• Yield: Makes about 1 quart


You're walking through a field of grass dotted with wild strawberries. The ground is damp and uneven, a shifting carpet. You try not to tread on the treasured fruit, but every now and then you miscalculate, creating an invisible cloud of strawberry-scented air, and you thank the gods who grace us with gifts for our clumsiness. This liqueur is single-minded: It thinks of nothing but ripe strawberries, and in its simplistic innocence it sings sweetly.

 

  • 2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced, or 1 1/2 pounds frozen strawberries, thawed

  • 1 1/2 cups Simple Syrup 

  • 1 fifth (750 ml/3 1/4 cups) vodka (80-100 proof)

Muddle the strawberries and simple syrup with a wooden spoon in a half-gallon jar. Stir in the vodka.

 

Seal the jar and put it in a cool, dark cabinet until the liquid smells and tastes strongly of strawberries, about 7 days.

 

Strain the mixture with a mesh strainer into a clean quart jar. Do not push on the solids to extract more liquid.

 

Seal and store in a cool, dark cabinet. Use within 1 year.

 

Santé! Perfect for sipping on a summer day, for spiking a Cosmo, for dabbing behind each ear.


Excerpted from Homemade Liqueurs and Infused Spirits © by Andrew Schloss, used with permission from Storey Publishing.

Andrew Schloss
Andrew Schloss is a restaurateur; the author of 12 cookbooks; a writer whose articles have appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, Bon Appetit and Family Circle; and president of product development company Culinary Generations, Inc. He is the former president of The International Association of Culinary Professionals and former director of the culinary curriculum for The Restaurant School in Philadelphia. His website is AndrewSchloss.com. His latest book is Cooking Slow: Recipes for Slowing Down and Cooking More.