Blackcurrant Cordial - Pic Heavy

[British Red]

Well, its been a while since I did a pictorial. Sorry all - been a bit busy expeimenting and out living the "good life". Well, Tony said he was interested in some pictures of our forays into "self reliance" so here is the first of a few "harvest specials"

Here is this years blackcurrant experiment

This year I fancied making a cordial - to combine with hot water as a warm "night cap", to drink as "squash" or to act as decent vitamin C in the winter

Step 1 is to pick them over, destalk and remove any "off" berries

Next they are transferred to a large pan and "mashed" to relaease the juice

Half a pint of water per pound of fruit is added to dissolve out the taste

And then 3/4lb of sugar per lb of fruit

The whole lot is bunged in a big pan and brought to a gentle simmer for a while

After a slow 10 minute simmer, stain off though a sieve

Take the starined liqour and pour in a funnel into warmed bottles

seal firmly and store in the 'fridge

This tastes nothing like commercial cordial - but with some spring water or sparkiling wine - its fantastic!

Red

 

[mayfly]

Excellent! Thank you. Chris

 

[fishy1]

Why do you remove the stalks if you are going to sieve it anyway? Does it affect the taste?

 

[British Red]

More like I pick them over because any mouldy or over ripe ones will spoil the taste - stalks in quantity give a sightly "woody" taste so I remove where I can. The weird thing of blackcurrant cordial is it tastes like blackcurrant (not remotely like Ribena!)

Red

 

[scanker]

That looks great. One of HFW books (I think it's RC year) has a recipe for blackcurrant ripple ice cream. I've only made it once, but it was fantastic, if you've any blackcurrants left over.

 

[DoctorSpoon]

mmmmmmm ... that looks good! At the moment we have a surplus of redcurrants and Robin has been making regular batches of redcurrant 'coulis'. It might sound a bit posh, but it's delicious and easy! He just picks through for unripe / moldy ones then puts them stalks and all in a pan and cooks them until soft. You then push it through a sieve to remove the stalks, skins and pips then sweeten just a little. The resultant red goo is great on your breakfast meusli, or even better poured over a roughly chopped, over ripe banana!

 

[janiepopps]

Nice n simple with a good end product, love it.
Have to say though, I think I would prefer Doc Spoons method of pushing the fruit through a sieve to remove the stalks, rather than hand picking them all off..
Nice tutorial, thank you Red...

 

[British Red]

That coulis sounds great - must have a go at that!

De-stalking is no real pain - just comb the berries off with a fork - someone suggested it to me when harvesting elderberries and it works a treat

Red

 

[robin wood]

That coulis sounds great - must have a go at that!

De-stalking is no real pain - just comb the berries off with a fork - someone suggested it to me when harvesting elderberries and it works a treat

Red

Yep we destalk with a fork too, I got that one from Delia. She has a blackcurrant ice cream recipe which I have not made for a few years but was simply gorgeous. How long does the cordial keep Red? presumably a higher sugar content would preserve it better but leave it less fruity. Better to have it taste better then you won't want to keep it long.

 

[fishy1]

How does it keep red?

I also use the fork method for removing stalks.

 

[British Red]

In theory its about a month in the fridge Robin, but Ive kept cordials far longer with no ill effects tbh.

I have some purposes in mind for this batch though

Some Kir Royale next weekend . Just add cheap cava

I also have a batch of "fire wine" that I want to flavour for winter hip flask purposes - I suspect in that context itll last forever - the high alcohol should preserve it well enough

Right - back to pickling now.......the whole house smells of infusing vinegar (all home grown spices naturally)

Red

 

[British Red]

Hehehe - just noticed I was weighing sugar in a stained trangia pan Kind of shows what our kitchen is like - full of iron and smoke stained stainless steel!

Red

 

[fishy1]

I tried making it, it is excellent, although full of a lot of sediment which stays in the bottom of your glass. I will definately do this again. Cheers.

 

[British Red]

If the sediment wories you, chuck it through one of those coffee filter papers chucked into a funnel - gets the worst of it out although only a wine filter clears it all.

Glad you enjoyed it - all other cordials are a variation on the recipe (just google the one you want) - blackberry is excellent and just coming into season now.

Red

 

[Rebel]

I should have had your recipe a few weeks ago. The remains of my harvest is overripe now. I made jam with most of my blackcurrants but cordial would have been great. Maybe next year.

 

[Eric_Methven]

The blackberries are just starting to ripen up here so I'll be having a go at cordial as well as jam this year.

Eric

 

[Minamoo]

If you're worried about sediment and keeping qualitites, simmer the currants and 1/4pint water per lb of fruits gently for 30-45 mins then put through a jelly bag. Once through, measure out the juice and put 8-12oz of sugar in per pint depending on how tart your currants are. Bring to the boil and boil hard for 1 minute then pour into hot, sterlised bottles and seal. Done this way it doesn't need refrigeration and will keep for years with no problems. I also pasteurise my elderflower cordial and bottle in the same way to help it keep longer and mine is still going strong about 3 months on from making the first batch and has spent no time in the fridge (other than after the bottle's been opened).

 

[British Red]

Good tips there minammoo - I'm going to try that with my blackberry which contains loads of pith

So the next photos could be "taking the pith"

 

[Rebel]

Well I went out to the allotment today and discovered that I had more blackberries than I thought. There were still plenty of good ones so I had a go at making some cordial using, more or less, your recipe. It came out rather well IMO.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[spamel]

I did the same thing last year with elder berries. Didn't last long and the kids wore red moustaches for a few days! Gonna try with blackberries this year too, and will probably freeze a massive batch of them for use later on in pies and crumbles in the off season. Gonna have to save those takeaway tubs!