Wonderful Waitangi Weekend - part 2

After the heat of Sunday, it was definitely time to get making my cordial! The recipe I used belongs to my ex-manager's mother. He would make up bottles of it and bring it to share with us at the office on hot days. I tweaked the recipe though, increasing the quantity of lemon juice and decreasing the water, in a desperate attempt to use up the bottles of lemon juice I collected a few weeks back. Even by doubling the recipe I still used up only one 1 litre bottle of juice. I ended up having to make the mixture in two saucepans – time to get a bigger saucepan – as even my biggest saucepan wasn't big enough!

And I seriously underestimated how many bottles I would need! Still, it was an easy recipe to follow and came out fabulously for a first batch. Next time I'll use a stock pot and order bigger bottles for bottling.

While I was boiling the water and sugar mixture I gently heated the lemon juice in a separate saucepan. My rationale was that because the syrup is not heated much after the juice is added, preheating the juice would essentially pasteurise it. I sterilised my bottles in a water bath in the oven at just over 100℃.

Lemon Cordial

• 500ml lemon juice and zest
• 1 kg sugar
• 1.5 litres of water
• 2 tbsp citric acid
• 1 tbsp tartaric acid

Boil the water, then add the sugar, bring back to just boiling. Add juice, stir well, and take off the heat.

Add the acid, stirring with a wooden spoon until dissolved.
You can strain it or leave the zest in.

When serving dilute around 30ml of cordial syrup to 170ml, according to taste. Use soda water for a sparkling lemonade.

* * * 

My second project of the day was to bottle my lemon vinegar, which had been steeping for the last few weeks.

I emptied all the jars and strained out the lemon pieces leaving behind only the liquid. I also added some apple cider vinegar to the mixture to boost the 'vinegarness' of it. Then I bottled it. Ready to use in salads or worst case: eco-friendly cleaner :-).