Deborah Nicholls-Lee has been delving into the history of the blackberry, and discovered a brandy-enhanced blackberry cordial recipe from Victorian cook Phyllis Browne.
As summer turns to autumn,, the knotty brambles that wrap around our fields, woodland and lanes are ‘heaving’ with blackberries, wrote Sylvia Plath, ‘big as the ball of my thumb’ and ‘fat with blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers’.
For Seamus Heaney, they are ‘a glossy purple clot’ ripened by the season that is drawing to a close. ‘Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it,’ he wrote in Blackberry Picking (1966).
Putting on a show from bright green to crimson and the darkest of blacks, the blackberry transforms our hedgerows in a final hurrah as summer segues into autumn. What is perhaps most striking about this fruit is its abundance: an invitation to gorge oneself to the point that lips and hands are stained purple.
But you needn’t merely eat them: they can play a part in drinking too, as this recipe shows.
Recipe: Phyllis Browne’s boozy blackberry cordial
Got a glut of blackberries? This cordial recipe borrowed from Victorian cookery writer Phyllis Browne is simple to make and — if you can part with it — makes a lovely gift.
Do heed her advice, though: resist the urge to jump straight in and whip up a batch with the first blackcurrants of the season. Instead, sit on your hands until the fruit is at its ripest.
Ingredients
- 1 pint (570ml) blackberry juice
- 12oz (350g) caster sugar
- ½ tspn each of whole or crushed cloves, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon
- Small bottle of French brandy
Method
Wash your freshly picked blackberries thoroughly, crush them and then strain off the juice.
Boil the ingredients until you get a thick syrup and then add enough French brandy to double the volume.
Stir, bottle and seal. Voila!
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