the_rayway
Always busy
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2012
- Messages
- 1,760
- Reaction score
- 931
Ok, even though it's December, I'm thinking about May!
I'm planning my garden and what fruit I'm going to plant this year. Since we moved into our new house, we have been the lucky owners of a 'Man-Eating Rhubarb Plant'. Seriously, it's massive. And I've already dug out 4/5ths of it!
Last spring I tried a new canning recipe: Rhubarb Vanilla Jam with Earl Grey tea, I think of it as Cpt. Picard's favourite croissant spread (I'm such a geek).
Anyhoo, I popped open a jar the other day and HOLY SMOKES is it good. Like, I'm not giving any of this away for Christmas good. Has strong rhubarb flavour, with only a slight acid hit, smooth vanilla with not-to-much sweetness, and a nice orangy-tangy type of finish.
Here's the jam recipe:
8 c chopped rhubarb
4 c sugar
1 c 2x strength earl grey tea
1 vanilla bean, split & scraped
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
Pectin
Recipe makes 2000mL of jam
Now, I would like to get these flavours into an experimental wine. Looking at 1 gallon to start, as part of the Wine of the Month Club in the spring.
What I'm thinking:
Primary
16 cups chopped rhubarb
sugar to reach 1.095
Water to 1 gallon, made as a tea with Earl Grey, 1x strength
2 vanilla beans, split & scraped
Pectic enzyme
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer
Yeast - strain tbc
Secondary:
rack onto another 4 cups rhubarb
1 vanilla bean
Tertiary:
At rackings, top up with 2x strength earl grey tea
Final:
Backsweeten. Use some vanilla extract if necessary to up the vanilla flavour.
Thoughts, ideas, input? Oak? Frozen acid adjustments to the rhubarb? I would really like to get the same sort of flavour profile as the jam at the end.
Raelene
I'm planning my garden and what fruit I'm going to plant this year. Since we moved into our new house, we have been the lucky owners of a 'Man-Eating Rhubarb Plant'. Seriously, it's massive. And I've already dug out 4/5ths of it!
Last spring I tried a new canning recipe: Rhubarb Vanilla Jam with Earl Grey tea, I think of it as Cpt. Picard's favourite croissant spread (I'm such a geek).
Anyhoo, I popped open a jar the other day and HOLY SMOKES is it good. Like, I'm not giving any of this away for Christmas good. Has strong rhubarb flavour, with only a slight acid hit, smooth vanilla with not-to-much sweetness, and a nice orangy-tangy type of finish.
Here's the jam recipe:
8 c chopped rhubarb
4 c sugar
1 c 2x strength earl grey tea
1 vanilla bean, split & scraped
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
Pectin
Recipe makes 2000mL of jam
Now, I would like to get these flavours into an experimental wine. Looking at 1 gallon to start, as part of the Wine of the Month Club in the spring.
What I'm thinking:
Primary
16 cups chopped rhubarb
sugar to reach 1.095
Water to 1 gallon, made as a tea with Earl Grey, 1x strength
2 vanilla beans, split & scraped
Pectic enzyme
Yeast nutrient
Yeast energizer
Yeast - strain tbc
Secondary:
rack onto another 4 cups rhubarb
1 vanilla bean
Tertiary:
At rackings, top up with 2x strength earl grey tea
Final:
Backsweeten. Use some vanilla extract if necessary to up the vanilla flavour.
Thoughts, ideas, input? Oak? Frozen acid adjustments to the rhubarb? I would really like to get the same sort of flavour profile as the jam at the end.
Raelene