Cordial recipes.

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stevied

Full Member
Dec 15, 2010
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Evening all, the mrs has just been put on anti epileptic medication so has to avoid alcohol. We usually make our own wine and have been known to enjoy a tipple or 6. I'm just wondering if anyone has any any recipes for cordial so we can carry on with an alcohol free version of what we enjoy please?

Thanks,
Steve
 

Janne

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Feb 10, 2016
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What kind of flavour does your wife like? Fruits? Herbs? Spices? No bitterness? Bitterness ok?
The base has to be a sugar syrup, then you need to infuse it with flavours.
Bitterness can easiest be achieved with Artemisia, Wormwood in English.
There is an alcohol free Italian bitter tonic called Sanbitter, made by San Pellegrino.
 

stevied

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Dec 15, 2010
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We usually brew whatever we have in abundance. Last year we had too many cherries so we did 60 bottles of cherry wine. We have apple and plumb in the garden so they are the plan for this year. Normally anything fruity.
 

Toddy

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Jan 21, 2005
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Basically you can make most fruits into a cordial, simply by making up what is effectively runny jam, with the sugar acting as the preservative. These are robbs in older herbals. Syrups really.
However, if you can find the equipment, and buy decent bottles, then it's quite possible to bottle the fruit rich liquid without quite so much sugar, by pressure cooking to sterilise and stop fermentation.
It's very logical, but needs care to do it properly.
British Red recommended the Ball's Blue Book on preservation by canning and bottling. He was quite right; it's a goodie :D and well worth acquiring.

There is another way, but it needs you to have ample freezer space. Simply make up fruit syrup and freeze it. It becomes like sorbet, but it dissolves into a lovely drink too :)

I usually make elderflower, blackcurrant, strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb syrup, every year. I'm not terribly innovative :eek:
I know there's a massive plethora of fruits that would make really good cordials. I occasionally make plum, not apples though, lovely though they might be. They thicken up with the pectin. Peach and grape are lovely, melon's awfully sweet somehow, haven't tried mango, though I admit I fancy that one :)

A few years ago I posted a thread on the wild strawberry syrup that I make. This is from it.

The little hautbois strawberries are fruiting merrily; they taste almost sweetie strawberry like :) nothing like the overblown almost tasteless supermarket fruits. They make a most wonderfully tasty syrup that is excellent in home made chocolates as well as for deserts. I like a little in tea in the late Autumn when the first cold, damp chills come in.
I know of them as this name from childhood, but I think of these as our wild strawberry since they grow so profusely along burnsides, etc., I don't think they're pure hautbois, I think they must surely be a mix, but the scent and taste is wonderful :)

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They always have a little present for those who look :) from early spring right through to late autumn. They're setting out runners now, I will happily bag and post a few.

Wild Strawberry Syrup Recipe.
I pick the ripe ones, even the 'raisined' dryish looking ones, and then just and no more, cover them in water.

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Bring to the boil, cover and turn off the heat. Leave until they're cool. Overnight's fine. Stain through a sieve lined with muslin or paper kitchen towels (works really well), measure the liquid and add the equivalent of sugar. If I get 500ml of liquid, I add 500g of sugar.
I'm not making jam or jelly, I'm making syrup. That means that I don't want to boil for ages, I don't want the cooked fruit taste, I want the sweet strawberry flavour in something that preserves it tastily.
Bring slowly to the boil, stirring until all the sugar crystals are dissolved.

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There will be a little froth, gently skim it off into a small bowl. Don't throw it away, it might not be quite as pretty as the syrup but it's great over ice cream or to dip bread into :) I let the liquid reduce a little, and then remove the pot from the heat.
Meanwhile prepare bottles by washing and rinsing in boiling water. This year I'm using the wired ones, but tbh, usually I just use washed out condiment bottles and they work fine. Just make sure the lids aren't tainted and are sound enough to seal well.

I pour the hot, but not boiling, liquid into very warm bottles and seal pretty much straight away. I really don't want anything in there to cause any fermentation, but there should be enough sugar in the mix to keep everything sound anyway.
If you pour too hot liquid into too hot jars or bottles the syrup will boil, and that's messy and not advised. It's a 'think about what you're doing' kind of activity this :D

M
 
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bigbear

Full Member
May 1, 2008
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210
Yorkshire
The river cottage handbook on preserving aus some good cordial recipes, the elderflower is lovely, we froze a lot and wished we had space for more.
 

Brynglas

Full Member
I do an Elderberry Cordial which is fantastic.
Stew your elderberries for a few minutes in a couple of tablespoons of water until they release their juice. Squeeze through a fine sieve or a muslin.
Make a syrup with 1:1 ratio of sugar to juice adding a cinnamon stick, nutmeg, mace, a few cloves and the juice and rind of a lemon. Simmer for 20 minutes or so and bottle.

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk
 

Janne

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Feb 10, 2016
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Aha, you guys talk a syrup, one that can be diluted to make a refreshing drink!

What we call 'saft' in Sweden!
I was thinking the OP's wife wanted something more like an alcohol free Avec/Liqueur/Aperitif!
 

Toddy

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Jan 21, 2005
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That's a good point. Ikea sells Saft in elderflower and in lingonberry. Both are very good, and very reasonably priced :D
Add fizzy water, some ice, and it's a lovely drink.

M
 

stevied

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Dec 15, 2010
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East Riding
Wow, thanks for that. I'm not too fussed whether it's to be diluted or ready to drink really and as for freezer space we have 120L at home and a walk in 11 pallet freezer at her shop so not short of space!
 

Janne

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Feb 10, 2016
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Yes, the Lingon Saft is good. more of an adult flavor. Imho much better than Cranberry.

In Britain you have lots of Cordials. Lime Cordial just to mention one with a very significant importance for Britain.
You would be called Limeys!

But drinking those cordials as an alcohol free alternative? Not sure I would. I think something with a more kick is needed.
Angostura?
 

Toddy

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Jan 21, 2005
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If it's ready to drink then you can make a very good non alcholic 'wine'.
I'm not much of a one for drinking; I admit I'm a tea jenny and would rather have a cuppa than a glass :) but I knew someone who was much dismayed to be told that she couldn't drink wine anymore, and she devised all kinds of drinks based on grapes, gooseberries and rhubarb. They passed muster even with those who did drink wine. I haven't seen her in years though, so no help there.
Bound to be someone along with loads of experience :D Most of my other cordial recipes are like ribena or ginger wine/gluwein.

M
 

Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
Should be de-alcoholized beers and wines in the your grocery stores. Failing that, bottled grape juice can be simmered down to a syrup. I've been growing Vitis riparia var. Valiant red grapes since 2001.
Not a wine grape by any means but certainly frost tolerant for 53N at my place. I ususally start with 2 or 3 liters of juice and simmer that to 1/2. Maybe put some of that in the fridge for drinking with soda water or make low-sugar jelly with a citrus-based pectin additive.
 

Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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Good link, santaman.
The real deal is that a couple of vines, big, pruned for production and not so much for house shade, gave me 65lbs grapes per vine in 2013. 3lbs grapes resulted in 1 liter jiuce. Since then, I've pruned for new vine cuttings so the grape yield has dropped to 30-50lbs per vine.
This year, I'll prune for production again. Wish me luck and no late frost strike.
The interesting thing is that it never takes more than 2-3 phone calls to sell off the entire crop, U-Pick.
 

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