Drinks & Juicing
Elderflower cordial
Summer in a bottle! For a few weeks every year the air becomes heavy with the floral fragrance of elderflower blooms. They grow in abundance in hedgerows and field margins – look out for their star-shaped white froth of flowers. Don’t be alarmed at the amount of sugar in this recipe, the cordial is concentrated and will be watered down to your taste. The tartaric or citric acid adds to the sharpness but is added primarily as a preservative so that it will store well without spoiling. If you think you’ll use it all up within a couple of weeks you can omit it and add one more lemon to the recipe. Makes about 1.5 litres.
Cook's notes
Check your elderflower heads for bugs and flick away anything obvious but avoid washing them as you’ll flush away too much of the precious flavour. Avoid picking from any plants that are too near a busy road as the exhaust fumes can taint the flowers. It goes without saying to make sure you never strip the flowers from a whole plant – pick a few from each plant and move on.
Ingredients
- 1.2 litres of water
- 800g caster sugar
- 20-30 generous heads of elderflower
- 2 lemons, juiced
- 1 tsp tartaric or citric acid – optional, see intro
Method
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Step 1
Tip the water and sugar into a large pan and bring gently to a simmer. Stir until the sugar has completely dissolved and then remove from the heat. Leave to stand for 15 minutes, so that the liquid is warm but not boiling hot.
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Step 2
Now, add the elderflowers, lemon juice, squeezed lemons and tartaric/citric acid. Stir everything together well, cover the pan and keep it in the fridge for 24-48 hours to let the flavours mingle.
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Step 3
When you are ready to decant place some muslin cloth into a sieve over a clean pan and pour the liquid through. Bunch up the cloth and squeeze out as much liquid as you can at the end, to catch every last drop of flavour.
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Step 4
Pour the cordial into sterile bottles and store somewhere cool until needed – it should keep happily for about 6 months. Keep in the fridge after opening. Dilute with cold water and ice to your taste. A slice of lemon or strawberry, ribbon of cucumber, or sprig of mint all make splendid garnishes.