Fermented Raspberry Bonneville Cocktail

This is a tale of two cookbooks. Recently I bought the Noma Guide to Fermentation and The Aviary Cocktail book. Both are beautiful books. The Noma book is an modern illustrative guide to fermentation and encourages home cook participation. The Aviary Cocktail book is beautiful but unattainable perfection for most home cooks, much like a lot of Instagram food images! The reason Happy Belly After doesn’t show finished recipe imagery is that I want you to be inspired to explore your own creativity. Cooking is fun. Allow yourself the freedom to experiment, fail and try again. This recipe is inspired by a demonstration I saw by René Redzepi and David Zilber in Chicago. David demonstrated how to ferment blueberries. I’ve adapted his technique with raspberries instead of blueberries and a bit less salt for this Raspberry Bonneville cocktail. Since we are making syrup, I recommend using frozen raspberries for this recipe. Frozen raspberries have better flavor than fresh berries. Salty and sweet, this is a wonderful cocktail for the holidays. Make one drink or a pitcher for a party. A fantastic whiskey made in Tucson is Whiskey Del Bac Classic unsmoked by Hamilton Distillers.

Fermented Raspberry Bonneville Cocktail

Mix the raspberries, sugar and salt in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.  Cover and let cool to room temperature. Add the lemon juice. Pour into a two quart glass jar. Press the raspberries down with a large zip-loc filled with water. Place in your oven and let the raspberries ferment 4-5 days. Note – I like to use the oven because the temperature is more consistent than at room temperature.

Strain the raspberries through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Gather up the cheesecloth and press the fruit to remove as much of the juice as possible. Store in a lidded glass jar.

Make the Raspberry  ice cubes – Place 3 raspberries in each mold of the silicone molds and fill halfway with water. Freeze until solid. Remove the tray from freezer and fill with water. Freeze until solid.

Make the Raspberry Cocktail – Measure and place the cocktail ingredients in a cocktail shaker and stir to combine. Serve in an old fashioned glass, half the rim dipped in the raspberry dusting sugar with a large square raspberry ice cube. 

makes 1½ cups

FERMENTED RASPBERRIES

  • 4 cups frozen raspberries
  • 2 tbsp organic cane sugar
  • 1 tsp non-iodized salt
  • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

RASPBERRY ICE CUBES

  • 6 oz fresh raspberries
  • Filtered water
  • Flexible square silicone molds 

RASPBERRY BONNEVILLE COCKTAIL

  • 2 oz Whiskey Del Bac, Classic Unsmoked
  • 1 oz Amaro Nonino
  • 1 oz fermented raspberry syrup
  • 2 tsp maple syrup

RASPBERRY DUSTING SUGAR

  • 2 tbsp freeze dried raspberries, ground into a powder in a spice grinder
  •   2 tbsp organic cane sugar
  • ½ tsp pink Himalayan sea salt