The elderflower season is long gone ::sniff:: We have run out of elderflower cordial ::sob:: So now I’m busy collecting elderberries, and making cordial out of them.
Given that I LOATHE cloves, and nearly every recipe for cordial I found online said to use them, I leapt on the following recipe as soon as I saw it. Unfortunately I can’t remember where I found it, so it is unattributed, sorry. This makes 1 pint of elderberry cordial:
2lbs caster sugar
1 pint boiling water
1 lemon, zested then sliced
1 1/4 oz of citric acid (I used three teaspoons)
25 elderberry heads.
1. Wash and drain the elderberry heads before removing the berries and putting in a sauce pan.
2. Add the sugar and boiling water and put over a medium heat. Stir continuously until all the sugar has dissolved in the simmering water then add the citric acid and lemon zest and slices.
3. Combine well and simmer for a further five minutes before covering with a tea towel. Put the saucepan in a cool place and leave overnight to let the flavours infuse.
4. After it has rested, strain through a piece of muslin. Store in a dark place. The cordial can be used immediately and keeps for at least three months.
These photos manage to capture the amazing depth of red colour that the cordial turns after the berries have steeped overnight – the liquid becomes a concentrated and intense red, which if spilt stains every surface in sight.
The flavour of the final product is rather more difficult to describe. It has taken me a few days to decide that I actually like it, as I think it tastes like a cross between blackberry and cranberry juice – just different to anything I’ve ever tasted before. It is delicious when diluted with soda water and is also lovely as a warm drink.
The more I research the elder tree (sambucus niger), the more flabbergasting its health properties appear to be. I remember James Wong, an ethnobotanist, describing the elder as the “medicine chest of the people” on Grow Your Own Drugs because of its huge range of traditional medicinal uses.
I’m particularly interested in its antiviral properties; ever since a severe bout of glandular fever at university many years ago, I seem to come down with tonsilitis at least once a year, and even the slightest hint of a cold sees my tonsils swell threateningly.
Hopefully this cordial will help give me a bit of a boost, and I plan to have loads on hand over the winter period. I’m looking into elderberry tinctures as well, and am drying a few berries for other recipes I’ve stumbled across on the net (remember – don’t eat the berries raw, they can cause stomach upsets).
As an intriguing aside, some people have commented on the shape of the stems that the berries come from, and how they resemble the human lung:
I don’t usually read anything into this sort of comment, but the stems do sort of bear a passing resemblance to the bronchi in the lung. Kinda interesting given that the plant is said to have healing properties that relate directly to this part of the human body eh!
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