This is what we started with... I boiled about 1kg of wild cherry plums in 500ml of water for around half an hour, I crushed the plums slightly with the potato masher to help them release their juice. After you have finished boiling leave it to infuse and cool.
After cooling slightly the wonderfully fragrant plum concoction was sieved through a colander to remove the larger pieces of plum pulp, skin and stones and then strained through muslin or a straining bag. The liquid is then measured to find out how much sugar to add and returned to the pan to heat through to help the sugar dissolve. We added 500g of sugar which was around half the measurement of our liquid which was one litre . This seems like a lot of sugar but we first tried 250g and the children decided it was still a little sharp, so we added some more. If you make this, the sugar can be added in stages until you find a level which is suitable to your taste buds.
Then the concentrated liquid can be bottled up and diluted to taste when ready to drink. We ended up with about 1 litre of concentrate, which has quite a syrupy consistency.
Beautiful colour isn't it?... I was hoping for a sunny photograph to show off how vibrant the colour is but it was cloudy this morning and please excuse the fingerprints on the bottle, I had little helpers. It tastes really wonderful, we took some to enjoy on our picnic today, definitely a big hit with the children.
Wow, this post takes me right back to my childhood, my paternal grandmother used to make a plum cordial and it was delish, I may have to give it a go as I haven't tasted it for over a decade and would be lovely to be transported back to my youth once again!
ReplyDeletethank-you for visiting, it certain does taste delicious and I'm pleased to have taken you on a trip down memory lane :D
ReplyDeleteLightly, the cordial sounds sooo good! And the color is wonderful - richly summery.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Marianne
Oh my gosh! That's summer right there in a bottle! It looks beautiful.... Mmmmm
ReplyDeleteThank you for linking up x
thank-you both for visiting and your lovely comments :)
ReplyDeleteWow that looks amazing. The colour is brilliant. Nice to have a drink you know is healthy - all the ones you can buy have so much sugar or sweetners in. Much better to make your own.
ReplyDeletewe were amazed by the colour, it was so bright, thank-you for reading :)
ReplyDeleteBeautiful colour! I hadn't thought of cordial for plums. Ours are just about ripe so I'm looking for ideas.
ReplyDeletethank-you for reading, we tried it as the children were eager for more home made drinks.
ReplyDeleteIt has nearly all gone now but I think I have spotted some more plums ripening. Our plum jam is a similar colour to this... I am always surprised by the brightness of the colours :)