No. 3411 — Nalivka, Another Method
English historical translation of Molokhovets recipe No. 3411 from the 1901 Russian cookbook, retaining original methods and measures.
Fill a bottle with sorted berries and pour in vodka to the level of the fruit, adding ½ bottle pure spirit to the vodka. Leave in sunlight for three to four months.
For garden strawberries, the author reduces the time to a month; for wild strawberries, to a single day. Drain, bottle, cork and seal with resin. This unsweetened infusion is described in the original as being served to men.
Press the strawberries left after draining through a wooden press, let this liquid settle and decant carefully into bottles.
Sprinkle 2–3 pounds granulated sugar over cherries, plums or currants remaining in their bottles after infusion, and put in the sun until the sugar dissolves. Drain the liquid and repeat with more sugar until the berries seem almost dry.
The sweetened juice may be added to the first unsweetened infusion or served separately as a liqueur.
Finally cover the exhausted fruit with boiled warm water and leave for two to three weeks; the author uses the resulting liquid for a jelly dish or for drinking diluted with water.