Cordials from Your Kitchen: Easy, Elegant Liqueurs You Can Make & Give [Paperback]

Pattie Vargas (Author), Rich Gulling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 1997

Includes unique and luxurious recipes for fruit, nut, spice, coffee, and cream liqueurs, plus flavored brandies, rums, and vodkas.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Create delicious, elegant liqueurs for entertaining or gift giving. It's easier than you think!

This complete guide serves up more than 100 easy recipes for delicious cordials to suit every occasion, including fruit-, nut-, herb-, and cream-based liqueurs, "candy cordials," coffee liqueurs, and flavored brandies, vodkas, and rums.

Recipes include:

-- Cinnamon Coffee Liqueur, Creme de Cacao, and Ouzo

-- Mint Julep, Rosemary-Tangerine, and Ginger Liqueurs

-- Black Walnut, Hazelnut, and Vanilla Butternut Liqueurs

-- Black Currant, Strawberry, Peach, Apple, and Melon Liqueurs

-- Spiced Blackberry Brandy, Peach Brandy, Lemon Vodka, and Pineapple Rum

-- Peaches and Cream, Dreamsicle Liqueur, and Chocolate Covered Cherry Cream

Cordials from Your Kitchen offers home-crafted versions of popular and traditional favorites, along with an astonishing array of original recipes. This thorough guide also presents simple recipes for using cordials to make deliciousdishes, desserts, and spirited fruits, and suggests creative gift-giving ideas.

About the Author

Pattie Vargas is an avid home winemaker. He is co-author of several books on the subject, including Cordials from Your Kitchen and Country Wines, which has been revised and is now titled Making Wild Wines & Meads. Pattie is the Editorial Project Manager at Mazer Corporation and has won several awards. She is a member of the National Press Women's Association and National Council for the Social Studies. Pattie has three children and four grandchildren.

Besides working as an Internet consultant, She lives in Ohio.

Richard Gulling is an avid home winemaker. He is co-author of several books on the subject, including Cordials from Your Kitchen and Country Wines, which has been revised and is now titled Making Wild Wines & Meads. Richard is a pharmacy manager whose background in chemistry helped refine and modernize their winemaking process. He lives in Ohio.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC; 1st edition (January 9, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882669869
• ISBN-13: 978-0882669861
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #67,321 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #61 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Drinks & Beverages > Wine > Wine & Winemaking

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Clear instructions but no really original recipes., July 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cordials from Your Kitchen: Easy, Elegant Liqueurs You Can Make & Give (Paperback)

I've been looking a long time for a really good home-liqueur book, and this is not it. The "Getting Started" info at the beginning is very helpful for beginners -- the authors include details about materials, procedures, and a glossary -- but the recipes themselves cater a little too much to a suburban craft-fair mentality. There are "qick-and-easy" recipes using store-bought flavor oils and food coloring (why bother?), and nearly all the recipes across the board are too sweet. That said, there are a few nice ones: a home version of Strega which clearly cost the authors some effort and experimentation, a tasty cranberry cordial and a brilliant elderberry liqueur. A good book for beginners in home liqueur production, but not much new or interesting for serious hobbyists.

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars written to make money, August 26, 1999

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cordials from Your Kitchen: Easy, Elegant Liqueurs You Can Make & Give (Paperback)

I tried many receipes from this book, and I am very disappointed with 90% of them. The liquors have no character, are too sweet, and are mostly "quickies." What the heck is the point of making a "home" cordial by mixing vodka, food coloring, and an artificial flavouring?! Get real, just buy some cheap schnaps for $5, the taste willbe better.

But I guess you can expect those results from these authors. At the beginning of the book they admit that they wrote it because of the success of their "wine making" book (I think, I am not sure if it was really about wines). They started experimenting, and - voila! - here is another book from the "experts." Well, it does not work. Skip this book.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A year later and I still think this book is fantastic!, September 2, 2007

By 

K. C. Johnson (Burbank, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cordials from Your Kitchen (Hardcover)

I bought this book a year ago to make some unique holiday gifts, and I'm already excited to start ramping up for this year. Now I have a food processor, so I can give the nut liquors (i.e. homemade amaretto, yum) a shot. We have found these recipes to yield quite delicious results. Our top three so far are the raspberry, vanilla bean, and honey liqueurs. The honey liqueur is the easiest to make, as it is basically a honeyed brandy. The fruit ones are more work, since they need to be strained and then need time to settle. The results are worth it though!

A previous reviewer who did not like the book mentioned the "quickie" recipes using artificial colors and artificial flavorings. Yes, those recipes are in the book, and yes, I've tried some of them. The caramel liquor yielded great results, but the "quickie" raspberry was completely sub-par compared to the real deal. For the most part, I've been avoiding them, although I want to give the butterscotch one a try. The good news is that the book is so full of recipes, I don't feel like skipping them leaves me with less of a book.

Supplies-wise, I bought 2 and 3-quart mason jars from The Container Store. Trader Joe's has a 1 quart bottle of Green Tea in a green glass bottle for $1, and I use those bottles as well as my empty vodka and brandy bottles for recipes that make 1 qt. or less. For gift-giving, I order 5 oz. "woozy" glass bottles with a white lid from www.specialtybottle.com. (Click on "Glass Bottles", then "Sauce", and you'll see a great assortment.) The 5 oz. Woozy starts at $.57 each. I also recommend using their easy to apply Shrink-Wrap Bands.

The book is also chock full of ideas on how to use your liqueurs once made. Just yesterday I added the raspberry liqueur to buttercream icing for cupcakes.

I think this book is awesome. I'll be using it for years to come!