It's interesting to see how recipes have changed over the years. When I lived down in the Virginia Blue Ridge, there were several gentlemen that made cherry bounce every year. However, they had two recipes. One was simply moonshine, sugar and cherries mixed and left to age until well flavored (Yes, it's VERY illegal). The other recipe was tart and sweet cherries - mashed, fermented and distilled one time through a copper pot still. (Did I already mention that it's illegal?) One then ages it in a barrel with cherry skins or pits. Oh, and the flavor is somewhere in between a really good cherry pie, and getting hit upside the head with the flat side of a shovel.
Jeez. And you still call US of A the Land of Freedom? In Poland making fruit wine for your own use at home is very much legal and has a long tradition. You can buy glass balloons for wine-making, books with instructions, many kinds of yeasts and boosters for them in craft shops everywhere. Every year in the fall my Dad and I gather grapes grown in our garden and make about 30 liters of homemade red wine. My uncle on the other hand prefers red currants or cherries for his wine.
@@FrikInCasualMode It's perfectly legal to make wine and beer at home here in the States. The legal issues come up when distillation happens. Really, it's more about tax revenue than it is about safety. Licenses for distilling cost big money, and the government levies taxes and sets prices in certain areas as well. On the other hand, in Siberia, farmers can distill up to 100 liters of vodka every year for personal use.
Actually, it's not illegal to distill alcohol in small batches. You can distill up to 100 gallons (200 gallons if there are two adults in the household). (That figure is probably per year, not per batch. You'd have to look it up.)
Here is the recipe that has been passed down in my family for MANY generations: Fill a pint jar 3/4 the way with ripe pitted Dark Cherries, fill the rest of the jar with cubed sugar. Pour Whiskey into the jar until you leave 1/2 inch from the top. Cover tightly and store in cool dark place (in the Liquor cabinet) for six weeks. Open and enjoy the beverage, use the Cherries as a Cough suppressant.
@@tylermiddaugh1515 It is normal for Strawberry Mead. I would wait until it should be done and then filter everything out. You'll notice if it's gone bad that way
@@joycesmith5786 I'd just wait until the fermentation should be done and filter it. If it tastes bad throw it out. If it tastes good it should generally be fine
Jon, I am going to pay you the best compliment that I possibly can. I have gotten into 18th century reenactment and demonstrations, a few years ago, and am very actively involved in Tennesseans For Living History, as well as the Greater Knoxville Historic Society... and all of this has been because of you. I began watching your videos from the first season, which had inspired me to get involved in history and recreations of the era. It is a true passion. We are very blessed to have a strong support for history here in East Tennessee, and have several historic homes and forts from this area, and I sincerely thank you for all you have done to get me involved in 18th century history. Take care, and God Bless!
My hometown was the home of Amos Owens, a moonshiner famous for his Cherry Bounce. We even have the Cherry Bounce trail, which traces the distribution route of the drink. So great to see this drink showcased on your channel!
Any relation to Josh Owens from the “Moonshiners” show? He was depicted as making something he called cherry bounce on the show. It’s a goofy show, but fun to watch!
@ buddy let's not forget that the parties switched sides a few times since founding times so you're referring to when there was the left leaning "radical Republicans " and the right leaning Democrats appealing to conservative southerners
If you have a Mexican grocery store nearby (or you're in an area where the regular chains have large, well-stocked "hispanic food" aisles) you should be able to find "piloncillo". This is a raw, unprocessed cane sugar sold in small cones. It's dark brown in color and has a pronounced molassesy flavor. Am I off target in guessing that frontier traders would have stocked something similar?
Okay, this might not interest the reenactors among you, however, I based a recipe for Cherry Bounce on this video. It wasn't necessarily historically accurate especially for the North East, but this may have been some of the best alcohol I've ever had. I used new-make Applejack and sweet cherries instead of old brandy and tart cherries. All the same the main difference was a mere 2/3 cup sugar for the 2 cups cherry juice I got initially. I added a about 3 cups of 40% Applejack to mix with the rest of what Mr. Townsend specified and let it sit for 6 weeks. I have to tell...this is some of the best stuff that I've ever had. Many cocktails advertise that there's no flavor of alcohol. Many times this is a lie, and yet, for this drink, my drink was about 22% alcohol and I didn't realize that until I had drank about a pint. In conclusion, I highly recommend trying to follow this recipe or something similar because it is so good. Of course I have to thank Townsends for the inspiration of this recipe and so many others. I've really gotten into trying to recreate recipes from this era because they are truly magnificent. Thank you again. Godspeed in your future endeavors.
When added sugar (table sugar) is added alongside w/e fermentable sugars are there from the fruit/grain, one of the byproducts is water. The added volume may have been due to this.
I know right? This channel got me into historical cooking. Last week RU-vid suggested another channel called Tasting History which has been neat, and How to Cook that has a couple awesome historical recipes too.
@@Fluffymonkeyem I've been wanting to get into it also! I bought some land in the mountains and would seriously love to build a traditional cabin and try the old recipes too.
We have bush cherries in the wild where I live (Northern CO). I believe they are called Nanking Cherries. They aren't really a wild cherry but they escape from cultivation here and everyone picks them along the trailsides. I'm going to try this recipe with them. We also have tons of black chokecherries here but they are quite astringent and wouldn't work well.
I really appreciate that Townsend doesn't artificially inflate his video run times to work the algorithms and instead focuses on making quality, concise content. I wish I wasn't terrified of buggering up the fermentation because I very much so want to try this drink.
Nice -- Sounds wonderful! Makes me reminisce about my old Boy Scout days when we often brewed up the roots of a Sassafras Tree to make a non-alcoholic root beer-like "Sassafras Tea." That might make an interesting video subject for you sometime.
That looks so delicious and refreshing! Plus, Jon always looks like he gets enjoyment from everything and never lets anything get him down. This channel always boosts my spirits.
My favorite flavor on the planet so far: Sour cherry jam. The sour cherries lend themselves so, so well to sweetening while still preserving their fresh, slightly tangy flavor. Ever wanted to eat candy on your bread? Try making a sour cherry jam. I am definitely trying out the Excellent Cherry Bounce come sour cherry season.
Is the sour cherry jam you make syrupy? Or solid like jam... my favorite is also sour cherry jam (its from meddetarranian) and will knock your socks off.. its more of a thick syrup type jam with whole sour cherries in them...great on English muffins and cream cheese...also great as a ice cream topper... I would gladly send you a jar so you can try... let me know!
@@gballs007 Stop it! Please you guys are making my mouth water.😁😂👍♥😋 Please could you send me the recipe! or is there anywhere l can buy it?, thank you! Enjoy your day! 👍🤗 Moira From England.
@@contact3604 ??? He shows the recipe printed on the screen at 1:28 then demonstrates exactly how it is made. I don't think Cherry Bounce has been available in shops and bars for 200 years.
I'm an old school moonshiner, I make corn, wheat and oat shine. A friend does re enactment of civil war and things of that period. My shine is always a hit at them because of flavor, and the traditional ways I use. This recipe is on my list this fall! Shine On My Friend!!
I need to make some of this with the sweet cherries that we have in California! Also, I have access to an apricot tree that is being harvested at the moment. I wonder if I could do the same thing with fresh apricots!
There are whole families of liqueurs made with marinated fruit. However, apricots are relatively mild-tasting, so you would proportionately need more fruit than cherries for an equally strong flavor. You might do better macerating dried apricots (which have a more concentrated flavor and are available year-round) in your brandy, rum, vodka, white wine, or whatever you're using as the base. Also, tree-ripe, home-grown apricots are so much better than store-bought ones that I'd prioritize eating them fresh or using them in recipes that take advantage of their juiciness and texture (salads, compotes, preserves, cake/Kuchen, cobblers, smoothies, etc.).
This couldn't have been better timing -- our sour cherries made it through the potentially crop-destroying Colorado spring and early summer, and we have a bumper crop ready to harvest in the next week or so. In addition to our usual pies, preserves, extracts, and brandy, we're definitely putting bounce on the menu!
YES!! Sounds like a new thing for Natalie and Tara to -steal- ... _oops_ I mean *to try* . But I don't know if we could ever be patient enough for it. 😂
I just grew a goodly bunch of grapes and started eating and cooking with them, they are on a grapevine that produces deep blue greenish grapes, various hues, and I think I can make grape drinks with this type of delicious recipe
When I saw the title I just had to check it out. An old Polish tradition dating back to the early 1900's in my town was to simply soak fresh sweet cherries in either high proof grain alcohol or alcohol made from potatoes. The high proof alcohol would draw the juice from the cherries and sweeten it.
My dad and grandpa used to make a version of cherry bounce when I was a little boy. They called it "Farm Wine". The recipe and method was basically identical to the Martha Washington version... with the exception of the ageing. They would let it set for 2 months in vat, and 1 month in bottle. They also would make a Blackberry, Raspberry, and Blueberry version.
I participated in Outlander Kitchen's great cherry bounce experiment back in 2013. At 6 months mine definitely tasted like cough syrup. Cutting it with ginger ale helped. Letting it chill in the fridge for another year made it the most delicious liqueur. Also saved the infused cherries and used them in black forest cake.
Belgians have been making a sparkly sour cherry fermented bier called Kriek Lambic for centuries. I lived in eastern Pennsylvania for a while and in my yard was a grizzled old cherry tree that became loaded with ripe fruit for three days every year. It was a race against time, birds, squirrels, and gravity itself up on that ladder to get the harvest in. Every year I had 40 pounds of ripe cherries in the fridge looking for a recipe. Being a homebrewer I made a lot of Cherry Kriek!
One of my 1978 fraternity brothers made a huge batch of this stuff in his room. It aged for 6 months or so, tasted great, ... but don't eat too many of the mighty-boozy fermented cherries
I think if you look hard enough there's probably not much that hadn't been fermented or distilled back then. Give someone something that tastes mildly sweet ( or that they like the taste of and some sugar), some time, and some good water and they'll probably try to make alcohol from it. The frontier in Indiana had an amazing amount of natural fruits available for any enterprising sort.
I am a chef, or used to be. But your channel, I recently discovered it. Along with Tasting History. Both channels inspire me to want to do it again. But on this level. Not what I was doing. But researching. I haven't figured out how to do that yet. But maybe one day. Thank you.
Hi John, love your channel. I am confused about the proportions of this one. In the receipt you gave at the start of the video you gave a ratio of 20 lbs of cherries to 10 quarts of brandy. later in the video, you give the proportion of 20 lbs of cherries to 1 quart of brandy. You never told us the weight of the cherries you used. You used 1 and a half cups of brandy, so depending on the ratio that is either 3/4 of a pound of cherries or 7 1/2 pounds of cherries. Ust eyeballing the amount of cherries you showed the first seems like not enough and the latter seems like too much. Could you clarify please?
He pointed out that the way he thinks of it is 20 lbs of cherries crushed and the liquid used, therefor he thinks the brandy should be cut accordingly. I disagree. This cherry bounce is an intensly alcoholic beverage in the first case 20 to 10 or less so at 20 to 1. The first is much much less likely to mould up due to the higher alcoholic nature of the liquid.
The recipe specifically calls for the addition of cherry pits. However, do they not contain cyanide, and how would this have affected the drink? Thank you for a yet another great video!
I was wondering about that...you could probably, if you figured out the measurements, add almond extract for a safe alternative to potential cyanide poisoning, since that would be roughly the same flavor. I've tried reading up on how safe it is to cook with/flavor with noyaux/cherry- or apricot-kernel, but I've never gotten a straight answer...
i would expect the addition of the kernels don't do much in terms of flavor. i'd be more concerned over the poisonous nature of ingested cherry pits (kernels).
Not to worry as long as you don't crush them. Also, not as much as the fear mongers would have you believe. If there is a cyanide problem it may stem from the artificial fertilizer used in the food industry
The cherry pits were probably used as a form of nourishment for the fermentation. Any yeast that is found on the cherries needs food to help fermentation. The cherry pits may provide nitrogen needed to help that fermentation. From a home brewer perspective.
This is fantastic! What a wonderful video, so well done - well shot, well narrated, well scripted, and love the subject material. I'll definitely be trying this at home, thanks so much for continually inspiring me! If I wasn't already a patron, I'd become one just as a thank you for this recipe. You guys do truly wonderful work!
Yep. This recipe doesn't make much sense. If you have 20 lbs of cherries. Even if they're 100% juice that would be around 2.5 gallons (8lbs per gallon. 10 quarts of brandy (which is distilled wine) is also 2.5 gallons. That's 50-50 cherry juice and brandy. That would be too much alcohol in the first place to ferment into a wine.
i absolutely love this channel. i have made so many recipes from your videos. i always enjoy making these old recipes to try out for myself. thank you :)
Hey there! Just as a very simple side note: Most of the time when there's talk about 'good fermentation' and 'bad fermentation', the distinction is between yeast and bacteria. Yeast can produce ethanol in the absence of oxygen. When oxygen is available, some strains of yeast will produce pyruvate and carbon dioxide instead. Baker's yeast or fission yeast can engage in alcoholic fermentation even in aerobic condition (meaning oxygen is readily available). Bacteria, however, very often use carbohydrates as a source of 'mixed acid fermentation' when subjected to anaerobic (non-oxygen containing or oxygen-limited) environments. The products are varied but do not produce ethanol, as a rule. Much rather they produce various acids that can be found, for example, in vinegar. Because of this, it most likely was very advantageous to 'ferment' the berries in the presence of oxygen, encouraging the proliferation of 'positive' yeast strains without encouraging mixed acid fermentation (even more) by bacteria.
Ion In the recipe shown it called for 10 qts of brandy (2 1/2 gallons) to the juice of 20 lbs of cherry’s with added sugar and spices. Assuming that the brandy was 80 proof I doubt if fermentation would take place as the strength of the alcohol would kill off the yeast. However, were the mixture to sit for six weeks melding you would end up with a wonderful beverage !
I made Cherry Bounce three years ago and the recipe I used said any liquor would do and cheap whiskeys were often used. Instead of brandy, I used Ever Clear. I put that into canning jars and stuck them up in teh top of the pantry for about 6 months. Then I took it down and added more sugar and spices. I also put up cherries in bourbon that year and after a year in the cupboard and extra sugar, it made the best ice cream topping I have ever had!
One of my family's old traditions is preparing a drink similare to this one, but a little more simpler. Just let the sour cherries whole along with half the weight of the cherries in suggar to sit and ferment by themselves for about 10 day, then add some liqueur to that, around the amount of juices left from fermentation, maybe more, and let that concoction sit for about 10 more days or untill the cherries have sat on the bottom of the flask. You can drink that as it is, leaving for last the best there is: the alcohool infused sweetened cherries, which you can eat responsibility or use for adding them to sweets, like brandy chocolate or sweet bread.
