FLOWER VINEGARS
If making herb vinegars is soothing, imagine the delightful pleasures in store in making fragrant vinegars, perfumed and colourful with names from an Elizabethan garden – gillyflowers, clove carnation, rose, lavender and marigold. White vinegars are used to make these ancient lovelies as the vinegar becomes transformed by the colour of the petals. One word of warning though: do not use flowers grown from a corm or bulb base unless you are absolutely sure that they are not harmful. It is also good common sense to check on any flower that you use to make sure it is not one of the nasties.
FRUIT VINEGARS
More old-fashioned brews concocted by good wives of another era and some of my favourites. Again, use white malt, cider or red or white wine vinegar and usually soft fruit: blackberries, raspberries, mulberries or blackcurrants. The results can be put not only to culinary use, but to medicinal use as well. With hot water and honey added if necessary, children will find them a soothing and novel antidote for minor snuffles and sore throats. Inevitably the originality is half the cure!
SPICES & FLAVOURINGS
Without a pinch of spice or a grating of ginger, many preserves would simply not be as moreish and mouthwatering. The skilful blending of spices, seasonings or herbs in varying proportions will enhance the other ingredients and help transform them into all-time favourites.
Starting with flavouring: a good, simple example of this is onion-flavoured vinegar, where the onion is the principal and vinegar the vehicle. Garlic and tomato chutney is another more complex example: garlic will be the predominant flavour and the tomato the substance for carrying that flavour, but in either case, one will not exist without the other. Without spices or seasonings, however, the recipe will be at best very ordinary, at worst woefully unpalatable. Strange combinations can have amazing and agreeable results, for example lemon, garlic and horseradish; orange and coriander; rhubarb and vanilla; prunes and cloves; gooseberry and elderflower; ginger and cardamom. The real truth of a seasoning is that its presence should not be noticeable as a single unit, but only as a contribution to the whole, however subtle or sly the change to the main ingredients.
There are some important points to bear in mind when using spices in preserve making. Where possible, freshly grind your own spices as you need them, particularly peppercorns and allspice and freshly grated nutmeg. It is usually preferable to tie whole spices together in a muslin bag for all preserves – jams, chutneys, pickles, relishes, etc. – unless the recipe states otherwise.
When you have to use commercially ground spices, make sure that they are really fresh, otherwise you will gain nothing from them. So buy in small quantities and keep in dark, air-tight jars. Throw away old spices – they are of no use to you. Ground spices are acceptable in jams and chutneys, but should never be used in clear preserves, bottling, clear pickles, vinegars or oils, nor added to jellies after they have been drained through a muslin. The reason for this is quite simple – the taste will not be impaired, but the result will be as murky as a fish pond and, in some cases, a thick sediment will form at the bottom of the jar or bottle, which will look very nasty indeed. You may know that the product is good, but others will view it with grave suspicion.
Here’s a guide to the invaluable spices used in jam, chutney and pickle making:
ALLSPICE
The dried brown berry of Pimenta dioica, which grows in tropical America and the West Indies. Similar in appearance to, but smoother than, a peppercorn and tasting of cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon – hence the name. It is also known as Jamaica pepper. This is a particularly useful flavouring for all preserves, pickles and chutneys. Also used in marinades and cakes.
CARDAMOM
True cardamom is either from Elettaria cardamomum or Amomum cardamomum, which are both members of the ginger family. The tiny black-brown seeds are contained within a creamy green pod and the flavour and smell is distinctly that of eucalyptus – pleasantly aromatic if you like it, but distasteful if you do not. Used mainly in curry powders, it combines well with ginger, coffee and many spices. It is a popular spice in the Middle and Far East, Germany and the Nordic countries. Although not frequently made the most of, cardamom is a very useful spice in pickling, where the taste has been likened to that of a cross between juniper and lime. Most recipes require that you scrape the small seeds from the pods.
CINNAMON
A very valuable spice in preserving. Use either the stick, which is in reality the outer bark of a tree, Cinnamomum zeylanicum, which curls into those little scrolls naturally as it dries, or use a ground spice and try to buy a good brand that has not been adulterated with inferior substitutes. Cinnamon is imported mainly from Sri Lanka.
CLOVES
The dried flower buds of Caryophyllus aromatica. The name derives from the French for nail, clou, due to the nail-like appearance of the buds. Cloves are tremendously important in preserving, for they are compatible with a vast array of fruit, vegetables, herbs and spices. Prunes, plums, walnuts, apples, oranges, pears and onions can all be pierced with a clove before pickling, spicing or crystallising. Most spice mixtures contain cloves, either ground or whole.
GINGER
An important and endlessly useful spice, ginger is completely universal, being used in everything from flavouring cakes to spicing fish. Coming originally from south China, ginger is the root of Zingiber officinale. The fresh root, also known as green ginger, when grated or pounded has a much better flavour than dried root and powdered ginger. Dried ginger goes into all pickling spices and is widely available. Powdered and dried ginger comes from Jamaica and West Africa and neither of them keep their unique taste well. Ginger is used an enormous amount in making preserves and you should always remember that you will only get the best out of your spices if they are fresh. To keep green ginger fresh, put it into a small, clean, dry jar and cover with dry sherry. If the jar is well sealed, this should keep for a long time – the first sign of it deteriorating will be a slight mould.
MACE
The delicate, golden filigree blades of mace are the dried aril or net surrounding the nutmeg, which in turn is the stone of the peach-like fruit Myristica fragrans. Blade and ground mace are both expensive, but they provide a distinctive taste which is necessary to many pickles.
NUTMEG
This is the stone or nut of the Myristica fragrans fruit. The nut is very hard and can be grated easily to a fine powder using a nutmeg grater. Small graters were once made for this specific purpose, so great was the vogue enjoyed by the nutmeg. It is an essential spice in many sweet pickles, where although it does not predominate, it would certainly be missed if left out. Nutmeg is more versatile than, and can be substituted for, mace. Commercially ground nutmeg can be useful, but it goes stale very quickly and lacks much of the true flavour.
PEPPERCORNS
Black, white, pink and green are all the same berry of Piper nigrum, the pepper vine from the Malayan and south Indian forests, Burma and Assam, which produces long, pendulous spikes of small berries, which turn from green to red on ripening. The black peppercorn is the berry picked just as it is beginning to ripen. It is then dried slowly, becoming wrinkled and dark. The outer skin is the aromatic part of the corn. The white peppercorn is the berry when it is allowed to ripen completely and then dried out. An inferior version uses the inside of the black peppercorn after the outer skin has been soaked off, leaving the small, smooth, white centre. Both white and black pepper