Pei Yi's Art of Cordial Defense

Back to cordials!!!

Safeway had a great sale on fresh raspberries. I have made raspberry cordial from both fresh and frozen berries. I can taste the difference in mine and in my friends' cordials if the fruit was frozen. I think the freezing process makes the flesh break down faster, exposing the seed to the alcohol. These leaves a slightly bitter after taste. I had tasted the difference but didn't really understand. Master Henry made an off-hand comment on bitterness and seeds when he was in charge of the brewer's guild. Then I put it together with what my taste buds had been telling me. I now had a concept for that weird aftertaste with the frozen ones.

I have been doing a lot of reading of opinions and original recipes. Vodka is pretty much right out. I obviously need a still but, I am saving up for a rock saw. (An episode on "My cousin gave me opals" is upcoming, when I get a rock saw.) Anyhow, I have been making cordials for taste rather than for period recipes. My lemon wine was kind of really great.

My recipe may not have enough fruit in it. It has more than most, but I am still not sure it is enough.

Raspberry Cordial for Yumminess
In a quart jar with a sealing lid combine:

12 ounces of raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 vanilla bean, halved and scraped in
white rum to fill the jar.

honey and simple syrup later for sweetening

Surprisingly this didn't take a lot of rum. The jar was loosely filled with raspberries, but they were really huge. I didn't find white brandy at my local store. I find white rum is a little more sweet and neutral than vodka and I am shooting for the incredible color of fresh mashed raspberries. The fruit is put in whole. It isn't mashed so the bitter seed isn't exposed to the alcohol. This helps with filtering too. On July 17th, a mere two weeks into this, I will remove the fruit and seeds. If the flavor needs more time, I can put seeded pulp in, but it is usually exhausted at that time. This yields a more flavorful cordial. If it needs more sweetening, I am going to use honey. In more period recipes, honey is used as a flavor corrector and sweetener, particularly with herbal infusions. I used to think sugar was better, but the aftertaste of honey is a powerful tool, particularly with bitter herbal mixtures.

Raspberry Cordial for Period Flavor
In a quart jar with a sealing lid combine:

12 ounces of raspberries
1/2 cup sugar
brandy to fill the jar
slice of lemon peel
1/4 nutmeg or smaller chunk
honey for sweetening

I let the sugar stand on the berries for a few hours to mascerate them. This will expose some of the seeds so the honey note will be more important. I throw out the lemon and nutmeg at the 14 day mark too. They can get really bitter very fast if you do not.