I have a bottle of creme de cassis...what to make with it?

I’m not positive what led me to buy a bottle, but when Full Pull offered NV Domaine du Prieure Crème de Cassis de Dijon, I bought one. So there it sits, in my wine rack, and I thought it was time to drink it. I have some larger gatherings coming up, so perhaps one of those will be the best use.

What are your favorite uses for crème de cassis? I know about the ubiquitous kir royale, of course (but would love to know about any variations you like). What are your favorites?

I’ve mixed it into some various chocolate recipes, occasionally into batters, but have made some pretty decadent icings for cakes. It can make them dry a little harder than normal, so not the greatest for leftovers, but served night of it was outstanding. No specific recipe comes to mind, I always just sort of played around with it when the opportunity came up, but Creme de Cassis is sweet and strong like a Port or PX Sherry, so they keep for many many months without much fading.

I used it a couple of weeks ago. I was trying to make something called a gin berry.

The recipe I saw on Diffords guide called for Chambord, didn’t have any so used crème de cassis

And cranberry juice, didn’t have any so used grapefruit

Left it on the rocks as a quencher and to cut the sweetness of the crème de cassis a bit

I would say you can sub it for Chambord and blackberry based cocktails (Bramble, Rum Runner, etc.)
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Pour over top quality vanilla ice cream.

Do you use dry or sparkling wine for a kir?

I like an El Diablo with good tequila. I’ve also had a tequila sunrise made with the crème de cassis. Both pretty tasty.

I have one of these somewhere. If I get and good ideas from this thread, I may seek it out.

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Kir is with still wine, classically Bourgogne Aligoté, but other similar wines fine also (dry, fresh, some acid).
Kir Royale is with Cremant de Bourgogne or other sparkling wine or champagne.

By the way, to my taste most recipes put way too much cassis - I’ve seen 30ml per glass of wine (155 ml). I take a couple of teaspoons ( so about 10 ml) of cassis and pour it to one side of the glass, I like it not mixed too thoroughly. The layers of colour look good too.

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Thank you all for the feedback thus far. The email from Full Pull mentioned having some by itself as an aperitif, along with some cheese. I could see that working, too, akin to how I might enjoy a Port like Matthew mentioned above.

This

Haven’t had this since college! All I remember is that it make a really ugly color of cocktail.

As to vanilla ice cream, if you’ve never tried it, put a few drops of good quality balsamic vinegar on it. One of those “who ever thought of that?” ideas that is actually really good.

Like olive oil gelato.

Deglaze pan seared duck breast, add some butter and fresh blackberries. Bon Apetit.

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Reduced and on top of vanilla ice cream.

I mostly use it in whipped cream. It’s a great add to things like Eton mess.

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Speaking of Eton Mess , Ramsay has an interesting twist using blackberries and lime juice and zest.

The Cassis idea sounds good too, will give that a try.

Sounds delicious, I’ll have to give it a try. Thanks!

Speaking of Eton Mess, Gordon Ramsay has a great twist on this using Blackberries, lemon curd and lime juice folded into the cream, toasted meringue and topped with lemon zest. It’s really good. Needs a different name though. Harrow Mess? Wykehamist Mess?

Bumping this. I saw a TN in CellarTracker for the bottle of cassis in which the author used some of theirs to make a cocktail I’d never heard of, the Bourbon Renewal (apparently a creation by Jeffrey Morgenthaler). So, I decided to make it and thought it was really great and a nice use for [a little bit of] cassis.

2 oz. Bourbon (I used Wild Turkey 101…very good cocktail Bourbon, IMO, for the meager price)
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. creme de cassis
1/2 oz. simply syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake, strain into old fashioned glass.

Initially I though I’d pass on the syrup, but it was too sour and needed it. This was like a tart Manhattan, and I really liked it.