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Dandy-byrd Licorice Digestive Bitters
 
 
This digestive bitter recipe is one that I designed for myself, since I enjoy the taste of licorice, and don't tolerate yellow dock. Because this recipe is written in 'parts' you can easily scale it up or down depending on the unit of measure that you use. I'll walk you through it.
Author:
Recipe type: Herbal Remedy
Ingredients
  • 1 cup (or less) boiling water
  • 80 proof decent rum to fill your container
  • 2 parts burdock root
  • 1 part dandelion root
  • 1 part fennel
  • 1 part licorice root*
  • ½ part dried orange peel
Instructions
  1. Decide how much tincture you want to make, and choose a jar that's roughly double that volume.
  2. Choose a unit of measure that will fill the jar ⅓ to ½ full of herbal material. My jar holds about 8 cups total, so I want between 3 and 4 cups of herbal material. (The herbs will swell a LOT when you add liquid.) I have 5½ total 'parts' in this recipe. A one cup measure would be 5½ cups...too much material. A half cup would only give me 2¾ cups of herbs, which is a bit shy. I'll move to the next size up, and go with a ⅔ cup 'unit', which will give me 3⅔ cups of herbs. Perfect. The beauty of using a recipe with parts is that you can scale the unit of measure to any size jar...even using half teaspoons if you desire a very small jar of tincture.
  3. Add your herbal material to the jar using the unit of measure that you selected.
  4. Put a kettle of water on to boil, and when it's boiling add a few 'glugs' of water...really just enough to pre-moisten the herbs a bit. This just wakes up the herbs and speeds the process in the alcohol.
  5. Fill the jar to the top with 80 proof rum.
  6. Seal jar with a plastic lid, and sit in a dark, cool place.
  7. The next morning, check to make sure that the herbs are still submerged under the rum. They wil have swelled quite a bit. Add more rum as needed to cover the herbs.
  8. Allow mixture to steep in a cool dark place for 3-6 weeks (although I will strain and use some early on.)
  9. Strain by placing a mesh strainer over a bowl with a pouring spout. Line strainer with a tea towel and add a paper towel over the tea towel.
  10. Pour finished tincture into the towel lined sieve, and allow it to drain over the bowl.
  11. When it's mostly drained, gather up the towel and begin to twist the top and squeeze the herbs to press the remaining liquid out of them.
  12. Toss spent herbs into the garbage- the paper towel lining makes this much easier.
  13. Store tincture in a cool dark place. To use, I fill a small glass dropper jar or sprayer bottle (available on MountainRoseHerbs.com). Tinctures last for up to 2 years.
Notes
*pregnant or nursing Mamas will want to sub anise seed for licorice.
Recipe by Gwen's Nest at https://gwens-nest.com/digestive-bitters-recipes-part-iii/