How to make lime cordial

Why lime is different

Lime peel oil carries a group of resinous, piney terpenes that lemon does not, and that is what makes lime taste green and slightly bitter rather than simply sour. It is also considerably more volatile, which means it fades faster once extracted.

A home-made lime cordial therefore tastes brightest in the first week and mellows after that. Freezing it in portions preserves the aroma far better than keeping a bottle open.

Limes also yield much less juice than lemons for their size, so a batch takes a discouraging number of fruit. Rolling them firmly and using them at room temperature both help.

The method

Same principle as lemon: zest first. FoodHQ does not publish keeping times or preservative quantities for home-made cordials. Those are safety numbers rather than matters of taste, and in the UK the Food Standards Agency is the authority — follow its guidance on sterilising bottles and on storing, refrigerating and freezing what you make.

1. Scrub the limes. Zest them all before juicing any — zesting a squeezed half is miserable.
2. Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until the sugar is damp and fragrant.
3. Add hot but not boiling water and stir to dissolve.
4. Roll each lime firmly under your palm, then juice them. Cutting lengthways rather than across the equator gives more juice.
5. Add the juice and any citric acid, cover, and steep for several hours in a cool place.
6. Strain through muslin. Taste — lime cordial usually wants more sugar than lemon, because the acidity is higher.
7. Bottle into sterilised bottles, or freeze in ice cube trays.

What to do with it

• Diluted with soda and a lot of ice, which is the point.
• A gimlet, with gin, which is the drink lime cordial was invented for.
• Over a tropical fruit salad — mango, papaya, melon, pineapple — where it supplies the acidity they lack.
• In a marinade for fish or chicken, with chilli and coriander.
• In a dressing, replacing some of the vinegar.
• Over a coconut sorbet or panna cotta.
• In a granita, undiluted, with a little salt.

Practicalities

Yield

Limes give roughly half what a lemon of similar size does. Expect to need more fruit than seems reasonable.

Key limes

Much more aromatic and more acidic. Excellent, seedy, and more work.

Aroma fade

Faster than lemon. Freeze what you will not drink within a week or two.

Colour

Pale yellow-green, not the bright green of the bottled kind, which is coloured.

Dilution

Around one part to five or six.

Beyond a soft drink

Lime cordial has a longer history as an ingredient than as a drink in its own right, and it is where most of its value is.

• A gimlet. Gin and lime cordial, and nothing else. The cordial is not a substitute for fresh lime here — it is the drink.
• In a marinade for chicken, pork or prawns, with fish sauce, garlic and chilli.
• Over melon, pineapple or mango, which is better than it sounds.
• In a dressing, replacing both the acid and the sweetness, with oil and a little fish sauce.
• Brushed onto a cake or a loaf while warm, in place of a lemon drizzle.
• In a sorbet or a granita, where it needs almost nothing else.
• With soda and a lot of ice and mint, which is the drink most people mean.
• As a glaze for roast carrots or squash, reduced in the pan with butter.

Common questions