To filter cordials, cover the bottom of a sieve with clean blotting paper. Pour the liquor into it (having set a vessel underneath to receive it), and let it drip through the paper and through the sieve. Renew the paper frequently, and fasten it down with pins.
This process is slow, but it makes the liquor beautifully clear.
NOYAU.
Take six ounces of peach kernels, and one ounce of bitter almonds. Break them slightly. Put them into a jug with three pints of white French brandy. Let them infuse three weeks; shaking the jug every day. Then drain the liquor from the kernels, and strain it through a linen bag. Melt three quarters of a pound of the best loaf-sugar in a pint of rose-water. Mix it with the liquor, and filter it through a sieve, the bottom of which is to be covered on the inside with blotting paper. Let the vessel which is placed underneath to receive the liquor be entirely white, that you may be the better enabled to judge of its clearness. If it is not clear the first time, repeat the filtering. Then bottle it for use.
RASPBERRY CORDIAL.
Take a quart of raspberry-juice, and half a pint of cherry-juice, the fruit having been squeezed in a linen bag after the cherries have been stoned. Mix the juices together, and dissolve in them two pounds of loaf-sugar. Then add two quarts of French brandy; put it into a jug, and let it rest five weeks. Afterwards strain it, and bottle it for use.
ROSE CORDIAL.
Take a pound of the leaves of full-blown red roses. Put them into a quart of lukewarm water, and let them infuse for two days, in a covered vessel. Then squeeze them through a linen bag, to press out all the liquid, and take as much white brandy as you have of the decoction of roses. To a pint of the infusion add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a very small quantity of coriander and cinnamon. Put it into a jug, and let it set for two weeks. Then filter it through blotting paper, and put it into bottles.
QUINCE CORDIAL.
Pare your quinces, and scrape them to the core. Put all the scrapings into a tureen, and see that there are no seeds among them. Let the scrapings remain covered in the tureen for two days. Then put them into a linen bag, and squeeze out all the juice. Measure it, and mix it with an equal quantity of white brandy. To each pint of the mixture add half a pound of loaf-sugar, and a little cinnamon and cloves. Put it into a jug, and let it infuse for two months. Then filter it through blotting paper, and bottle it. This cordial improves by age, and is excellent.