Peket

Ingredients

The base

• 700 mlpeket
• or Dutch or Belgian jenever
• bought, see the note on distilling
• young jenever for a cleaner infusion
• old jenever for a maltier one

To flavour it, choose one

• peel of 3 lemons, no pith
• or 300 g raspberries
• or 4 speculoos biscuits, crumbled
• or 200 g rhubarb, chopped
• or 2 tablespoons dried violet flowers
• food grade, see the note

The syrup

• 150 gsugar
• 100 mlwater
• cooled completely
• see the safety note

To serve

• very cold, from the freezer
• in small shot glasses
• with black bread and cheese
• or boulets à la liégeoise

Directions

1. Use the peel and no pith. Use a vegetable peeler in long strips. Use the stalks only. Crumble the biscuits into the spirit.
2. Strain it carefully through muslin and then through a coffee filter. Biscuit infusions do not keep as long. Use dried food-grade violet flowers. Put the flavouring in a jar and pour the peket over.
3. Seal it and keep it in a dark cupboard. Lemon peel takes two or three days. Taste early and often. Citrus peel turns bitter if left too long.
4. Strain it through muslin. Press gently rather than hard. Heat the sugar and water until dissolved. Let it cool completely. Adding spirit to a hot pan on a stove is dangerous.
5. Heat also boils the alcohol off. Take the pan off the stove entirely. Let it reach room temperature. Add the cool syrup a little at a time. Taste as you go. Pour it into a clean bottle. Serve it very cold.
6. Keep the bottle in the freezer. It goes thick and cold. Check on it rather than leaving it for days. In one, cold, standing up, with people.
7. Keep infusions refrigerated or frozen. Discard any that go cloudy, fizz or smell fermented.

Technique

• The atlas gives no distilling method: home distilling is illegal without a licence in most countries, it carries real fire and pressure hazards, and badly made spirit can contain harmful levels of methanol, which causes blindness and death. Infusing a bought bottle is a completely different thing — legal and safe — and flavoured peket is what most peket sold in Liège actually is, rather than a compromise.
• Jenever is not gin. Jenever is built on malt wine, a distilled grain mash, and tastes of the grain as well as the juniper; gin is built on neutral spirit and tastes of botanicals. Gin descends from jenever, and the phrase Dutch courage is traditionally traced to English soldiers encountering it in the Low Countries.
• Oude and jonge do not mean aged and unaged — they are styles, not time in a barrel. Oude is the old style with more malt wine; jonge is lighter and more neutral. A jonge jenever may still be barrel aged and an oude may be young. Almost everyone gets this wrong. Use jonge for infusions, since it takes a flavour better.
• Choose one flavouring rather than several. Peket flavours are direct and simple and a mixture muddies them.
• Use citrus peel and no pith — the coloured peel holds the aromatic oil and the white beneath it is purely bitter. A vegetable peeler in long strips takes one and leaves the other.
• Taste early and often. Citrus peel turns bitter if left too long, flowers turn soapy, and you cannot take a flavour back out. Lemon peel and violet take two or three days, fruit about a week, speculoos a day.
• Press the solids gently when straining. Hard pressing pushes bitterness through.
• Let the syrup cool completely before it meets the spirit, with the pan off the stove entirely. Alcohol vapour is flammable, adding spirit to a hot pan is dangerous, and heat boils the alcohol off anyway.
• Use dried food-grade violet flowers. Flowers sold for craft, potpourri or display are not food and may be treated.
• Use rhubarb stalks only. Rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid and are not eaten.
• A speculoos infusion clouds heavily — strain it through muslin and then a coffee filter — and does not keep as long, so drink it within a month.
• Commercial flavoured pekets are very sweet, and yours does not have to be. Less sugar gives a better drink and a less festival one, which is a choice rather than an improvement.
• Keep it in the freezer, but check on it: spirit at forty percent will not freeze in a domestic freezer, while a sweetened low-strength infusion can, because sugar and water both raise the freezing point.
• It is drunk in rounds at festivals, is strong, and goes down easily when sweetened, so people misjudge it badly. Eat, drink water and pace it — nobody is obliged to keep up with a round.
• Do not drink alcohol if you are pregnant, driving, or on medication that interacts with it.

Substitutions

• Dutch or Belgian jenever replaces peket directly.
• Genièvre is the same spirit under its French name.
• Gin substitutes at the cost of the malt character.
• Lemon, raspberry, rhubarb, violet and speculoos are all traditional flavourings.
• Vodka gives a cleaner, less characterful infusion.
• Elderflower cordial with sparkling water is the non-alcoholic parallel.

Variations

• Plain peket is drunk cold and unflavoured.
• Péket citron is the lemon version.
• Péket violette is bright purple and floral.
• Speculoos peket carries the spiced biscuit flavour.
• Oude and jonge jenever are the two Low Countries styles.
• Kopstootje in the Netherlands serves jenever alongside a beer.

History

The spirit of Liège, poured in quantity during the Fêtes de Wallonie and the Outremeuse festival in August.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peket?

Peket is a wine & spirit from Belgium: walloon juniper genever drunk chilled in shots, often fruit-flavoured. The spirit of Liège, poured in quantity during the Fêtes de Wallonie and the Outremeuse festival in August.

How long does Peket take to make?

Peket takes 15 minutes plus 1 week of preparation and 10 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 700 ml flavoured peket. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Peket?

Yes, within limits. Dutch or Belgian jenever replaces peket directly. Genièvre is the same spirit under its French name. Gin substitutes at the cost of the malt character. Lemon, raspberry, rhubarb, violet and speculoos are all traditional flavourings. Vodka gives a cleaner, less characterful infusion. Elderflower cordial with sparkling water is the non-alcoholic parallel.

What is the most important thing to get right in Peket?

Strain it carefully through muslin and then through a coffee filter. Biscuit infusions do not keep as long. Use dried food-grade violet flowers. Put the flavouring in a jar and pour the peket over.