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Mint Cordial
1 large bunch of mint 2 lemons (juice) 2 cups sugar 2 cups water 1 orange (juice) 1 cup pineapple juice Pick the leaves from the stalks of the mint. Crush the leaves thoroughly, add lemon juice, stand aside for 1 hour. Boil water and sugar to a syrup. Pour this over the lemon and mint. Cool and strain. When cold add orange and pineapple juice, serve in glasses with a sprig of fresh mint in each. Serves 6.
A straightforward mint syrup lengthened with citrus and pineapple juice. The only real technique is the double extraction: acid on the bruised leaves first, then hot syrup over the top.
- Mint quantity"1 large bunch" is vague by modern standards; a couple of ounces of stems, or something like two loosely packed cups of picked leaves, is a fair reading. Spearmint is the usual choice for cordials of this kind and is milder than peppermint.
- Crush, do not chopBruise the leaves in a bowl with the end of a rolling pin or a pestle until they smell strongly and darken. Chopping or blending shears the leaf more violently, which tends to make the finished cordial taste grassy and look dull green.
- The syrup stepTwo cups sugar to two cups water is roughly a 1:1 simple syrup; boil only until the sugar is dissolved. Pouring it hot over the mint and lemon juice draws out the oils, but long standing in the syrup risks bitterness from stems and older leaves, so strain once it has cooled as the recipe directs.
- Strain properlyPress the leaves against the sieve to get the liquid out, then strain a second time through a finer mesh. Leaf fragments left in suspension will keep steeping and darken the cordial over a day or two.
- Add the juices coldOrange and pineapple juice go in only after the syrup has cooled. Heat drives off the fresh top notes and, with canned pineapple juice, brings out a cooked flavour.
- Pineapple juiceFresh-pressed is best if you have it; canned works and the recipe does not specify either. Either way the enzymes are irrelevant here since nothing is being set with gelatin.
- Yield and servingThe full quantity comes to roughly five cups of finished liquid, so "serves 6" works out at a fair glassful each as it stands. It is sweet enough to be lengthened with cold water, soda water or crushed ice, though that will stretch it past six servings.
- KeepingRefrigerate in a clean covered jar and use within a few days. The colour fades and the mint flattens well before the sugar and acid allow anything to spoil.