[Brutus]

One edge of my garden has a number of elderberry bushes.  In early June, we had the flowers and usually we never do anything with them.  This year, my wife decided we would - and she was right.

She found a recipe on the Internet for elderflower cordian and she sent me with a big basket to collect them.  She followed the recipe, which included fresh lemons, and made about three litres of the cordial.

What we do with the cordial is this - we keep a bottle of chilled water in the fridge and, if we want a drink, we take the water out of the fridge and carbonate it with a Soda Stream, then add about 10-15% cordial and some ice.  The result is the most refreshing summer drink you can possibly imagine - it is to die for!

If anyone wants the recipe we used, just let me know and I'll happily share it - but if you can get hold of elderflowers next spring,  have a go at this.  It's gorgeous!

We still have lots of elderberries in our garden, so when they are ripe, we'll be having a go at elderberry cordial. Why let these wonderful summer goodies go to waste?

Brutus

[jaydig]

Ooooh, yes please. May we have the recipe, I've always intended to have a go at this, but forget every year.

[Brutus]

There are many recipes online, but the one my wife used, and which I can confirm is excellent, is from the BBC Good Food website.  This is what it says:

Ingredients:

2½ kg white sugar, either granulated or caster
2 unwaxed lemons
20 fresh elderflower heads, stalks trimmed
85g citric acid (from chemists)

Method

Put the sugar and 1.5 litres/2¾ pints water into the largest saucepan you have. Gently heat, without boiling, until the sugar has dissolved. Give it a stir every now and again. Pare the zest from the lemons using a potato peeler, then slice the lemons into rounds. Once the sugar has dissolved, bring the pan of syrup to the boil, then turn off the heat. Fill a washing up bowl with cold water. Give the flowers a gentle swish around to loosen any dirt or bugs. Lift flowers out, gently shake and transfer to the syrup along with the lemons, zest and citric acid, then stir well. Cover the pan and leave to infuse for 24 hrs. Line a colander with a clean tea towel, then sit it over a large bowl or pan. Ladle in the syrup – let it drip slowly through. Discard the bits left in the towel. Use a funnel and a ladle to fill sterilised bottles (run glass bottles through the dishwasher, or wash well with soapy water. Rinse, then leave to dry in a low oven). The cordial is ready to drink straight away and will keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks. Or freeze it in plastic containers or ice cube trays and defrost as needed.

Enjoy!

[jaydig]

Thanks for that. I'm definitely going to make this next year. Have you ever made elderflower champagne? I'd be a bit frightened of the bottles exploding.

[Brutus]

Elderflower champagne?  Nope. Not tried that one.

I did make some ordinary champagne type wine many years ago when we lived in the UK and we had a large, warm airing cupboard.  We only had one which exploded - the rest were OK. You buy special stoppers and these collect the spent yeast when you leave the bottles upside down. To be honest, it was fiddly and the drink didn't taste awfully good.  The best home-made brew I made was grapefruit (white) wine. That was like a really nice Sauternes.

I haven't tried any kind of alcohol brewing since moving to Sweden as we don't have a place that is consistently warm enough.  Elderflower champagne does sound nice, though.

[Beetroot Queen]

Planning to do cordial when they are ready if I dont fall in the badger set picking as they grow right above LOL

[Fairy Plotmother]

I made elderflower cordial for the first time this year Brutus. I used that same recipe. It was very good. I thought I might have a go at elderberry cordial when the trees at the allotment fruit. A plot neighbour has also recommended that I make elderberry champagne. So might give that a go too.

[sarajane]

Well after many years of forgetting to pick elderflowers I finally started off the cordial using an almost identical receipe.  Unfortunately we had the chance to have a long weekend of camping and when we returned we hadn't strained off the elderflowers and it smelt... well...like.. something cats do.

It was strained off, more sugar and water added and it is now looking like a fairly palatable elderflower wine.

I will try again next year though, thats if I remember to pick the flowers