This is a family recipe so some of the ingredients are kind of "homey" and the directions have an insistent, pushy quality about them. You can almost feel the unremitting spirit of my mother, who had a tendency to over-direct her children by using capital letters, punctuation and/or underlining.
Ingredients
- 1 quart of rye whiskey*
- 3 whole black peppercorns
- juice from ½ orange
- the juiced half-orange itself
- a scant tablespoon of caraway seeds
- 1 Mickey Mouse juice glass of honey**
- grain alcohol***
Directions
- Combine all ingredients in a saucepan with a lid; the liquid should fit with plenty of room, so it doesn't boil and catch fire. Bring nearly to a boil then IMMEDIATELY reduce the heat and simmer on LOW for 15 minutes. DO NOT LEAVE THE STOVE. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't boil and ignite. Turn off the heat. Strain into the Boilo pot (making sure you have washed it out first.) Don't forget to plug in the pot!!! Serve WARM in a shot glass or cordial glass. ENJOY!!!!
* It is VERY important to use ONLY Rye whiskey. (Jim Beam or Wild Turkey both make ryes.)
** Nothing says 'family recipe' like the Mickey Mouse juice-glass unit of measure. This was on my sister Ann's copy of the recipe -- she peed her pants laughing when she tried to read it over the phone. We estimate the juice glass to equal 4 ounces.
*** Grain alcohol is not available in some states. And no one had an actual amount of grain alcohol to include in the recipe. Consulting with my cousin Beth who made Boilo with her dad every year, we settled on ½ pint. You can leave this out if it's too embarrassing to ask for it at your neighborhood liquor store. It’s one of those behind-the-counter items.
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