Homemade Cough Drops

When your kids won’t down strongly-flavoured cough drops or if you don’t like the flavour of store-bought throat lozenges, try these.

Great to have a batch of these ready, in winter or during the monsoons. And say no to coughs and colds. Or this Grandmothers’ remedy for sore throat. An overdose won’t harm you either!

Boil 1 cup of water with 1 cup of crushed jaggery or 1 cup raw cane sugar. When it melts, add the juice of 1 large lemon and a paste made out of – 1 large 2 inch piece of ginger, 10 cloves and 5 peppercorns.

When it boils and changes colour, dip a strainer into the pot and strain out the chunky bits. Add 1/2 cup of natural honey. Keep stirring on low flame until it thickens. To check if done, take a glass of water and drop a tiny speck into it. If it forms a lump and does not melt in the water, it’s ready.

Take a large tray, line it with baking paper. Drop 1/2 teaspoons of the mixture quickly on to the sheet. Dust with icing sugar, cut the paper around each candy, wrap each of those and store in an airtight container.

PS: If you don’t separate the candies, they might stick together to form a lump and you would have to melt them again (Experience talking!)

By Linda Joseph Kavalackal,
Christ & Co.