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Homemade crème de cassis

Dijon, 1841: a café owner, Auguste-Denis Lagoute, turns traditional cassis into 'crème de cassis'. A century later, served with a white aligoté wine at the receptions of Canon Kir, mayor of the city from 1945, the blend takes his name and becomes famous far beyond Burgundy.

This homemade crème de cassis macerates the berries at length in red wine, then sweetens it with sugar and fortifies it with vodka; Dijon's crème de cassis macerates the berries in neutral alcohol with added sugar. The result: a liqueur of deep black, sweet but with the fruit's acidity in the background, that keeps almost indefinitely. It's the homemade aperitif par excellence, and the base of kir and kir royal.

Ingredients

  • Fresh blackcurrant berries

    fresh ideally, frozen works too, but the aroma will be a little less lively

    1.5 kg
  • Quality red wine

    Burgundy wine or another tannic wine, don't skimp, the wine shows up in the final result

    2 L
  • Caster sugar

    adjust to your taste; go down to 800 g for a less sweet crème

    1 kg
  • Vodka

    a standard-quality neutral vodka, its role is to fortify the alcohol for keeping

    70 cl

Equipment

  • •1 large glass or stoneware bowl (3 L minimum)
  • •1 muslin or jam-straining bag
  • •1 large pan
  • •1 support to hang the muslin from (a chair, a frame, a kitchenware shop)
  • •Sterilised glass bottles with airtight stoppers

Steps

  1. 1

    Prepare the blackcurrants

    Strip the berries and crush them well with a fork or pestle in the bowl. Crushing releases the coloured juices and starts the extraction.

    30 min

  2. 2

    Macerate 48 h

    Pour the red wine over the crushed blackcurrants. Mix. Cover with a clean cloth and let it macerate at room temperature for 48 hours, the wine will take on an inky hue, the scent will fill the room.

    48 h

  3. 3

    Hang and drain

    Transfer the whole mixture into a muslin or a jam-straining bag. Hang this bag over a large clean bowl (with a wooden frame, the back of a chair, or a dedicated stand). Let it drip quietly all night. DO NOT PRESS the bag, otherwise your crème will be cloudy. The filtering must be slow.

    8 to 12 h (all night)

  4. 4

    Cook the syrup

    In the morning, collect the filtered liquid in a large pan. Add the sugar. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar well. Let it simmer gently for about 1 hour, at a light simmer (never a violent boil), until you get a slightly syrupy consistency, a little thicker than wine, not as much as a classic blackcurrant syrup.

    1 h

  5. 5

    Add the vodka

    Turn off the heat. Let it cool completely (at least 2 hours). This cooling is crucial: if you add the vodka hot, part of the alcohol evaporates. When it's totally cold, stir in the vodka.

    2 h cooling

  6. 6

    Bottle and wait

    Put into sterilised bottles. Close airtight. Wait at least 1 month before drinking, the liqueur rounds out, the alcohol integrates. Ideally 3 months for perfect harmony.

    1 to 3 months waiting

Storage

Several years in a cool, dark place. The high alcohol and sugar stabilise the liqueur almost indefinitely. Once opened, it also keeps for a long time (alcohol is a preservative).

How to use it

The KIR: 1/5 crème de cassis + 4/5 cool dry white wine (Burgundian Aligoté ideal). The KIR ROYAL: 1/5 crème de cassis + 4/5 cool champagne or crémant. As an aperitif, in moderate quantities. Also: over vanilla ice cream, in a chocolate mousse, as a syrup over a cake.

Health properties

  • Anthocyanins of the blackcurrant still present, antioxidants
  • To be regarded as a cultural and gastronomic pleasure, more than as a health drink

These preparations belong to cooking and herbal tradition: they nourish and support, do not “cure” anything and replace no treatment. Ask a doctor or pharmacist before prolonged use, if under treatment, pregnant or breastfeeding, or for a child. Follow the stated storage precautions strictly.

Precautions

STRONGLY ALCOHOLIC DRINK (16 to 20% vol.), not intended for minors, pregnant/breastfeeding women, people in abstinence, or people on medical treatment incompatible with alcohol. Alcohol abuse is dangerous for health, to be consumed in moderation. Very sugary too (>30% sugar). For sterilisation: perfectly clean bottles are essential, despite the alcohol that aids keeping. Do not heat the vodka (loss of alcohol by evaporation, denaturation).

Sources & tradition

  • · Capistran, M. (2022). « Dijon, terroir du cassis ». Revue Conflits, 18/09/2022.
  • · *L'autosuffisance, c'est possible !* (Cherche-Midi)

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