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Nectar from the Hedge-Row
Now that May's white starry name-flowers are scenting the air with their delicate fragrance, making a sun-flecked glory of bushes and hedgerows, an essence can be made of them which for its subtlety and fragrance can surpass many an ambitious cocktail.
First, for the essence, pack well and closely, a couple of wide-mouthed bottles with the May-bloom, leaving no hint of green leaf or brown stem. Pour over it enough brandy to fill the bottles to the brim.
Leave for a month, when the brandy will have fully absorbed the almond-scented sweetness of the flowers, pour off into small fresh bottles, cork each and seal with wax, and leave one to use for flavoring your summer puddings, compotes and trifles, blancmanges and jellies.
The liqueur is made in much the same way, but you must not pack the flowers too close in the bottle; and must warm the brandy first, and dissolve in it a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar to each pint. Pour this, warm, over the Mayflowers and cork tightly, and let it infuse for three months, keeping it all the while in a warm, dark cupboard. At the end of three months strain through muslin, rebottle, and cork securely. It tastes better than the best cherry brandy.
If you would follow a very old custom, brought up to date by means of a cocktail shaker, pour into a bowl a bottle of still white wine, sauterne or hock, and half a bottle of red Beaune or Chambery. Slice into this one orange, add a sprig of lemon thyme and two of borage.
Have ready a handful of sweet-scented hawthorn flowers and scatter these on top. Cover it with muslin and leave it to stand a night and a day.
Take a ladle and transfer the perfumed liquid to the icecold shaker as required, and you may drink a May-brew cocktail which has all the fragrance of a scented Spring dawn and yet is not wanting in alcoholic flavor.
And the little red apples that come later make the tastiest of jellies in this Show-me State!
Three preparations from one flower: a flavouring essence, a sweetened liqueur, and a cold wine cup. All of them depend on getting the right blossom into the bottle.
- What "May-bloom" isThe flower here is hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna or C. laevigata — the May tree of English hedges. It is not mayapple, lily of the valley or blackthorn, all of which appear at roughly the same season and none of which belongs in a bottle of brandy. Identify the shrub by its lobed leaves and thorns before picking.
- Pick young flowers onlyHawthorn blossom is at its almond-scented best in the first day or two of opening. Older, browning flowers develop trimethylamine and smell distinctly of stale fish, which carries straight through into the spirit. Shake out insects rather than washing, since water dulls the scent.
- No green, no stemThe instruction to leave out leaf and stem is the hinge of the essence. Green material gives a grassy, tannic bitterness that a month of steeping will not remove.
- Sugar quantityA quarter pound of powdered sugar to the pint is about 115 g. The text does not say whether the pint is Imperial (570 ml) or American (473 ml), and "powdered sugar" may mean caster or confectioners' sugar depending on where this was written; either way the result is a fairly sweet liqueur, comparable to a commercial fruit brandy. Reduce to 75–80 g if you prefer it drier.
- Warming the brandyWarm it only to blood heat in a bowl set over hot water, off the flame. Alcohol vapour ignites readily and evaporates fast; a pan on direct heat both wastes the spirit and is a real fire risk.
- Loose packing for the liqueurWhere the essence is packed tight, the liqueur wants the flowers floating free so the sweetened spirit circulates over three months. Keep the blossoms submerged — anything sitting above the liquid in a warm cupboard will discolour and taint the lot.
- Bottles and sealsUse clean jars with plastic-lined lids rather than corks for the long infusion; brandy shrinks and leaks past cork over three months. Wax sealing is for finished, filled bottles only.
- The May-brewA bottle of still white plus half a bottle of red Beaune makes about 1.1 litres, enough for eight small glasses. "Chambery" is given as the alternative to red Beaune; it may be Chambertin, a red Burgundy, or the vermouth of Chambéry, and the text does not say which. Steep no longer than the stated night and day: borage and thyme both turn medicinal past that point.
- If you go on to the hawsThe "little red apples" of autumn do make good jelly, but crush the fruit gently and strain — the seeds, like apple pips, contain cyanogenic compounds and should not be milled or eaten. Hawthorn also has a measurable effect on heart rate and blood pressure and interacts with cardiac and blood-pressure medication; anyone on such drugs should treat these preparations with care.