A sorbet is a welcome refreshment not only as a dessert. A fine pear sorbet, for example. Serves 4: 2 large, fully ripe, juicy pears, preferably Williams Christ. 1/8 l apple juice, 1 clove, 1 piece of cinnamon stick (3 cm), juice of 1 lemon, 1 half vanilla pod, slit; sugar syrup made from 1/8 l water and 60 g sugar (simmer gently for 10 minutes); 2 egg whites; pear brandy or pear liqueur.
Peel the fruit, cut into quarters, and remove the core. Toss the quarters in lemon juice to keep them from browning. Put the peels and cores in a saucepan with the apple juice, remaining lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon stick and the slit vanilla pod and leave to infuse rather than boil over a low heat for a good half hour. Drain through a sieve and steam the pear quarters in this stock until soft. Puree or pass through a sieve. Mix the fruit puree with the sugar syrup, leave to cool and fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Blend in an ice cream maker to make the sorbet.
If you don't have one, pour the well-chilled mixture into a round-bottomed metal bowl and place in the freezer. After three quarters of an hour, remove and stir the frozen sorbet vigorously with a stiff whisk. Repeat every quarter hour until the sorbet reaches the desired consistency.
Place in pre-chilled glasses and drizzle with pear brandy or pear liqueur. If you want to add the liquor to the sorbet mixture before freezing, know that the alcohol will delay freezing.
The master of spirits
Ornamental quince, yew, snowball are not edible, but can be drunk in distilled form. Especially when Arno-Josef Dirker, fruit distiller from Mömbris in the Kahlgrund, had a hand in the game. He also extracts flavour from apartem. Besides other rare schnapps, (cornel and honeysuckle, hawthorn, rowan, mulberry), Dirker distills the familiar: pears, apples, plums, mirabelles, cherries. His most expensive: stone sour cherry brandy, about €100 for a 1/2-liter bottle; field plum brandy is already available for about €15.
Hazelnut brandy, the aroma bomb, costs about €18. Whereby it already corresponds to an extraordinary culinary experience to even smell the noble substance. Dirker roasts the nuts for it; the typical noisette bouquet of the spirit is caused by two additional spices, which the master does not reveal, of course.
The tasting room is so richly decorated with medals and certificates that one could think that the family has been distilling for generations. In fact, they pressed fruit wine from the fruit of the meadow orchard, and the young Dirker, born in 1963, became a carpenter and worked as a carpenter. Only when in 1986 the surplus of a rich plum harvest was given to the distillery, he assisted and learned fast: One year later he distilled his own schnapps and already in 1993 he took the 2nd place at the "Destillata", Europe-wide. When in 1994 the "Schnapsbrenner des Jahres" was Arno-Josef Dirker, the success story really took off. His wife Elke, who takes care of office and sales, household and children, lacks the time to delve into the art of distilling.
Of course, fruit schnapps is not that simple (not to mention the numerous customs regulations). On the one hand, there are the "waters" obtained from the mash of stone fruit; then the "brands"from pome fruit mash and finally the "spirits": fruits with little sugar content (raspberries, strawberries, walnuts) are deprived of their aroma substance by means of pure alcohol, which is then distilled. Dirker even succeeds in pulling the taste of garlic or porcini mushrooms onto bottles.
All artistry and experience are in vain if the quality of the base material is not right: selected, ripe fruit must be. The Dirker family makes sure of this and harvests the fruit themselves, mostly in the immediate vicinity; some of the mirabelles are sourced from the Taunus region.
The mashed fruit ferments for at least three weeks; particularly acid-rich ones, e.g. Speierling, for up to a year. During this time, the danger of the mash "turning over" is not small; small carelessness can already cause this - or the vinegar fly.
If everything went well, it goes to distilling. Dirker heats his column still with wood - and now it's pay attention. The mash is heated, and at 65°, the "pre-boil" starts to trickle. And there they are, the notorious fusel oils and the caustic acetone-smelling, blinding methyl alcohol; substances that must be carefully separated. The coveted "heartbeat" runs out of the tube in a thin stream at 78.3°, but Dirker needs neither a thermometer nor any other measuring device to determine the right moment. Nor to keep out the unwanted "after-run": Dirker simply tastes with his finger. No question: the man is the master of spirits; no wonder his brandies and liqueurs are also available in many top restaurants.
Precious Fruit Distillery
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Arno-Josef and Elke Dirker
Friedhofstr. 20
63776 Mömbris
Phone: 06029 / 7711
Fax: 7744
Internet: www.dirker.de
Opening hours: Sale ex distillery: Mon-Fri from 8-12 and 14-15, Wed to; Sat from 8-12 and 13- 15 clock (registration desired)
Visits possible!
from Waldemar Thomas