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I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Friday, February 24, 2012

Cordial 101

When the boys were little I used to make our own 50:50 cordial....and it was lovely. Over the years I have been rather slack and only making cordial for 'special occasions', having settled on the bought stuff. Blehhck!! Now I remember why I made my own. Because it's by far, heaps better in comparison! (and much more healthier too, I'm sure).
I also made a batch of Pineapple Sage Cordial from the flowers of the Sage which you can view here.


Aunty Milly's Lemon Cordial OR  50:50 Cordial 
(Aunty Milly is one of my Nan's sisters)


The rind and juice of 6 lemons OR (for 50:50 cordial use 3 lemons & 3 oranges)
4lb (800g) Sugar
1 ounce Tartaric Acid
2 ounces Citric Acid
1 ounce Epsom Salts
1 litre of Boiling Water

Put all ingredients into a basin, Stir well until sugar is dissolved. Strain overnight and bottle. Makes approximately 2 1/2 litres.

Rhonda also makes her own cordials using sugar water. I recently used her method as a guide to make a quick batch of cordial after finding some strained passion-fruit juice in the freezer 


Looking at the photo: I just realised I wrote Pineapple...lol
It was definitely Passion-Fruit
Fruit-Cup Cordial 
1 cup of strained passion-fruit pulp  
Juice and zest of 3 oranges
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 kg sugar
1 litre water

Make the sugar water, by boiling the water and dissolving the sugar. Allow this to cool slightly before adding the other ingredients.
Leave to steep overnight, then strain and bottle the cordial. I recommend storing the straight cordial in the fridge. Dilute to 1:4 or 1:5 cordial to water.

This recipe made just over 2 1/2 litres of cordial.



You bet I will be freezing the leftover pulp for some muffins



 

I think I might use some papaya pulp from the freezer to make my next cordial
or maybe some mango pulp..........


Do you make your own cordial? What's your favourite flavour?
If you haven't tried making your own,
Will you? Now that you've seen how easy it is?





11 comments:

  1. Hi Narelle. Yes, I make my own cordial, all the time. Doesn't matter what fruit it is, I can usually make it up into cordial. I've been making my own peach iced tea too. Making a peach cordial and adding cold tea. Its very refreshing. I use the sugar/water recipe for my cordials.

    Anne xx

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  2. I honestly had no idea what a cordial was and did a bit of research. I think it sounds delicious and think I will add this to something I make in 2012!

    Thanks for sharing,

    Jennifer

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  3. Yes, I make cordials. Passionfruit this week as we have so many. I too use the sugarwater method.

    Barb.

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  4. I've made a few - lemon, lime, lemon/lime, guava. The guavas are just coming ripe now, in fact, so I'll be trying both jam and cordial again.

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  5. Your lemon cordial is pretty much identical to mine except mine is a nine lemon version and makes heaps but then I have teenagers so it gets used.

    No need to put the cloves in for the tomato sauce if you don't want to - it still comes out fine :)

    viv in nz

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  6. I will be having a go at those I learnt to make Ginger beer this year and Lomomade so this summer I would love to make fruit cup cordial.
    Lovely Recipes< thanks NellyMary

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  7. Yes I have made my own cordial using Rhonda's recipe and love homemade cordial. I have only made citrus mixes but I am going to try others.

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  8. I made raspberry cordial a few months ago and LOVED it! In fact, I think I'll make some more as I've still got heaps of berries to use up from the freezer :) My teen thought it was delicious and it's certainly a healthier alternative to sodas/pop for when the friends come over...

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  9. My Mum used to make 50:50 when we were kids and it was delicious! Thanks for bring back the memory!

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  10. Hi, I never made cordial before, but this looks really delicious. I would love to try.
    Have a great day.

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  11. Hi,
    For your Aunt Milly's Lemon Cordial, could you please clarify if it is 800gms OR 4 pounds of sugar, because those two measurements are quite different from each other. thanks, debbie

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