Homemade Berry Cordial Recipes

Steps:

• Put berries in a 6-8qt pot and add water; bring to rolling boil. Reduce to bare simmer and cover for 20 minutes, or until berries lose their shape.
• Drain and strain through cheesecloth, squeezing out as much juice as possible. Allow to cool to room temperature. Measure quantity of juice.
• Wash out pot and return juice to pot. Add 1- 1 1/2 cup sugar per quart of juice. Return to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10-20 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature again.
• Add 1 cup alcohol (vodka or white brandy) per quart of sweetened juice. (I personally like a mixture of the two, in a 2:1 ratio, as I find this smooths out any imperfections in either alcohol.).
• Allow to sit for at least 2 weeks before bottling. Can be drunk immediately or allowed to age - it is distinctly better with 4-6 weeks of aging. For longer aging, make sure it is TIGHTLY sealed.

Steps:

• Fill quart jars with blackberries. Pour vodka in to cover berries. Put on the lids and put jars in a cool, dark place and forget about them for 2 to 4 weeks. Then, pour contents through a strainer and reserve liquid. In a heavy saucepan combine sugar and water and bring to boil, long enough to dissolve sugar. When this syrup cools a bit, add to blackberry liquid and stir. Pour liquid into container of choice and put in freezer. When chilled, it's good as is or, as we tried it, in a juice glass with ginger ale. It's indescribably good.

Steps:

• Pour the sugar into a 1 quart jar. Fill the remaining space with berries, but do not pack down. Fill the jar with vodka so that the berries are completely covered. Seal the jar. Let the jar stand for 2 months, shaking the jar every week. The sugar should dissolve, and the vodka will become colored.
• Strain the liquid through a metal sieve, and then through a coffee filter to remove the fruit. Pour into pretty bottles. Drink as a cordial, or use it to flavor lemonade or iced tea.

Steps:

• In a large saucepan combine everything. Simmer over medium heat and stir with wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar. Mash the berries as they soften, with the spoon, or a potato masher. I tried an immersion blender which worked ok but the masher was the most effective.
• Once dissolved, let cool, then steep overnight in the refrigerator. This will get the max flavour from the berries.
• Next day, strain into a bottle (clean softdrink is perfect). I used a funnel with a wire mesh strainer over the top, and poured a little at a time. Squeeze the juice from the pulp through the strainer. Set pulp aside - delicious with icecream!
• To reconstitute to a delicious drink, try 1 part cordial to 5 or 6 parts water. This will depend on how sweet you like your drinks.
• KEEP IN REFRIGERATOR.
• It makes 1.75 litres which will creat about 12 litres of drink.

Steps:

• Rinse a heat-proof 2-quart jar with boiling water, drain it, and combine sugar, blueberries and vodka in it. Seal jar tightly and let cordial stand in a cool, dark place, shaking the jar occasionally, for two months.
• Strain the cordial through a very fine sieve, lined with a triple thickness of rinsed and squeezed cheesecloth, into a bowl and transfer it to a decanter. Serve the cordial as an after-dinner drink or with tonic over ice as a cocktail.