RHAPSODICA
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wormwood, the percentage of anise being increased to make up for it. It is possible to create a pretty good absinthe by simply adding the wormwood back in. I say "simply," but there are several steps involved, and once mastered there is no reason not to make absinthe from scratch. There were always regional absinthes in France, and the mixture of herbs in the drink was never canonized completely, sweet flag, dittany, angelica, oregano, coriander, and nutmeg being included in some absinthes and not in others. My own recipe is based on that most excellent of formularies, Dick's Encyclopedia of Practical Receipts and Processes, and other
nineteenth-century formularies. To Prepare Absinthe by Distillation
30.0 8.5 1.8 6.0 30.0 25.0 10.0 3.2
g wormwood g hyssop g calamus g melissa g anise seed g fennel seed g star anise g coriander seed
Put the dry herbs in a large jar. Dampen slightly. Add 800 milliliters of 85—95 percent alcohol. Wine spirits make a better product than pure grain alcohol. Let it steep for several days — a week is better — shaking occasionally. Then add 600 milliliters of water and let the whole macerate for another day. Decant off the liquid, squeezing as much from the mass of herb as possible. Wet the herbs with some vodka and squeeze again. Recipe should give a little over a liter and a half of green liquor. It must then be distilled. Inferior recipes skip this step, but what they produce is not worthy to be called absinthe. In the distillation, change the receiver when the distillate turns yellow: those are the faints. You can save the faints and add them to future distillations, but they will taint the flavor if added directly to the product. Just use the good stuff. The next step is to color and finish the liqueur by another round of maceration. Color the distillate by again adding: 4.2 1.1 3.0 1.0 4.2
g mint g melissa g wormwood g citron peel g liquorice root
Let the herbs macerate for another three or four days. Decant, filter, bottle. You will probably want to carefully add some concentrated sugar syrup to the blend. The result will be a Swiss style absinthe of about 135 proof. Recipe makes one liter of absinthe.