A Lemon Cordial - with milk

I was perusing a book in my collection that caught my attention (again) because it had nothing printed on the spine.  But it did have print on the front cover and that was A Book of Cookery.  It is an intriguing book because the author, Kimberly K. Walters, does historical reenactment, and she compiled these recipes from a variety of historical sources to aid her reenactment work.

ISBN 978-0-692-26980-0

Her focus is the 18th century, the American Revolutionary War, and George Washington, but she notes in the "Forword" that she sometimes took from sources just before and after that time when she felt it was appropriate.  

The book contains more than just recipes, which she properly calls "receipts."  It also offers information on how to choose good food items, lists of what items are in season "in the colonies", a detailed description of how and what to serve for dinner courses ("removes"), how the table is to be set, and descriptions of cooking equipment.

As someone who has experience in historical cooking reenactment, I would judge this book to be quite valuable to anyone who wants to learn how to be a Colonial American cooking reenactor.  All you would have to add is equipment, costuming, and a location in which to cook.  

I had fun reading through the recipes.  My goal was to find one that used lemons because my neighbor had left a bag full of them on my doorstep.  There were several recipes that I considered, especially the Lemon Gingerbread on page 190, but I decided to try the Lemon Cordial on page 260.  I have made many cordials and liqueurs before but never one that had milk in it.  I wanted to see what it was like.

Lemon Cordial

Cut six fresh lemons in thin slices, put them into a quart and a half of milk, boil it until the whey is very clear, then pass it through a sieve; put to this whey, one and a half quarts of French brandy, and three pounds of powdered loaf sugar; stir it till the sugar is dissolved - let it stand to refine, and bottle it; pare some of the yellow rind of the lemons very thin, and put a little in each bottle. (Randolph).

My Notes

I decided to scale the recipe down a little.  "A quart and a half" is 6 cups, so the proportions for 2/3 of the amounts are pretty straightforward:

4 lemons (washed!)

4 cups milk

4 cups brandy

2 pounds powdered sugar

After the lemons were sliced and the milk was added, I turned the heat onto high to get the cooking going.  

I notice the curdling started right away.  This is a good thing!  It is how you get the curds and whey.

You can see the curds forming.

Once I saw some bubbles forming in the milk, I turned the heat to medium low.  

And this is where I started running into trouble.  You see, I have made curds and whey before with milk and vinegar (click here to see the post), so I expected the curds to be big and to clearly see the whey.

But that didn't happen here.  I let the mixture simmer for quite a while (a few hours!) and never saw the whey separate as I expected.  After the lemons looked very cooked, I turned the heat off and thought about what to do.

The lemons have gone limp. 

The curds were all tiny.  There was whey but everything was mixed.  I decided to pass it through a strainer lined with cheesecloth, but I was not confident this would work.

And it didn't.  Very little liquid came through; it all looked like it was still captured in the curds and lemon.

Then I decided to use some more fresh milk (1 cup) to rinse the curds off of the lemon slices, with hope I could get all that to sieve out.  I used my hands to gently squeeze the slices and to wipe the curds off of them.  This got the curds off the lemons but it still would not get the moisture out of the curds.  I had a thick, creamy liquid now.  I threw away the lemon slices.

At this point I thought that I would just have to expect a creamy, curdy cordial.  Maybe that would taste good?  So I added the powdered sugar and the brandy, mixing well.

This is a one-half gallon container

I tasted it and it was good!  But I didn't think this was supposed to be the desired result.  The container sat on the counter overnight.  The next day I saw that the curds had begun to settle -- and it was forming layers of what looked like curds in liquid at the bottom, liquid alone in the middle, and a foam on the top.  It made me think of syllabub.  I was not happy with this.

Then it occurred to me.  I should strain it through a cloth bag!  This is what I did when I made liquamen and it worked well to remove very fine particles.  Why did this take so long for me to consider?

Straining it through the bag worked really well.  The liquid was clear!

Unfiltered on the left.  Filtered on the right.

It took two days to let it all filter through.  Patience is a virtue here.  I felt confident that I was getting all the cordial through the bag.  In the end, I had just a little under 1/2 gallon of cordial.

The Verdict

The flavor was a lovely blend of lemon and brandy.  It did not strike my taste buds hard with lemon and it did not taste entirely of lemon.  It was definitely a blend.  The mouthfeel was good - enough of a syrupy texture to make me feel like I was sipping something substantial.  My guest taster and I both liked it very much and would love to have it either before or after a meal, or to go with some cheese and fruit as part of a dessert.

When I made curds and whey previously, I warmed up the milk before I added the acid for curdling.  Perhaps I should have done that here.

I should have filtered just the curds and whey through the bag before adding the sugar and brandy.  I think it would have gone faster as it wouldn't have been as thick. 

I did throw off the proportions a little by using the one extra cup of milk to rinse the lemons.  I think it curdled a little.  I doubt it affected the taste much.

I honestly don't know why the milk was important.  When I made lemon liqueur previously, I just soaked lemon peels in vodka for a few months, strained them out, and added sugar.  This worked just fine and the soaked peels were saved as zest for cooking.  

Of course this cordial took only a few days and it was ready for drinking right away.  I suspect it will improve with aging, which tends to smooth the flavors out.  I guess that the whey might add some thickness or improve the mouthfeel of the finished product.  This is all guesswork!

I call it a success.  I have enough to last a while so it will continue to age in the cupboard.  I need to add some lemon zest to it as per the recipe's recommendation.

Just so you know, "cordial" and "liqueur" are often used interchangeably.  They are both typically vodka or brandy infused with flavors, and sweetened.  Cordials are sometimes considered to be sweeter than a standard liqueur.  This was definitely sweet but not overwhelmingly so.

Empanadas de calabaza sazonas -- Seasoned Pumpkin Empanadas

I had a wonderful sweet pumpkin sitting around and the time to make something with it.  I recalled that Miss Pinedo had some recipes involving pumpkin empanadas, so I decided to give it a try.  I have never made empanadas before, but I have eaten some with great enthusiasm.

From pages 91 and 92 in her book, I found and translated:

Empanadas--Dough for.

         To a pound and a half of flour, put two egg yolks and one white, a little bit of fat and salt: stir everything with cold water, knead well, and when it is of a regular temper, form the puff pastries, fill them, and put in the oven. 

Seasoned pumpkin empanadas.

         Put the pumpkin in large pieces to cook, and after cooked it is removed from the heat. It is mashed well and passed through a sieve, seasoning it with ground cinnamon and a very little clove and sugar.

         The dough is stuffed, folded, and crimped; cook them in the oven.

Time to experiment!

I didn't take pictures of the pumpkin cooking process, so I will just describe it:  I cut the pumpkin in half, scooped out the seeds and strings, then cut it into quarters.  The pieces went into a big kettle to steam cook:  they rested on a pierced metal stand that had water underneath.  The water got to a slow boil (just enough to produce some steam) and I cooked the pumpkin for about an hour with a lid on the pot.  I checked it regularly to see if I needed to add more hot water (I did a few times) and to see if the pumpkin was tender all the way through.  

Then I turned off the heat, removed the lid, and let the pumpkin cool so I could handle it easily.  Using a spoon, I scraped the flesh off the shell.  The flesh went into the refrigerator until Iit was time to make the filling.

My Redaction

Dough:

I found that 1 1/2 pounds of flour was about 5 cups. 

5 cups flour (plus a little extra as needed)

2 egg yolks

1 egg white

7 ounces of fat (I used about 1/2 vegetable shortening and 1/2 butter)

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

cold water

Pulse the flour, egg yolks and white, salt, and fat together in the food processor until mixed.  Add cold water and run the processor until the dough comes together into a ball.  Remove from bowl and knead gently.  Wrap or put into a covered container and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

Basically, I treated it like a pie crust.

Filling:

The pumpkin chunks were put in a deep kettle and pureed with a stick blender.  I estimated it to be about 7 cups of puree.

7 cups pumpkin puree

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 pinches cloves

Gently warm the puree, adding in the other ingredients and stirring well.  Allow some time for the flavors to blend and let cool. It should be very thick.  

Before pureeing

After pureeing, and with the sugar and spices.

Making the empanadas:

Roll out the dough, cut into rounds, put a spoonful of filling on the dough.  Fold and crimp the edges.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden brown.

My Notes

I wanted to try my nifty little gadget that is supposed to make beautiful dumplings like empanadas.  

I rolled the dough to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick and used one part of the gadget to cut the circles.

The other part of the gadget is what folds and crimps the dough.

The dough sits on top and the filling sits in the middle.

It took some experimenting to get the dough thin enough and to find the right amount of filling to put in.  Too much filling squished out of the dough when it was folded over and crimped.  This is too much filling and the dough is too thick:

This is better on the dough thickness (although I kept trying to make it thinner) and about right on the filling quantity.

The extra dough tears off easily. All the scraps that didn't have filling smeared on it got rerolled and cut.

They were so cute on the baking sheet!

Before baking, some batches were sprinkled with sugar.  Other batches has a little cream brushed on top and were sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.  And sometimes I just put ginger sugar on top.

This is cream with cinnamon sugar.

I had problems with them opening up, both before and during baking.

Look at the one at the top.  It is opening up.

Not the result I wanted.

I also tried sealing them up with my fingers instead of using the gadget.  I also tried brushing water along the edges to help them seal.

None were very successful, although I did think of open clams or oysters when I looked at them (no pearls, though).

The Verdict

I kept making empanadas until I ran out of dough.  I still had filling left over.  

So some were open and some were closed and I tasted both kinds (and all of the toppings!).  

They were good!  I liked the thinnest dough with the most filling -- not surprising because the filling was the best part.  The pumpkin flavor came shining through and it was lightly sweet.  It had just enough spice to keep it from being bland; it was a good balance with the pumpkin.

The dough needed to be crisper, I thought, but it still did the job.  Not heavy in any way.  It just didn't have much crunch.

The ones eaten after the first day were heated until the outside crisped up a little and got more brown.  This was fine. 

I will call them a success for my first attempt.  And I forgot to take a picture of any in a decorative way.  

The leftover pumpkin filling got turned into a savory soup with corn, onions, and pieces of chicken.  It was really, really tasty.

I think if you wanted to put in more spice, you could do so and it would still be good.  I was really looking for the pumpkin flavor, which influenced my measurements.  A really cinnamon-y filling would be fine.