I’d been told I just had to try the house-made sweet vermouth at a trendy Italian spot on a recent trip to California. Not one to ignore a recommendation from a friend with trustworthy taste buds, I obliged. He was right! The icy glass of the slightly bitter, oh-so-refreshing herbal aperitif was a total, delightful, surprise.
Once I arrived home, the only store-bought vermouth I could find was cloying with a synthetic floral aftertaste, nothing like the complex bitter flavors I’d enjoyed many months ago. To recreate that classic Italian libation—a fortified wine flavored with bitter and aromatic herbs—I’d have to make it myself! I quickly found there wasn’t just one way to craft sweet vermouth. Yet the single constant among all the recipes I unearthed was wormwood. The leaves of this bitter herb are most famously used to make absinthe, but it’s also an important component of vermouth.After lots of experimentation, I came up with two recipes that were easy and delectable—a quick method that uses heat to help the herbs infuse faster, and a slower method that’s similar to making a tincture—with the addition of wine.
As with most things in life, the slower method will produce a better finished product. But the quick method is great if you need vermouth in a hurry, and it is so much tastier than anything you can find at the store. Note: all herbs used in the vermouth recipe should be dried.
Ingredients
Directions
My local liquor monger shared a tale about vermouth’s original recipe: Italian families would venture into the hills to gather wild bitter herbs. Upon returning home, they would infuse them in a white wine fortified with something like our modern-day vodka, the higher alcohol content of the spirit pulled out the herbs’ healthful properties. This was then sweetened with honey to make it palatable and enjoyed before a meal. Here’s my attempt at this more traditional method, minus the wildcrafting!
Ingredients
Directions
Vermouth is surprisingly versatile! It’s actually wonderful in cooking, especially when making complex sauces. For a simple beverage, serve it on the rocks with a twist of citrus like I had at that trendy Italian restaurant on my travels, and for a celebratory drink, mix up a Vermouth Champagne Cocktail. Or try it in these other classic cocktails:
This concoction is a marriage of the popular gin-based Negroni and its lesser known cousin, the "Negroni sbagliato.” Delicious and easy to make, its gorgeous reddish hue is a true crowd pleaser!
Ingredients
Directions
Raychel Kolen, blog contributor, originally hails from the Midwest but has been calling Oregon her home for more than a decade. With her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa, Raychel enjoys storytelling in all its forms and especially relishes the opportunities to visit our farm partners in the Pacific Northwest and across the globe, shining a light on the remarkable efforts these hardworking farmers are doing to grow and nourish our beloved botanicals. When she isn’t thinking about marketing strategy or teaching workshops at the Mother Earth News Fair, Raychel can be found adventuring in the outdoors, foraging for wild mushrooms, fermenting fresh veggies in her kitchen, or hanging out with her hubby and sweet rescue dogs.
I’d been told I just had to try the house-made sweet vermouth at a trendy Italian spot on a recent trip to California. Not one to ignore a recommendation from a friend with trustworthy taste buds, I obliged. He was right! The icy glass of the slightly bitter, oh-so-refreshing herbal aperitif was a total, delightful, surprise.
Once I arrived home, the only store-bought vermouth I could find was cloying with a synthetic floral aftertaste, nothing like the complex bitter flavors I’d enjoyed many months ago. To recreate that classic Italian libation—a fortified wine flavored with bitter and aromatic herbs—I’d have to make it myself! I quickly found there wasn’t just one way to craft sweet vermouth. Yet the single constant among all the recipes I unearthed was wormwood. The leaves of this bitter herb are most famously used to make absinthe, but it’s also an important component of vermouth.After lots of experimentation, I came up with two recipes that were easy and delectable—a quick method that uses heat to help the herbs infuse faster, and a slower method that’s similar to making a tincture—with the addition of wine.
As with most things in life, the slower method will produce a better finished product. But the quick method is great if you need vermouth in a hurry, and it is so much tastier than anything you can find at the store. Note: all herbs used in the vermouth recipe should be dried.
Ingredients
Directions
My local liquor monger shared a tale about vermouth’s original recipe: Italian families would venture into the hills to gather wild bitter herbs. Upon returning home, they would infuse them in a white wine fortified with something like our modern-day vodka, the higher alcohol content of the spirit pulled out the herbs’ healthful properties. This was then sweetened with honey to make it palatable and enjoyed before a meal. Here’s my attempt at this more traditional method, minus the wildcrafting!
Ingredients
Directions
Vermouth is surprisingly versatile! It’s actually wonderful in cooking, especially when making complex sauces. For a simple beverage, serve it on the rocks with a twist of citrus like I had at that trendy Italian restaurant on my travels, and for a celebratory drink, mix up a Vermouth Champagne Cocktail. Or try it in these other classic cocktails:
This concoction is a marriage of the popular gin-based Negroni and its lesser known cousin, the "Negroni sbagliato.” Delicious and easy to make, its gorgeous reddish hue is a true crowd pleaser!
Ingredients
Directions
Raychel Kolen, blog contributor, originally hails from the Midwest but has been calling Oregon her home for more than a decade. With her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa, Raychel enjoys storytelling in all its forms and especially relishes the opportunities to visit our farm partners in the Pacific Northwest and across the globe, shining a light on the remarkable efforts these hardworking farmers are doing to grow and nourish our beloved botanicals. When she isn’t thinking about marketing strategy or teaching workshops at the Mother Earth News Fair, Raychel can be found adventuring in the outdoors, foraging for wild mushrooms, fermenting fresh veggies in her kitchen, or hanging out with her hubby and sweet rescue dogs.
