I have made blackberry cordial many times…many, many times. Ask my family, especially my husband and youngest. They will tell you that I am not a blackberry cordial newbie.
Yet somehow in the craziness that has been the past two years, I messed up. And it’s particularly embarrassing because I made the blackberry cordial as a surprise Christmas gift for Bob. He had been asking me to make it and I had pooh poohed him secretly knowing I would make it without his knowing.
So. I made it. And bottled it, one bottle for Bob and one for my mom. The extra I put into a quart jar. You don’t have to process this blackberry cordial. It’s 50% brandy, so no preservation is necessary.
I duly gave both Bob and my mom a bottle as part of their Christmas gifts. And thank goodness they did not dive right in! Why? Because I didn’t make blackberry cordial. I made a highly alcoholic blackberry jelly!
It turns out that I cooked it just a bit too long. If you canned and made jelly or jam (or had a simply syrup turn into candy on you), you know there’s a point you’ll cross heat-wise that means your concoction is going to gel.
Uh…yeah. That is what I accidentally did. And this stuff was potent! I spread it on a piece of toast and a couple of bites in, it was booooiiiiing. As neither Bob nor I have time to start our days with a buzz, and we aren’t likely to eat jelly as a cocktail substitute at the end of the day, I managed (with effort!) to empty the bottle and the jar and to dump this lethal stuff down the drain. (And yes, I warned my mother about it.)
This goes to show how easily a recipe that’s tried and true can turn on you! And it’s one more indication that life has been out of control for almost two years now. But at least we laughed about it.
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