Kovács Zsuzsa: Göcsej Village Museum. Exhibition Guide (Zalaegerszeg, 2008)

Copper Cauldron of the Distillery This copper dish has two parts: the cauldron, and its humped top that has two pipes sticking out to take off the spirit. To make 'pálinka' they put the fermented fruit into the cauldron then filled it with water, put the humped top on it and covered the whole thing with mud in order to prevent the alcohol evaporating. When the 'pálinka' was ready the vapour wreathed through the pipe leading to a dish cooled with water. Then the condensed alcohol was lead to special receptacles. Making 'pálinka' was very much of an autumn and spring activity when there was more time to do it. Tálinka' jug The 'pálinka' was usually kept in big crocks. We can see a unique example here in the exhibition: this is the 'csőrös edény' ('beak-crock') without any glaze. The only decoration is a ring at the back of the dish; it is in the shape of a cross and was made by pressing the fingers against the soft mud welts. This seemingly very simple jug is a valuable piece of the collection for it has all its important data on it. It says the date when it was made: '10 November 1877', the monogram of his owner: 'BK' and the name of its maker: 'Kolosa Flórián potter'.