Elderflower cordial
I made half a gallon of elderflower cordial over the weekend. It amazed me how simple it was; I found a recipe on some random blog (curious little place: http://www.pastymuncher.co.uk/) and after cross-referencing it against a few other recipes as a sanity-check, I took the plunge and went or it.
Recipe for elderflower cordial
- 3 pints of cold water
- 20 - 30 elderflower heads
- 2 lemons (thinly sliced)
- 50g citric acid
- 2.5 lb sugar
Method: Mix all ingredients in a bucket or stainless steel saucepan and leave for 24 - 48 hours.
I took a stroll down the lane near my house and found half a dozen elder trees; one was really mature and huge (I could only reach the lower-most flowers), four were quite young and only about 6ft tall, and one was a mediumish size. I tried to harvest the larger flowers and so mostly took them from the larger two trees.
Returning home with a basket of elderflowers, I cut the lemons and weighed everything out (I had some citric acid left-over from a bath bomb making experiment I tried).
I left it over night and this afternoon I sieved it and strained it through some muslin to get the finest bits out.
The results were great! I diluted some down and tried it, but it was too strong - you need so little, so I watered it down and tried again. It was similar to the Bottlegreen elderflower cordial but more “flowery”. I can’t really describe it, but if flowers had a generic taste, this had it.
So there you go, elderflower cordial in a nutshell. Easy and delicious.
