English Ratafia
We chose to try English Ratafia in memory of our life in Manchester and all our fond memories there.
If, like us, you’re expecting to find ingredients in this liqueur that are immediately reminiscent of England, such as tea, beer or Pimm’s, you’re going to be disappointed. Some will say that English ratafia lives up to the reputation of ‘perfidious Albion’…perfidious. We prefer to think that this ratafia is ‘English’ because it was invented or popularised by the English.
It was the favourite drink of the Ladies of good society during the Regency period (1811-1820). Men preferred Brandy or Whisky. You might think that it was a soft, sweet, low-alcohol drink. Well, not really.
So what’s in English Ratafia?
Well, oranges are used: whole, juice, zest or peel. Why oranges, you may ask? Honestly, we don’t know (and if anyone has the answer, we’d love to hear it).
First we peeled the oranges trying to take only the peel (not the white). Then we squeezed them to extract the juice. According to the manual, the juice is filtered, then the zest and sugar are added and left to melt completely.
We didn’t filter the juice to preserve the pulp and maximum flavour. We used the orange peel instead of the zest for simplicity and ease. We used sugar syrup instead of caster sugar to simplify and speed up the dissolving process.
We then substituted 37.5% alcohol vodka for the original rum (because we had vodka on hand) but a neutral rum works just as well. In the original recipe, mace is added. We also added cloves for a hint of spice.
We left it to macerate for 8 days, in a cool, dark place.
Finally, we filtered the mixture through a Chinese-style sieve and bottled it.
It’s ready to enjoy.
The quantities of water and sugar are given as a guide only; you can modify them to suit your taste.
Here are the ingredients for the recipe we followed:
2 to 3 kilos of oranges to obtain 600ml of juice.
Mace 1-2gr
Cloves 3-4
1l of vodka or rum at 37.5%
140ml sugar syrup
To prepare a sugar syrup, you use as much water as sugar; dissolve the sugar in hot water and leave to cool; for example: 100ml of water for 100g of sugar.
Here’s a recipe* for Ratafia, which was drunk during the English Regency
Regency Ratafia
1 quarter* of Brandy
1/2 bottle Champagne
1/2 cup* of gin
1/4 cup of sugar
2 oranges
2 cups of cherries, pitted and squashed
2 cups of blackberries
Dash of cinnamon
Dash of nutmeg
1 teaspoon powdered rosemary
3 cloves (bruised)
1/4 cup crushed almonds
Recipe aliciarasley.com
1 quarter = 0.946l
1 cup = 240ml or 240gr
As you can see, this ratafia of the Regency is not for the faint hearted. It’s hard to imagine the state of the Ladies who sipped this concoction all day long.
