Whiskey Cordial
INGREDIENTS. -1 lb. of ripe white currants, the rind of 2 lemons, oz. of grated ginger, 1 quart of whiskey, 1 lb. of lump sugar.
Strip the currants from the stalks; put them in a large jug; add the lemon-rind, ginger and whiskey; cover the jug closely, and let it remain covered for 24 hours.
Strain through a hair-sieve, add the lump sugar, and let it stand 12 hours longer; then bottle and cork well.
TIME. To stand 24 hours before being strained; 12 hours after the sugar is added.
SEASONABLE. - Make this in July.
A steeped fruit cordial rather than anything distilled: whiskey, white currants, lemon rind and ginger left to infuse, then sweetened and bottled. The only real skill is patience and a clean bottle.
- White currantsRipe white currants are the pale, less acidic cousin of redcurrants and are rare in shops; look for them at pick-your-own farms or farmers' markets in July. Redcurrants work and give a pink cordial with sharper edge; frozen currants are fine, since the freezing only helps break the skins.
- The ginger quantity is incompleteThe amount of grated ginger has lost its fraction in this text. A half-ounce (about 15 g) of fresh grated root for a quart of spirit gives a clear warmth without dominating; start there and taste at the straining stage.
- Lump sugarNineteenth-century lump sugar was refined loaf sugar broken into pieces, equivalent to modern white sugar. Use 1 lb (450 g) granulated or caster; caster dissolves faster in cold spirit. Stir once or twice during the 12 hours rather than leaving it to sit on the bottom.
- Whiskey choiceA quart is 40 fl oz in imperial measure, near enough 1.1 litres. Use a mid-range blended Irish or Scotch at 40% ABV; the fruit and sugar will bury anything you paid extra for, and cask-strength spirit will throw the sweetness out of balance.
- Hair sieveA hair-sieve was woven from horsehair and used for fine straining. A nylon sieve lined with a double layer of muslin does the same job; press the fruit only lightly, as hard pressing pushes pulp through and clouds the finished cordial.
- Rind, not pithTake the lemon rind off in strips with a peeler and leave the white pith behind. Twenty-four hours in spirit is long enough to draw bitterness out of pith, which no amount of sugar will mask afterwards.
- Bottling and keepingSterilise the bottles and use corks or screw caps that seal properly. At this sugar and alcohol level the cordial keeps for a year or more in a dark cupboard, and it improves for the first month or two as the ginger settles down.
- YieldExpect somewhere around 1.3 to 1.4 litres once strained and sweetened, roughly two 70 cl bottles. Serve in small glasses, or lengthen it with soda water over ice.
Domestic cordials of this kind sit between medicine and hospitality, and the vocabulary shows it: a "cordial" was originally a preparation to hearten the heart, from the Latin cor. By the time Mrs Beeton's household books were circulating, the word had settled into meaning a sweetened, flavoured spirit made at home and offered in small glasses to callers. The recipe belongs to the soft-fruit season, when the fruit came in faster than any household could eat it, and the same currants that went into jelly and summer pudding were also dropped into spirit to hold their flavour. Steeping rather than distilling kept the work simple: no still, just a covered jug on a cool shelf. The ginger reflects a long-standing taste for warming spice in drinks, of a piece with ginger wine.