Recipe no. 552 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 245.
Ingredients
- brandy
- juniper berries
- sugar
- water
Preparation
- Preparing the baseIn a jug or jar, combine 2 litres of brandy with a good handful of juniper berries and 500 grams of sugar which you will have boiled with half a litre of water and skimmed well.
- InfusingCork the jar well and keep in a warm place about a month.
- Filtering and bottlingPass through a straining bag to obtain a clear liquid and bottle.
Reboul's text
To make 3 litres of juniper ratafia, put into a jug or jar: 2 litres of brandy with a good handful of juniper berries and 500 grams of sugar which you will have boiled with half a litre of water and skimmed well; cork the jar well and keep in a warm place about a month. Then pass through a straining bag to obtain a clear liquid and bottle. This ratafia is very good for the stomach and improves greatly with age.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| genèbre | juniper |
| aigo-ardènt | brandy |
| sucre | sugar |
| enfusa | infuse |
| escuma | skim |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 552, page 245. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.