Mark Staples

As well as making the occasional home-brew beer (since the early 90s), I’ve also been making “home-brew” cordials (since the late 90s). Last night I whipped up a quick lemon cordial. Lemons were cheap at Norton St Grocer, and I’d run so low on cordial that I’d had to buy some commercial stuff.

My cordials are based on a recipe given to me by Matt Davey, when we were sharing college housing in Cambridge. The original recipe as communicated to me is Matt’s Marvelous Orange Juice:

4 oranges or 3 oranges, 1 lemon

3 lbs sugar

3 pints water

1 1/2 oz citric acid

• Grate rind and squeeze juice (or pare the rinds and liquidise in a little water then strain into a saucepan)
• Boil sugar and water
• When boiling, add citric acid and juice
• Bring back to boil and remove from heat
• Bottle when cool

I can buy citric acid at the supermarket, near the baking powder. I usually grate the rind, and leave it in the bottles, at least while it’s aging.

I often make lime variants, but for the lemon cordial I did yesterday, I used maybe 6 lemons (and no oranges!). Like homebrew beer, the cordials are only worth drinking after a couple of months in the bottle.