Grandmother's Cherry Bounce

[Rozzer]

Rinse a clean, empty whiskey barrel well with cold water, drain, and fill with very ripe Morello cherries, mixed with black wild cherries. One gallon wild cherries to five of Morellos should be about the proper proportion. Strew scantly through the cherries blade mace, whole cloves, allspice, a very little bruised ginger and grated nutmeg. Add to a full barrel of fruit twenty pounds of sugar – or in the proportion of half a pound to the gallon of fruit. Cover the fruit an inch deep with good corn whiskey, the older and milder the better. Leave out the bung but cover the opening with lawn. Let stand undisturbed six months in a dry, airy place but rather warm. Rack off into a clean barrel, let stand six months longer, then bottle or put in demijohns. This improves greatly with age up to the fifth year – after that the change is unappreciable.

From "Dishes and Beverages of the Old South" (1915) by Martha McCulloch-Williams

[KarenB]

Huh! Terminology has changed. Availability of cherries has changed. Price of cherries has changed. Tastes have changed. Still interesting to read old recipes. Can you imagine waiting for 6 months to see if a recipe works? Not in my time management calendar.

[Rozzer]

Huh! Terminology has changed. Availability of cherries has changed. Price of cherries has changed. Tastes have changed. Still interesting to read old recipes. Can you imagine waiting for 6 months to see if a recipe works? Not in my time management calendar.

But imagine a forty-gallon barrel of this stuff! On the back porch! With everyone rolling around on the ground for the next five years!

[K. Slink]

If anyone would like an updated version of this old classic check page 371 of The Prudhomme Family Cookbook....