Marilla’s Raspberry Cordial

In Chapter XVI of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, Anne serves her friend Diana some of Marilla’s “three year old home-made currant-wine” thinking it to be raspberry cordial. Diana, who thinks it tastes fabulous and drinks three large glasses of it, gets tiddly, starts to feel dizzy and insists on going home, bringing the girls’ tea-party to an abrupt end. Marilla is proud of her housekeeping and cookery and has a pantry lined with preserves of all sorts.

The novel is set on Prince Edward Island, which voted for Prohibition in 1901, so Marilla’s wine would have been illegal at the time the novel was written. This hints at a slightly subversive side in Marilla’s repressed personality. Wine was made by some families for purely medicinal purposes (but isn’t wine always medicinal, I ask?) but I like to think that Marilla enjoyed the odd quiet tipple when the silence of her brother Matthew and her lonely life (before Anne came on the scene) got too much for her.

It’s a wonderfully comic scene in the novel. Diana’s strict mother is horrified at seeing her daughter drunk and asserts that Anne did it deliberately. Marilla defends her adopted daughter and goes to see Mrs Barry who refuses to relent. As a result, Diana is forbidden to even speak to Anne.

(from Canadian Living Magazine, June 2000)

300g frozen unsweetened raspberries
1 ¼ cups sugar
3 lemons
4 cups boiling water

In large saucepan over medium heat, combine raspberries and sugar. Cook, stirring occasionally, 20-25 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Transfer raspberries to a bowl, and using a masher, mash well. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing to extract all the juice. Discard seeds.

Squeeze two of the lemons and strain juice. Add to bowl of raspberry juice. Pour in boiling water. Allot to cool slightly. Refrigerate until chilled.

Slice remaining lemon thinly. Pour cordial into glasses and garnish with lemon slice.

(from from The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook, 1985)

500g fresh raspberries
1/3 cup lemon juice (around 3 lemons)
12 cups boiling water
3 cups white sugar
approximately 400ml cool water

1. Wash raspberries and place them in a large bowl
2. Squeeze lemons, then pour the juice through a strainer onto the raspberries. Mix gently.
3. Boil 12 cups of water in a large pot
4. Stir sugar into boiling water until it dissolves
5. Pour liquid onto raspberries
6. Cover mixture and let steep in the refrigerator for 24 hours
7. Take mixture from the fridge and pass it through a sieve to remove the seeds
8. Use a potato masher to press the raspberries and extract as much of the juice as possible
9. Add approximately 400ml of cool water to the raspberry mush to help extract natural flavours and colours
10. Strain mixture until all pulp and seeds are removed
11. Enjoy (responsibly!)