Liqueurs

I'm back to Gabriel Gaté again. A few days ago he did a little piece on liqueurs. I think I am well behind the times on this one because these days liqueurs seem to be mostly used in cocktails, which are very trendy - probably because of TV programs such as Sex in the City, Mad Men and Boardwalk. I'm actually not sure I shall have a lot to say about liqueurs but here goes.

We used to collect them every time we went to Europe. We or our overseas visitors - in those days our parents - would bring a bottle of liqueur back - our alcohol allowance for duty free. Duty free is virtually a non thing these days, so there is not quite the same desire to make use of a system. Anyway, as a result, because we actually don't drink or use them very much, we have a large shelf full of various liqueurs and spirits - well lots of whisky which we really do not drink at all. I must start using it in recipes.

Our favourites back then were Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Bénédictine, Drambuie and Crème de Menthe. Slightly later we got into Calvados, Cassis and Kirsch and later still limoncello. But I think we have a few others in there somewhere - Crème de Cacao, maybe some Baileys, a mandarin liqueur - to be honest I really don't know what is hiding in there.

Our favourites were favourites because we did occasionally drink them straight after a meal with friends in the days of dinner parties. I always thought they were just a bit too strongly alcoholic for me but in my 'research' today I saw that most seemed to think that they were less alcoholic than spirits.

I also occasionally used them in cooking - particularly the orange flavoured Cointreau and Grand Marnier, the Calvados and the Kirsch. Nowadays not so much.

And we never drank cocktails which also use them a bit. Although whilst spending a few days in Raratonga many years ago we would indulge in the daily free cocktail at happy hour that they called a jolly green giant. Fill a tall glass with ice. Then add a shot of vodka, a shot of crème de menthe and fill the glass with orange juice. I really rather liked that one.

Liqueurs in fact are ancient. They reckon they first discovered distilling in the 4th century BC, but everyone seems to think that the first 'real' liqueur was Chartreuse, produced by the monks of Chartreuse in the French alps in the 13th century.

It is still made today and is the only naturally green coloured liqueur, although there is a yellow one too. Apparently it contains 130 herbs and spices and the recipe is a very closely guarded secret held by just three monks who never, ever travel together in case of disaster. Why monks? Well their initial use was medicinal and the monks were the main purveyors of medicine. Liqueurs are a mixture of a spirit base, something sweet and a mix of flavourings from just about everything. The various herbs and spices used to flavour these early liqueurs were all said to have various healing properties. They were not imbibed purely for their taste until Catherine de Medici came to the French court and introduced the fashion for sipping liqueurs.

And the name comes from the latin liquifacere meaning to dissolve or melt. And another bit of trivia - the D.O.M on the bottles of Bénédictine stands for Deo Optimo Maximo - To God, Most Good, Most Great.

But you can make your own liqueurs from various fruits. In the past I have made limoncello, a liqueur from blackberries - we had tons of them in Adelaide, and cumquats. What else do you do with cumquats? Well quite a lot of things really, but once you've made your marmalade and maybe candied some and perhaps made some chutney, what else can you do? These are not sophisticated liqueurs, but they are certainly tasty and very usable in cooking and in concocting other drinks.

Not a lot to say about them, but they are making a comeback. Indeed if you look at the various ten best kind of lists, only a few of the classic ones feature. There is such a lot of experimentation out there with them perhaps for the cocktail market. And apparently, in the UK anyway, a fifth of all drinkers now drink just cocktails.

I should make a conscious effort to use up all the bottles I have hidden away there. Crêpes Suzette perhaps.