Peaches are coming in strong and will do so for a couple of months. Let’s make clarified peach calpico with them.

Props where props are due. I’m pretty sure the original version of this came from the great Nico de Soto. He provided it for all via the instas about a year back and Angel and I became obsessed and worked on this recipe a bunch.

Clarified Peach Calpico

4 Cups Buttermilk

1 Cup Fresh Orange Juice

8 Grams Citric Acid

5 Grams Malic Acid

In addition to pots and normal sized measuring cups, you’re going to also need a chinois, two lengths of cheesecloth, and a four quart measuring cup. Yes, I’m mixing metric with U.S. measurements. It’s not on purpose, it’s just how my brain works.

Ok, ok. Heat the buttermilk, the citric acid, and the malic acid together at 180°. An electric induction burner is really best for this sort of thing, but most at home won’t have one so heat it slow on your stovetop and use a digital thermometer to test the temperature. Wait until it all breaks, you’ll start to see curds forming.

When it’s done, add the orange juice and then pass it through the cheeseclothed chinois. I really wish I had a good picture of this, but I don’t because I’m ill prepared for this blog post. Oh wait, here’s a decent one.

I like to have an ice bath at the bottom of the four quart so this can chill more quickly. I pass it though once and then a second time to get a better clarification. It won’t be crystal clear, but it’ll be good enough. Let it drip for the next hour or so. The nice thing about this is you’ve also just made a tangy ricotta cheese. So now you can go make lasagna.

This gives us a good quart of clarified calpico. Now it’s time to add some peach syrup. This will be in a 2:1 ratio. For the dumb dumbs that’s two parts clarified calipico to one part peach syrup by weight. If you have 1000 grams of clarified calpico, add 500 grams peach syrup or really any other syrup you have. It works well with anything.

Now what to do with it? Well, if you want a delicious NA bev, just add some sparkling water and ice. If you want to make a cool cocktail like the Peachy Keen, follow this recipe.

It was a very busy bar night last night. I’m fried.