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HAWTHORN LIQUOR (for seasoning Puddings and sweet dishes)
Fill a wide-mouthed bottle with blossoms of the white hawthorn, which have been gathered on a dry day. Shake them together, but do not press them down. Fill the bottle with good brandy, let the hawthorn infuse for three months, then strain off the liquor, pour it into small bottles, and cork securely. Half a tea-spoonful of hawthorn liquor will flavour a pint of custard.
A cold infusion rather than a cooked preparation, so the only real variables are the quality of the blossom and the strength of the spirit. Both matter more than the technique.
- Identify the plant firstThis means the blossom of common hawthorn or may (Crataegus monogyna or C. laevigata), the hedgerow tree with lobed leaves and white five-petalled flowers in late spring. Several unrelated white-flowering shrubs bloom at the same time, so do not gather unless you can name the tree with certainty.
- Pick at the right momentTake flowers that have just opened, on a dry morning, and shake out insects rather than washing them. Hawthorn blossom carries a trimethylamine note that reads as stale or faintly fishy, and it is generally reckoned more pronounced in older blossom; whatever is in the flower carries into the brandy.
- "Good brandy"Any 40% ABV grape brandy will do; the spirit is a solvent, not a feature. Something neutral and inexpensive gives a cleaner flavouring than a cask-aged cognac, whose own character will dominate a custard.
- The bottleUse a clean, wide-mouthed glass jar with a tight lid, filled loosely with blossom as directed — packing it down bruises the petals and muddies the result.
- Three months, in the darkKeep the jar out of sunlight and shake it every few days. Much of the colour and scent will be drawn well before the full term; the longer steep does no harm, but taste before committing to it.
- StrainingStrain through a fine sieve, then again through muslin or a coffee filter. Petal fragments left in the bottle will go on extracting and may coarsen the flavour in long storage.
- Yield and strengthA jar will give somewhat less liquor than its stated capacity, since the blossom takes up room and holds some of the spirit. At half a teaspoon to a pint of custard, that is a very long-lasting supply — hence, presumably, the small bottles the recipe calls for.
- A note on hawthornHawthorn preparations have a mild effect on heart rate and blood pressure and are sold as a herbal supplement. At flavouring doses this is immaterial, but anyone taking cardiac or blood-pressure medication may prefer another flavouring.
Hawthorn is the may tree of English hedgerows, and its blossom was one of the free flavourings a Victorian household could gather rather than buy — alongside elderflower, cowslip, blackcurrant leaf and violet. The recipe belongs to a whole family of steeped spirits in books of this period, made when commercial essences were expensive, inconsistent, and often adulterated; a jar of brandy on a shelf gave the cook a flavouring she could vouch for herself. Hawthorn's scent is sometimes described as almond-like, which may explain its use in custards and puddings where ratafia or bitter-almond flavouring would otherwise be used. It is in any case a store-cupboard preparation: something made once in May and drawn on for the rest of the year.