drink{temper}

Ginger Cordial

Boil in a brass pan, 1/2lb of best ginger, a little bruised in six quarts of water, down to a gallon.

Strain the liquor through a flannel.

Put it on the fire with 3lbs of loaf sugar: let it remain until it nearly boils.

In this state add a little of the liquor made from hay saffron to colour it, and it is then fit for use

 

Jenna read and re-read the recipe, written in English to be sure but an English she didn't understand. She knocked on Mrs Piecefellow's door and showed her the recipe. She had questions about quarts and loaf sugar. Mrs Piecefellow laughed. 

Jenna came home with new found knowledge and rewrote the recipe:

To make Ginger Cordial,

  in a saucepan big enough put in twelve pints of water and 8oz of ginger cut up and squashed to release the flavour.

Boil until liquid is reduced to eight pints. Strain through muslin or a jelly bag.

Put back into the saucepan with 3lbs granulated sugar and warm until dissolved.

At the same time put a few strands of saffron in a little hot water, strain and add to the saucepan.

Bottle and store.

Later after completing her first batch Jenna contemplated if she could really do it, if she could really follow Great Aunt Edna's wishes and sell concoctions from the book and break even. She had started with a relatively easy one and at that she'd run to Mrs P's at the first sign of difficulty. Was she capable? Could she open a shop?

There was already so many things on her to do list, stuff that she had never got around to and newer stuff that needed immediate attention. Deborah ....