesterday and said to me, "You better watch out for that stuff -- it looks like it is gonna blow up." Well, I do need to skim the foam off the top. But the jar lid is loose on there so it won't blow up. If I had it capped right now, it would blow the lid off. Probably it would break the glass to get out. Well, now that I think of it, I hadn't better let this go any longer -- I will be right back. I am back. Good night! The lid was on there pretty good. Yikes! I just skimmed the foam off. This took out about an inch off the top. The cherries all float to the top and the spices will lay at the bottom.
I really don't want it to ferment anymore, as I like the taste of it now. But if you try to cap a cordial before it is done fermenting, it will blow its stack. So ya kinda have to let it go. When it quits fizzing and settles down, then it is ready to be strained and put in a jar for the fridge. Should take about 2 weeks.
I kinda like it sweet with a kick? But the problem is that if you add more sugar after it is done? Then the stuff wants to get up and take off again because it is the sugar that makes the alcohol in the cordial. So if you want it a bit sweeter once it is done brewin'? Then, just before you serve it, put some fruit juice in it to make it milder and sweeter. I will put a dab of grape juice from the store in mine if I want it sweeter. I mean, pour in the juice just before you serve it. I put 2 cups of sugar in my cordial to begin with. I would rather have put about 4 cups in there. But that may be illegal! (Tongue in cheek!) My cherry cordial is pink right now but a bit of grape juice will make it a lovely purple.
Anyway, on a side note. If I were to take 2 cups of this out, I could use it to make 2 loaves of bread. This would be the yeast. It would work like a sour dough. Even though there is wine yeast in the cordial, it is yeast and would make the bread to rise. Yeeehaw!
My first attempt at making spirits bright was when I made Sunday School Root Beer. Boy, did that stuff arise! Well, you know me and recipes. We were supposed to drink it that day before it fermented? Well, I had it all made up in a big jar. Jim says, "Well, my mother never made it like that. She would let it set a few weeks in a warm place."
Well, I thought, "Oh, OK." So I let mine set, too. Well, heck fire, I didn't know I was makin' real beer. So I started serving it when my Christian friends would drop by.
MaryL says, "Connie, I have to drive home."
And Dixie said, as she looked at me outta the corner of her eye, "Are you tryin' to get me drunk?"
I thought everyone was kidding me. Every time I would walk into a room, everyone would laugh. The relatives were laughing like crazy, especially my brothers. Scott, who is a few years younger than me, makes his own beer. So he explains to me in a whisper, "Connie, anytime you put yeast and sugar and water together, and set it in a warm place for a few weeks, it will ferment and make alcohol." Well, slap my face and call me Lucy. I didn't know I was makin' home brew.
Well, it was so funny, I just kept makin' it for a laugh. Every time Jim got around men friends, they would start talking about the time they made Apple Jack and all kinds of home brews. I made a new sour dough called Spook Yeast? And an older Christian lady told me, as she laughed her head off, that I had made vodka.
Ya know, I can get in more trouble just doin' nothin'. I mean, who could get in trouble makin' Sunday School Root Beer? I thought later, "Heck, I could make a whole liquor cabinet." Not that I would want to. Poor Jim -- what is he to do with me?
