eeew..was he trying to make tzuica? Brandy has to be aged.. a long bit.
That's Romanian
ţuică stuff, right? In Polish transliteration it would look like: cuika, or cłika. This T up front is confusing, because it is T with cedilla.
Some Polish moonshine I used to taste was always flavoured with prunes after distillation, which would:
- kill some bad taste of the original booze
- add some good color - giving the booze resemblance of a brandy
As I was told, my friend's mother used to produce her booze in the most primitive still ever, made of:
- sizeable laundry cauldron, filled with mash at the bottom - made mostly of sugar and yeast plus some fruits for flavor. That was put on the top of the stove.
- an eating bowl, upside down, serving as a foundation
- another eating bowl, on top the first one to serve as an alcohol collector
- a big washing bowl, on the top of the cauldron, filled with very cold water. Fresh bread was used to seal the edge of the cauldron and the washing ball.
The process was simple: stove heating, evaporation, condensation at the the washing bawl, collection of alcohol at the bottom bowl.
He claimed, that all that smell coming from the regular cooking was sufficient enough to hide the smell of alcohol being produced. She was not afraid of any unexpected inspections. Not that it was any problem at all, since only three people were entitled to run such business: her, the police station commander and the parish priest.
YAY! I am Westerner and I cook!
Congratulations! I am impressed. :-)