According to Wikipedia noyau is a liqueur made from brandy flavored with fruit kernels. In my paternal grandmother’s book, “Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines, it is included in the section on wines rather than liqueurs and made with peach kernels bitter almonds and French brandy. In the liqueur section of the book another recipe appears for noyua but it contains substantially more ingredients.
Here is the recipe for the simple version included in the the wine section of the book. In grandmother’s words:
Take six ounces of peach kernels, and one ounce of bitter almonds. Break them slightly. Put them into a jug with three pints of white French brandy. Let them infuse three weeks, shaking the jug every day. Then drain the liquor from kernels, and strain it through a line bag. Melt three-quarters of a pound of best loaf sugar in one pint of rose-water; mix it with liquor, and filter it through a sieve, the bottom of which is to be covered on the inside with blotting paper. Let the vessel which is placed underneath to receive the liquor be entirely white, that you may be better enabled to judge of its clearness. If it is not clear the first time, repeat the filtering. Then bottle for use.
To buy Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines by Helen S. Wright Click Here.
Karen Meyers