A good family friend of mine described something his mother used to make a very long time ago. My memory of his description is pretty spotty, so I may have it all wrong, but let me lay it out and see it’s familiar to anyone here.
From what I remember, one Christmas, his mother mashed up some fruit into jelly and filled the bottom of a large jar with it. She applied yeast, and allowed it to ferment. The next year, she mashed some more fruit of a different kind into jelly, and put it ontop of the first layer that was established the year before. Again, yeast was added, and it was allowed to ferment. Each year she did this untill the jar was full, then she gave it a final year. The next Christmas, she served it up to her family with ice cream. It was a big hit, and anyone that had more than one helping was stark raving drunk.
I don’t know too much about converting sugar into alcohol and all that, but this is essentialy the same way I heard the dish described…I think. Has anyone done this before? Does the dish have a name?
It sounds very similar to rumtopf, except that you make that all in one year as the fruits come into season, and you preserve the fruit with rum rather than ferment it.
This method sounds odd as you’ll end up with masses of yeast sediment.
My husband told me his father used to make “apple mash”, I think he called it. It involved buring apples. I always thought hubby was just trying to impress the City Girl with his parent’s country ways.
Not particularly impressive, drinking year old, buried food but, hey, whatever mellows your head.
It’s similar to a “boozy fruit” recipe I have in a family cookbook I have, but I don’t think my grandma’s boozy fruit involves a)yeast or b) that much time. It’s more like “put in some fruit, add sugar and add rum, then let sit for a while” (maybe a week?).
You know what, this “Rumptopf” thing is probably what I’m talking about. My description is based on a very spotty memory, so I’m pretty sure this is it.
And isn’t yeast sediment alcohol?
I’ve heard of lettuce being buried, but never apples. That sounds like something I could tolerate consuming. I doubt I’ll ever try it, but I’ll have to read about it tonight. Last night me and a friend spent two hours learning about homeade wine, inspired by this thread.
Hahaha. No, it’s not Pruno. That’s another thing my friend and I discovered last night, though we discovered it from this site. Their article on Jesus Toast is esspecialy humorous.
Thanks for the links. Using rum instead of yeast makes a lot more sense.
Sounds like something you would make in prison…Pruno?
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