Homemade Ginger Liqueur (Vargas and Gulling) Recipe

Recipes From My Notebook

These are recipes from my notebook. These are liqueurs that I have made in the past, occasionally including variations, preparation notes and tasting notes. Many of these recipes originated in other books, but often I have made them my own over time.

From Cordials From Your Kitchen by Pattie Vargas and Rich Gulling:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 3 tablespoons chopped ginger root
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon black cardamom seeds
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 cup 100-proof vodka
• 1/2 cup brandy

Bring white sugar, brown sugar and water to boil. Add ginger root, cloves and cardamom and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stand until just warm. Strain out solids. Pour liquid into a clean, 1-quart jar. Add orange zest, vodka and brandy. Cover and let stamd in a cool, dark place for 1 month.

Strain and filter. Transfer liquid to a clean container and age 1 week more. Rack or finter into final container.

In making this one, but was forced to cut a few corners. I used 80-proof vodka; dried, grated orange peel; and mixed cardamom seeds (and it was an odyssey finding whole seeds, not ground, in the first place). The result was, as my notes say, tasty but not gingery. I was hoping for something with the bite of candied ginger. After a year and a half it was still tasty, but the ginger flavor had never developed. HAving said that, I think it would have been better had I followed the real recipe more closely, and chopped the ginger more finely.