Recipe:New Year's Eve Prep: Vin de Pamplemousse
What are you going to drink on New Year's Eve? At Greenvalley we'll be drinking Lora's VIN DE PAMPLEMOUSSE, a homemade French aperitif of white wine infused with citrus.
But why, you may be asking, call it that? Or even, what does that mean? I'll tell you in a minute.
In his immortal essay "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell gives six brief rules for proper Engish usage. Rule #5 is "Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent." I have often been reminded of his wise admonition just in time to pull back from some insult against my mother tongue. And, yes, there does exist a tidy English equivalent to vin de pamplemousse.
However, Mr. Orwell, who was as fine a prose stylists as ever turned the language, issued a sixth and final guideline: "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous." So you'll have to excuse a French title for this recipe, because in English the elegant French spritz vin de pamplemousse would be saddled with the barbarous name Grapefruit Wine.
Lora showed me how to make it over the summer when the last of last year's grapefruits were drooping on the trees. Now that new-crop citrus is in the market, the time is ripe to make another batch. But that's not what really made me think of vin de pamplemousse this week.
What happened was that on Wednesday I went to Lora's birthday party at Paul's house. As Lora herself might have said: "Hon, it was major." Dinner was tacos prepared on a flat-top grill in the garden by Laticia & Salvador's Catering Service (323.240.4719), and Valerie brought her signature BLUM'S COFFEE CRUNCH CAKE. Contrary to my usual grumpy self, I wound up liking every single person there and was sorry when the party broke up—it was a school night—and I finally had to go home to Greenvalley.
For a present, I took Lora a sampler from the Greenvalley cupboard, including WILD STRAWBERRY JAM, which is my favorite sweet preserve of the season. (As Miss Lewis's was hers.) But Valerie one-upped me by delivering Lora a jar of homemade MARMALADE DE VIN DE PAMPLEMOUSSE, made with the alcohol-soaked by-product of grapefruit wine.
I want to make me some of that, so first I have to make another batch of le vin. Which is why today I'm posting the recipe for LORA'S VIN DE PAMPLEMOUSSE. Note that the wine needs 40 days to macerate in a dark, cool place. So if you put it up now, you'll be ready to uncork a bottle to toast in the new year. And then you and I will get back to marmalade in January 2010.
LORA'S VIN DE PAMPLEMOUSSE
Lora learned to make this in the south of France, from the family who owns Lillet, a flavor-infused sweet, fortified wine drunk over ice as a refreshing aperitif. Vin de pamplemousse has a similar taste although it is somewhat livelier in the mouth. What sets Lora's recipe apart is her use of chamomile. "I did the research in all the old French books," she told me. "It's the secret ingredient, Hon."
During its long maceration in a sealed jar, the wine-fruit mixture must ferment, because it develops a slight fizz, which may or may not be robust enough to make it through to the final bottling. (Mine was still by the time I bottled it.) So as not to miss the bubbles, be sure to taste freely during the 40 days and 40 nights you'll be tending your jars.
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
2 5-liter (or five-quart) jars with a sealable lids.
5 750 ml bottles with stoppers
INGREDIENTS
6 yellow grapefruits (please try to find organic fruit, since the peel macerates for a long time in liquid you will want to drink)
6 pink grapefruits
2 limes (or lemons)
6 bottles light, crisp white wine (I used a Chilean sauvignon blanc that cost about $8 per bottle.)
1 750 ml bottle good vodka
5 cups sugar
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
2 8" camomile branches with flowers, or 2 bags of camomile tea
honey
TECHNIQUE
1 Trim the grapefruits by cutting a round slice off either end, going deep enough to reveal the fruity core beneath the thick pith. Set aside these endcaps. Cut each trimmed grapefruit in half and then cut the halves into 1/2" slices. Cut the limes or lemons into thin rounds.
2 Thoroughly wash your two large jars in hot, soapy water and rise well. Scald with boiling water and drain.
3 Divide the sugar evenly between the two jars. Add a split vanilla bean to each.
4 Layer the grapefruit slices into the jars, alternating yellow and red slices and mashing them down as you go. Distribute the lime or lemon evenly as you put in the layers. Once the jars are almost full, poke a camomile branch down the inside or lay the teabag on top. Now take a few of the reserved rounds cut from the grapefruit and lay them over the top of the fruit, peel side up, to make the final layer.
5 Pour the vodka in over the fruit, evenly dividing the bottle between the two jars.
6 Top up each bottle with white wine. You should have about a bottle left over, which you will need to keep for later use.
7 Seal the jars and invert them a time or two to make sure you have no air pockets. Don't worry about the undissolved sugar on the bottom.
8 Place the jars in a cool, dark place. Invert the jars to agitate the contents once a day for the first week. At the end of the week, the level of liquid will have gone down a bit. Top up each jar from the reserved bottle of wine. Over the next month, check on the jars and agitate every few days. Once a week, top up with wine.
9 At the end of 40 days, unseal the jars and pour the contents through a colander to capture the liquid. Allow the soggy fruit to drip for an hour and then gently press to extract more liquid. Taste it and adjust the sweetness, if you like, with a few tablespoons of honey. Allow the captured liquid to settle overnight in the refrigerator, then pour it through a double-thickness of damp cheesecloth, trying to avoid disturbing the sediment. Bottle the wine and then stopper the bottles. Keep bottles in the fridge for as long as it lasts. Over time, more sediment will settle out. If it bothers you, and it doesn't me, just pour gently so as to leave it in the bottle.
YIELD
5 750 ml bottles
Reader Comments (3)
this looks divine! i have been wanting to try my hand at preserving fruit and alcohol.
what is the shelf life in the fridge?
and, oh my, the marmalade....
Hi Tigress -- thanks for the comment -- this concoction is very shelf-stable. you could keep it in the fridge for several months -- but i doubt it would last that long -- it's delicious and very easy to drink -- I'll work up a recipe for the marmalade in Jan 2010 -- stay tuned! best, kevin
sounds lovely so I'm giving this a try, look forward to the marmalade recipe to use up the boozy remnants as well! :0)