Topic: Non alcoholic drinks from fruit

[davee52uk]

Does anybody know of a webiste or even recipes for making non-alcoholic drinks from surpluss fruit. This would be apples, plums, damsons and blackberries.

I already make jam but often have fruit left over.

I would like to make wines but seem to be allergic to alcohol - it gives me migraines.

[Palustris]

Not sure about Websites, but we puree a lot of fruit and freeze it for Winter use. I eat, for example, Apple puree with any soft fruit added plus (if you can eat it) Cream or that awful soft cheese stuff or even Yuckurt, sorry Yoghurt.
Also our Juicer makes decent enough fruit juice from any fruit and that can also be frozen for winter use.
Glad, well sort of, that someone else cannot take alcohol. No one believes you when you tell them that you get the hangover while you are actually still drinking the stuff.

[tomatoada]

So pleased to see the above posts.  I too have problems with alcohol ( and drinkers).  I feel ill and sleepy after a small amount even in cooking.   Fell asleep once at a wedding.  Also had a problem at a hotel once when they said the fish was not cooked with alcohol which I could taste.
For fruit drinks I freeze my fruit especially blackcurrents and  make fresh drinks with sugar and hotwater then cool.
 

[grannyjanny]

I too cannot partake of alcohol & it doesn't worry me one jot. I get very sleepy but I am exhausted for days after half a glass. I put it down to having ME but after seeing other posts maybe not. OH has a glass of wine & spends the rest of the evening yawning every few minutes. Very annoying.

[gp.girl]

About 1 in 10 people don't drink. Personally can't stand the taste and don't need drugs to have a good time. Can embarrass a drunk person on a good night and go to sleep in the middle of a disco on a bad one ???

You might be able to pasturise fruit juice but if you get it wrong there's going to be alcohol.... :(

Alcohol evaporates very easily so if it's been anyway near a cooker it's gone but the rest of the flavours remain. As it's the booze I don't like, sauces etc are just fine for me.

I use 100% ethanol at work and thank goodness for extractor systems...

[Digeroo]

I also do not drink alcohol.  I have had none since 1986.  I am so bad that I also avoid vinegar, yeast, fungus.  This includes deodorant.  Mouldy cheese can send me to sleep in a few minutes.  It seems the problems of alcohol are more widespread than I thought.  It is extremely difficult completely avoiding alcohol.  Hospitals for example are full of the stuff.  

But I miss a nice glass of white wine or cider.

I like the idea of freezing fruit juices.  

[manicscousers]

Just taken a bottle of gooseberry syrup out of our freezer, also have elderflower, apple, blackcurrant and apple made up, lots more fruit in there for later, we, too, cannot drink alcohol, especially with the medication.
I use 2 ltr pop bottles, half filled and frozen laying down  :)

[artichoke]

Just to be clear, do you do the standard fruit syrup? Boil up the fruit, strain it, add sugar, boil but not to setting point, then freeze?

I freeze the syrup in large yoghurt pots and similar, and thaw one at a time, pouring it into a bottle of some sort, and lightly flavour a glass of our local nasty water with it. Lovely.

[pg]

Bob Flowerdew, the organic gardener with the long hair tied in a plait, advocates turning excess fruit into juice. He freezes his juice (I think in plastic milk bottles) but as some have already suggested you can sterlise it through heating and bottle it.

Might be fun to blend fruit juices as one would blend fruits in a wine recipe. As many country wine recipes are tried and tested perhaps they are a good basis for fruit/quantity combinations.

I've also been experimenting with low sugar jams (see Recipe forum) known as fruit 'butters' which keep in jam jars and can be used as sharp fruit toppings/fillings or dissolved into a cordial.

[ARV]

Here are a few recipes for some fruit cordials. If you have lots of Apples you could substitute a portion of the fruit with these.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/pick-of-the-bunch-how-to-make-the-perfect-fruit-cordial-457091.html

Blackberry cordial

Makes about 1 litre

400g/13oz blackcurrants
1 litre/13/4 pints water
300g/10oz caster sugar

Wash the blackcurrants in cool water, but do not bother to pick over them or remove their stems. The cooked fruit is passed through a colander and so all this is left behind.

Place the washed fruit, sugar and water in a heavy-based pan, place over a medium heat and bring to a boil.

Turn down to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes or until the blackcurrants have burst and are tender.

At this point remove from the stove and pass through a colander, pressing down on the cooked berries with the bottom of a ladle to extract maximum juice.

Allow to cool, then pour into a vessel and place in the fridge.

Raspberry cordial

This is one of my favourites. To me, it's the taste of an English summer.

Makes just over 1 litre

600g/20oz raspberries
300g/10oz caster sugar
The juice of half a lemon
1 litre/13/4 pints water

Don't bother to wash the raspberries; they are too delicate for running water and will disintegrate. Pick over gently with your hands removing any other little things that sometimes find their way in.

Place in a medium saucepan, cover with the sugar, squeeze over the lemon juice and pour over the water.

Place over a medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir once or twice so that the sugar dissolves. Turn down and simmer for about 6-7 minutes or until the raspberries disintegrate.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Pass through a colander to strain, pressing down on the fruit. Most of the raspberry flesh is soft enough to pass through leaving the pips behind. Allow to cool then pour into a glass vessel and place in the fridge.

Rhubarb and strawberry cordial

I have made this cordial many times and each and every time I am surprised by just how strong and proud the strawberry remains in the face of such a particular flavour as rhubarb.

Makes about 1 litre

8 sticks of rhubarb
300g/10oz English strawberries
250ml/8fl oz water
280g/8oz caster sugar

Wash and chop the rhubarb into two-inch sticks. Hull the strawberries but leave them whole. Place the rhubarb, water and sugar in a heavy-based pan and place over a medium heat and bring to a fast boil. Boil for two minutes then turn off the heat. When the heat is off, add the strawberries and let sit without the heat for 10 minutes. Strain through a colander, pressing down on the inside with a ladle to extract as much flavour as possible.

At first the liquid will be quite thin, but as you continue to press down with the ladle some of the finest pulp will work its way through the colander allowing the cordial to be slightly thicker. Pour into a sterilised vessel, allow to cool and place in the fridge.

Gooseberry and lemon verbena cordial

Pale and translucent in colour just like raw gooseberries, this cordial has a sharp and fragrant bite to it.

Makes about 1 litre

400g/13oz gooseberries
280g/9oz caster sugar
1 litre/13/4 pints water
6 sprigs lemon verbena

Wash the gooseberries under cold running water, then place in a pan with the sugar and water.

Bruise the lemon verbena by gently hitting it with a rolling pin or the handle of your knife. This helps to intensify and release the flavour. Place the branch in the pan and place over a medium heat.

Bring to the boil. Turn down and simmer for 10 minutes or until the gooseberries are tender.

Remove from the heat and pass through a colander pressing down firmly on the fruit as you do so to release maximum flavour.

[Vinlander]

I love alcohol - and I take moderation in moderation - but why make 3rd-rate wine when you can make 1st-rate fruit juice.

This applies most to grapes, apples and pears, though all 3 benefit from being paired up with another fruit or even each other.

Fresh (uncooked) plum juice is great but only keeps about a minute before turning brown unless you combine it with a really sharp juice like blackcurrant.

Uncooked gooseberry juice is almost impossible unless you use pectinase to stop it being a jelly. Fresh pineapple will provide this - you can even put the skin through a blender and use that instead of chucking it out.

However, having tried the difficult ones I prefer to leave the pulp in and freeze them (in pairs) as lollies - more flavour, more nutrition, less work.

Cheers.