Crème de mures – blackberry liqueur

A reader from France emailed me a few weeks ago with her own recipe for Crème de Cassis: blackcurrant liqueur for making Kir with. Kir is one of my favourite apèritifs – use one measure of Crème de Cassis or Crème de Mures (the same liqueur made with blackberries rather than blackcurrants) in a glass of five measures of chilled white wine. A Kir prepared with sparkling wine is a Kir Royale, and is also blimmin’ brilliant. Thank you very much, Jacqueline – and if you email me again to let me know what your surname is, I can give you a full credit for the recipe!

In this part of the world, blackcurrants are hard to find and very expensive when you do get your hands on them. Blackberries, however, quite literally grow on trees at the moment, and the method and amounts you’ll need for a crème de mures will be exactly the same. So if you want to make the most of this year’s surprisingly good blackberry harvest, get gathering at the weekend and produce a couple of home-made bottles of crème de mures (or crème de cassis if you have a handy currant bush) to impress people with.

Jacqueline says you’ll need:

1.5 kg ripe blackcurrants
2 litres of red wine (NOT the absolutely cheapest plonk)
Sugar

Wash the blackcurrants or blackberries, place in an earthenware pot or pyrex bowl and crush with a wooden spoon. Add the red wine and leave to macerate for 48 hours.

Filter, weigh the juice and add the same weight of sugar. Pour into an enamel or stainless steel saucepan (Jacqueline and I both used a Le Creuset pot) and heat to just boiling. Let it boil gently for 5 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon from time to time. Leave to cool to about 40°C, filter and bottle.

If filtered well, and bottled into sterilised bottles and well corked this will keep indefinitely. Jacqueline says that for a filter, she makes bags out of calico with loops for suspending from the legs of an upturned stool, making sure the bowl can be lifted out from between the stool legs when full! I have a Lakeland jam stand – I’m not awfully fond of it, given that these days it’s a bit peely, but it does the job. Don’t be tempted to hurry up the filtering process – just leave gravity to do its job.

11 Replies to “Crème de mures – blackberry liqueur”

  1. Ah, a booze post. That's more like it.

    The blackberries in Scotland are woeful looking specimens this year due to the incessant rain. I suppose I could substitute turnips.

  2. I'm dying to try this – what a fabulous Xmas present it would make.
    BTW you were so kind in helping me find a deli/caterer in Cambridge for my daughter's wedding, you might like to check my blog to see how it all turned out!

  3. This looks fabulous. I was thinking of making a blackberry drink with vodka but red wine sounds much nicer!

    PS Is there a way to subscribe to your blog with RSS? I find it hard to follow otherwise so I miss many of the posts.

  4. I love kir as well – I think its my all time favourite drink. I wanted to make some creme de cassis or mure but didn't have a recipe so I've done a blackberry vodka – which on initial tasting at the filtering stage seems pretty good. i'll be giving this a go as well though to see how they compare.

  5. Fantastic post! Appreciate your discussing. So where do you believe this is going? I will subscribe to this web site and keep updated.Best wishes.

  6. I made this last year for the first time and it has just got better and better with age. Absolutely fab!
    I’m soooo cross with myself for not picking blackberrys this year (my usual supply was cut back by the park keepers so very few there this year) but I’m off in a minute to try and pick enough for a couple of bottles to keep us going. Sadly no family & freinds presents of Creme de Mures for the family this year, all I make I will have to keep!!!!

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