Recipies - Flowers
Elder Flower Cordial
'Dissolve 2.3kg (51b) sugar in 2.75l (5pt) water and when hot add 50g (2oz)
citric acid (to be bought from most chemists) and pour over 900g (2lb) of
elder flowers with the worst of their stalks removed. Stir and press down
well. Cover and leave for 24 hours. Bottle. To drink, dilute with water and
add ice.' Kate ter Horst.
Heather Ale
For 9l (2gal) heather ale, gather enough flower spikes to fill a 4.5l (1 gal)
container. Cover with water and boil for 1 hour. Strain and add 25g (1 oz)
ginger, 4-5 cloves, and 12g (½oz) hops previously boiled for 20 minutes
in 1.1l (2pt) water. This is then strained and 450g (1 lb) sugar and 450g
(1 lb) malt is added and boiled for a few minutes. Allow to cool to blood
heat and add 1 teaspoon yeast. Add the 4.5l (1 gal) water which the heather
shoots were boiled in. Leave to ferment for 2-3 days, then skim off any remaining
fermentation, siphon off into bottles, screw down tops and in 21 days you
have alefitfor drinking.
Dandelion Wine
Put 4.5l (1 gal) of dandelion flowers in 4.5l (1 gal) of cold water and bring
to the boil. Simmer for 10 minutes then strain on to 1.6kg (3½lb) sugar,
and the rind of a lemon and orange. Stir well.
When reduced to blood heat, add the juice of the lemon and orange and some
yeast which has been previously activated. (If this is bought yeast, there
will be instructions on the packet; if bakers' yeast, mix with a little sugar
and lukewarm water, spread on toast and float on the top of the wine.) Cover
with butter muslin and leave in a warm place for 2 days to start fermenting.
Then pour into a jar and either insert an airlock-which can be bought from
a wine shop-or plug the jar with cotton wool. Leave until all fermentation
has ceased. Siphon off into bottles, cork and keep as long as possible-6 months
at the leastbefore drinking.
Rose Wine
Put 2.2l (4pt) rose petals in a bowl and pour over 2.2l (4pt) boiling water.
Cover with butter muslin and leave until the water has become thoroughly impregnated
with the scent of the roses. Strain through a muslin squeezing out all the
liquid from the petals. Place liquid in a pan with 900g (2lb) white sugar
and bring slowly to the boil, skimming off any scum which rises. Boil for
10 minutes. Allow to cool to blood heat, then add some previously activated
yeast. Pour into a fermentation jar and either insert an airlock or plug with
cotton wool. Leave until all fermentation has ceased, then bottle off. Keep
for as long as possible before drinking to allow the perfume to develop.
Rose Syllabub
Take the white of a new-laid egg and beat it well. Beat into it conserve of
roses until the whole is the consistency of cream.
Conserve of Roses
This recipe is a modernised version of the one given by that great seventeenth
century figure, Sir Kennelm Digby: Cut the white ends off 450g (1 lb) scented
red roses and boil the rest gently in 825ml (1½ pt) soft water, keeping
the pan covered, until the colour of the roses has bled into the water and
they look like pale linen. This will take from 30 minutes to 1 hour. Strain
off the liquor, pressing the petals to make sure that all the flavour, scent
and colour is extracted. Set the liquor on a gentle heat and add 450g (1 lb)
castor sugar and when this is dissolved add a second pound, then a third and
finally a fourth. Boil the 1.8kg (4lb) sugar with the rose liquor until it
forms a syrup and sets when tested. Remove from the heat and immediately add
some more pale-coloured, scented rose petals. Stir well to mix all uniformly.
Allow to stand until cool and put in pots. If you put the conserve into pots
while it is still quite warm and leave the pots uncovered for some days in
the sun or in a warm place, the top of the conserve will crystallise. This
will preserve the syrup against mould and paper tops will not be needed. Break
the candied crust to take out the conserve as required.
Rose Petal Jelly (for eating as jam)
Make an apple
jelly in the same way as mint jelly leaving out the mint. Pound scented rose
petals (if a modern variety, cut off the white tip of each petal first) in
a mortar with a small quantity of castor or loaf sugar. After this, put with
a few tablespoons of water in a fireproof dish and leave for 1 hour in a cool
oven. The petals may be allowed to reach simmering point but must never boil.
When it is apparent that the sugar and water have absorbed the flavour from
the petals, strain, add the liquid to the boiling jelly and bring back to
the boil. If the flavour is not strong enough, put the petal pulp in a muslin
bag and plunge it in the boiling syrup for a few minutes.
