Juice extraction by steaming is ideal for currants (blackcurrants, redcurrants and white currants), for hard fruits like crab apples and quinces, and for berries like blueberries, raspberries, loganberries and elderberries. Gentle cooking by the steaming method enhances the flavour of all these fruit juices.

Cordials are made by steaming such fruits with sugar. The process is simple, quick and not at all messy. Simply load the steamer basket with alternate layers of fruit and sugar, draw off the initial juice via the outlet tap and pour back over the fruit to evenly distribute the sugar through the juice, steam for the required length of time, draw off the cordial into hot bottles and apply screw caps. Careful hot bottling preserves the cordial indefinitely so that you can savour the taste of summer even in the depths of winter.

You can use for all sorts of fruits for cordials either as single variety cordials or mixed blends. For a really tasty cordial the fruit(s) should have a good balance of sugar and acid. Try the following:

• Raspberries and damsons taste good on their own.
• Blackberries, mulberries, which are lower in acid, can taste better blended with a sharper fruit such as redcurrants, elderberries or crab apples or alternatively a dose of citric acid can be added to taste.
• Redcurrants, when used for cordials, are best blended with a more flavoursome fruit e.g. raspberries but they add fantastic colour and are rich in vitamin C.
• Our Finnish friends have blended rhubarb with strawberry; gooseberry with blackberry, and cooking apples with rowanberry or raspberry
• Other delicious combinations for cordials include rhubarb and ginger, and gooseberry and elderflower.