Lemon thyme cordial for healing
Wheewwww so another nearly two months since my last post with some more drama in between. Two further hospital admissions, including one particularly gripping visit to the emergency room with nurses running, grabbing wheelchairs and shouting ‘code two, code two’ into the PA system, three further blood transfusions, some very strong medication and some rather distressing specialist appointments. During which, in another anaemia fog, it seemed a good idea to send the horrid picture of myself below to my family to reassure them all was fine. Yes, I look awful, or as my sister helpfully put it, like a corpse.
So yes, it’s nice to have a lemon thyme plant in the garden happily doing its thing while its owner it otherwise occupied, and even better to have a nice soothing cordial recipe to hand which takes very little work. Cordials were originally a health tonic prepared by European apothecaries, and then later a liqueur, so all and all I think cordial is a very appropriate thing for me to have to hand at the present time.
It was a delight to do my background reading on cordial because it introduced me to the EUVS online library – a collection of vintage cocktail books for the bar tending profession, carefully sourced, scanned and loaded online so we can all benefit from this treasure trove.
The historical authority on cordial is one William Terrington, author of the definitive “Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks” and spouter of excellent commentary such as “champagne wine has been recommended by the faculty as a valuable mechanism for keeping up the system during exhaustion” and warning that “bad or fictitious champagne is injurious to health.” If you say so, Mr Terrington. Only the best champagne for me on a regular, medicinal basis from now on.
This recipe is really easy, honestly you pretty much put it all in a bowl and leave it for a bit, then dispense into bottles. You can omit the lemon thyme if you don’t want that extra flavour.
Take care lovelies and I will be back sooner and in even better health next time.
Ingredients
1 teaspoon citric acid
1 cup caster sugar
2 cups lemon thyme
3 lemons – juice and peel
2 cups boiling water
Place the citric acid, caster sugar, lemon thyme, lemon juice and peel into a heat-proof jug or bowl with 2 cups or above capacity.
Pour over the boiling water.
Leave it to cool (perfectly fine to do this in the fridge overnight).
Strain and serve. Keeps well for up to a month.
