Brodsky's Tonics

Brodsky's Tonics is rated 3 out of 5 in the category food production. Read and write reviews about Brodsky's Tonics. Toby (טוביח) Brodsky, was known to friends and family as Uncle Tevye. With his Eastern Jewish love for all things pickled, vinegary, garlicy, peppery, and only-made-better with horseradish, he became addicted to Korean side dishes while serving as a US Army civil affairs officer during the Korean War. He especially loved daimuji: vinegar-marinated daikon radishes, seasoned with garlic, and colored a sunny yellow by turmeric. He also learned about the astounding medicinal properties of the Asian "manroot", Korean ginseng. When he returned to his home near Boston, he began experimenting with pickling that most Jewish of all fruits, the etrog (citron), one of the traditional Four Species waved on Sukkot (Lev. 23:40), and the same color as the turmeric-infused daimuji. By then, a firm believer in oriental medicine, he usually added ginseng (very hard to find in America at that time) for health. He finally got it just right with his etrog and ginseng “silk road apple cider”, a recipe inspired by the cayenne-pepper/apple-vinegar infusion promoted by the Vermont folk medicalist Dr. DeForest Jarvis. It not only tasted great, it seemed more efficacious than Jewish penicillin (i.e., chicken soup) for curing everything from a cold to a broken heart. We now bring it to your family: homemade, all natural, organic, and completely pareve (i.e., rabbi-certified neither milk nor meat), under its more updated and well-known name: Fire Cider. Take a spoonful every morning to wake up your brain and chase away those nasty microbes. Mix it with olive oil and shock your guests’ palates with an awesome salad dressing. Make outrageous cocktails by mixing with schnapps, vodka, or whisky. Add extra honey for nuclear (oops!) lemonade. Of course, when poured into hot tea, the aroma is to die for. As for its healing properties, we quote Dr. Jarvis himself, “They are safe remedies for, if they do not do any good, they will not do any harm.” Jewish translation: “Well, it couldn’t hurt!”