Fiona’s traditional elderflower cordial recipe
Comments(156)
I found myself up a tall ladder, with a carrier bag, picking elderflower heads yesterday afternoon. I picked about fifty heads. They are best picked when the sun is on them. I climbed higher and higher to find exactly what I wanted. They had to be perfect with no trace of brown blossom. According to Joanna’s Food brown blossom can foul the cordial.
My sister brought this recipe back from France. Since I introduced Danny to elderflower and pink grapefruit cocktail, it seemed a good idea to make my own cordial tweaking the recipe to suit my taste.
There seem to be as many uses for elderflower cordial as recipes. Apart from adding a splash to fruit fools and pies, it can be added to a vinaigrette dressing, and apparently is delicious with chicken breasts. Determined to experiment I made double the quantity below. I will pour my cordial into warm sterilised bottles and seal them immediately, hoping that they will keep in a cool area of the barn. I will also freeze some syrup, just in case.
Fiona’s traditional elderflower cordial recipe
Ingredients:
- 1.5 litres of boiling water
- 1 kilo of white granulated sugar
- 20 large elderflower heads (if they are small, pick more)
- 4 lemons
- 55g of citric acid
Method:
- In a Pyrex bowl (or deep saucepan) pour the boiling water onto the sugar and stir. Leave to cool, stirring every now and then to dissolve the sugar.
- When cool add the citric acid, the lemons (zested and sliced) and the elderflower heads.
- Leave to steep for 48 hours.
- Strain twice through sterilised muslin (how do I sterilise muslin? See Tips and tricks below)
- Using a jug and funnel carefully pour into hot sterilised bottles (how do I sterilise bottles? See Tips and tricks below)
Tips and tricks:
- How do I sterilise a jelly bag or muslin square?
Both can be scalded with boiling water. If you are using a clean muslin bag or square you can iron them with a hot iron. This also works with tea cloths. - How do I sterilise bottles?
The sterilising method that we used is simple. Just before making the syrup, I quickly wash and rinse the bottles and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 160c (140c fan-assisted). When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The bottles will stay warm for quite a while. Sterilise the lids by boiling these for a few minutes in water.
Thank you for your comments. And a bit of silly bath time fun with the Frothing Sea Monster trick!
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Recipe for sausages baked with herby garlic infused beans, bacon and tomato
Tracing some of my ancestors has taken me on a long journey
Recipe for lamb shanks braised in red wine with shallots: slow cooker/crockpot
The cupboard was bare – so what was The Contessa going to eat last night?
HG
Thanks for the info on sterilising. How long do you expect the cordial to last in the barn?
TopVeg
Hi TopVeg,
The barn is very cool even on the hottest day. You are supposed to keep the cordial in the fridge but we just don’t have the space. I don’t expect it to last more than a couple of months but I have no idea as I have not made it before.
We gave some away and are down to a couple of bottles now and these are disappearing fast. So probably I will not know this year.
Do you know the botanical name of the Elderberry/Elderflower tree that you have? Which is the best for the cordial?
Thanks
Greshcat
Hi Greshcat,
Our elder tree is the common elder tree that self seeds in the hedgerows around here. It is from the Sambucus family.
I don’t know which is the best sort of elder tree for cordial. Ours is tough and ugly but produces great cordial.
I have recently tasted elderflower cordial which was frozen very successfully. It only lasted a day or two after defrosting but in a smaller plastic water bottle you could just take out what you need.
Hi, Just a side note, I replace the white sugar for Brown sugar, and add a little honey, and use sweet satsumas in place of lemons, the syrup is a ittle thicker, and is very arrowmatic, Nice with Gin and Brandy, a sort of Pimms mix. Also a nice Hot Toddy, if you have a cold, just add a little hot water, drink it as neat as you can…
hI Ali
I’m going to try freezing mine in cubes this year. so you can unfreeze individual portions as needed.
Apparently the plastic bottles can leech into the cordial in the freezer, although this has never happened to me.
I didn’t know that the cordial only lasts a day or two after defrosting, thanks for the tip!
Hello Trevor
That sounds excellent! Thanks so much for sharing.
Hi, This one goes a “bit” futher, use equal amounts of elderflower cordial as Gin, then add equal amounts of Damsons and white sugar, best I found is, 1pint of elderflower 1/2 pint of gin, 2lbs of damsons and 2lbs of sugar, make cut in damsons, and store in a large glass bottle, sealed, in a dry,cool dark room, for 6months, shaking the botle 3 times a week, then strain thru very clean tea towel, or thru coffee filters.
Place liquid in good bottles, with srew top, and enjoy the drink neat, with coffee or tea.
One of the “BEST” after dinner drinks you will get,friends will love the taste, as no one else makes it. Winner all the way..
Best wishes trevor…
Wow, Trevor, that sounds awesome. Thank you so much!
If you are not going to freeze your cordial, keep an eye on it and occasionally loosen the top to release any air. A friend of mine had a glass bottle that exploded when the cordial fermented. You can imagine the mess the sticky cordial made!
Hi Margaret
Thanks for this tip. Exploding codial bottles would be a bit of a nightmare!
Stumbled upon you guys when looking for elderflower cordial recipes. Has anyone the “recipe” for making a ginger beer baby? When I was a child my mother used to make heaps of ginger beer for us – it was extremely potent (don’t think she realised this) as it had yeast and sugar in it and bottles would regularly explode in the cellar. She died 14 years ago and I have stupidly lost the recipe and method – I know it involved ground ginger, yeast, sugar and water but have no idea of quantities. By the way your recipes sound fabulous – Trevor, what do you call your elderflower/gin/damson concoction?
Sorry – should explain what a ginger beer “baby” is before you think I’m completely nuts. It is the basis of the drink – a combination of ginger and yeast/or possibly sugar (can’t remember) which you “feed” with more sugar or yeast (again, can’t remember) and then after a while it matures and you can add water/sugar in vast quantities, bottle it and wait for it to brew/explode. The end result is absolutely delicious. If I remember rightly you can reserve some of the original “baby” to start the process all over again.
Hi Jenny
I am thinking of doing the same and have already researched this. I reckon that this looks like a great recipe for starters
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A827426
I’d love to hear how you get on!
Thanks so much – it has all come flooding back! Have just picked elderflowers so will make cordial first followed by ginger beer. Wonder what it tastes like with a dash or two of vodka?
I’ll let you know how I get on.
On the subject of Elderflower cordial, don’t keep it too long. I made some last June and my kids (2 boys 13 & 15) loved it. One bottle got left in the garage until Christmas and they asked if they could still drink it. ‘Sure’ I said ‘It’s only elderflower cordial. If it tastes OK, then it’s fine’. 30 minutes later their hysterical giggling led to the discovery that they were totally ‘smashed’ after only one glass! Beware!!
Hi Anthea,
I’ll certainly try leaving the odd bottle until Christmas then!
Just put the elderflowers in the water & sugar but don’t have citric Acid so added more lemon/orange juice. Hope it works as it smells super…
Thanks so much for the tips
Oh, and is it true that the elderflower is best picked at noon on midsummer’s day? Or is this hippie nonsense?
Hello Jenny
Very good I suspect. Why not follow Anthea’s lead and leave some in the garage for a few months!
Hi Anthea
This is interesting. No wonder my neighbour’s carers constantly drink homemade elderflower cordial!
Hi Maria
I reckon that your cordial should work.
It’s always best to pick any flower with the sun on them as they are fully open at that point. Old hippies sometimes know best!
Found this lovely site while looking for elderflower cordial recipes. My dad used to make elderflower ‘champagne’ which was both explosive and, with hindsight, potent as we always got giggly. He used to used rewired champagne bottles. For ginger beer he used heavy-bottomed old screw top beer bottles (I think they were beer bottles). Is it possible to get hold of heavy-duty bottles like this now?
How do you know whent he cordial is off – will it just smell alcohol-y?
I’ve tried making elderflower cordial before – the recipe said to steep the heads for 3 days in a dark cool place…whenn I went to bottle it is had blue fur growing on it! So that was a bit annoying, you recipe doesnt sound like that is a risk though
I made cordial in a slightly different way — steep flowers in water and citric acid in fridge for 48 hrs. Then strain and boil with sugar. You can then bottle hot and it should keep without the fermentation problems people are talking about. I suspect it won’t last long enough in my house to see though. Tastes great!
Hi Kim
I must have a go at making elderflower champagne!
Re the bottles. you could try the online wine and beer making suppliers but I reckon that they’d be expensive.
Someone that I know puts their bottle in cardboard boxes so if there is an explosion the glass is contained, a bit.
Hi Soraya
I don’t know when you can tell that cordial is off. We’ve not kept ours that long!
Our recipe is pretty straightforward to make. What a shame that yours went mouldy.
Hi Andrea
That sounds like a great idea for preserving the cordial. Thanks very much for the tip.
Hi everyone who has contributed to this conversation. I was just about to go and climb the elder tree to collect the flowers to start the process but will wait until my boys have given their dad his Father’s day present- a ladder!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Am really excited about making Elder flower cordial! Thanks everyone for the inspiration.
Hi Soraya and All
I don’t think our cordial ever smelt ‘boozy’, it just got fizzier! I completed this years batch on Thursday. I have always offered it to guests who are driving as an alternative to alcohol. but don’t know if I dare now. Can anyone think of a way to test the alcoholic content??
Made some cordial on Friday, bottled it yesterday. Very tasty. Made a very nice summer drink last night for some guests. Three large measures of Gin, equal amount of cordial, lots of ice and top the jug up with sparkling spring water. Serve with slices of lemon and mint leaves.
With regard the Elderflower champagne, if you cannot find enough glass bottles to make it for keeping, some of the recipes I have found suggest using plastic pop bottles. As it is ready to drink after a few weeks, this should be OK if you drink these first.
I’ve made some cordial this week,i’ts been steeping for 5 days and i’ve just srtained the mixture.However it tases too sweet for my liking.I used 30 elderflower heads,4lb sugar,2.5pts water and 4 lemons instesd of 2 because I couln’t get any citric acid{ chemists no longer sell it due to substance abuse!!!!!}
Do you have any ideas as to how I can alter the flavour?
Isn’t citric acid also known as vitamin C?
oops! Got my acids mixed up, ascorbic acid is Vit C. This is obviously why I studied languages and not sciences!
Hi Michelle
A ladder is a great father’s day present!
Hope that the elderflower cordial making went well.
Hi Anthea
Ours eventually went fizzy too. Had no idea that this means that it is alcoholic!
Hi Bob
Thanks so much for this elderflower cocktail recipe, sounds delicious.
I must try elderflower champagne this year!
Hi Lorraine
How disappointing that your cordial is too sweet. I can’t think how you could get around the problem apart from boiling it up with even more lemon juice.
Perhaps someone else has an effective remedy.
You can buy citric acid on most wine and beer making suppliers in the web.
Hi Pamela
Easily done!
Hi elder friends! I’ve got a really old elder tree in my back garden and always wanted to make use of it – many thanks for all your great ideas -I will get picking tomorrow! Noticed the cordial being used a lot by the famous Dehlia in her Summer cook book – worth a look.
Hello Angie
Hope that your cordial making is a success!
Hello all!
I do know where to get citric acid but a) I dont want to wait!
and b) Id rather use all natural ingreedients if poss, so does anyone know if substituting more lemons for the citric will do the job?
Im just waiting for the sun to come out!
Hi Holly
Lemons are a great substitute for citric acid. We use the juice a lot in winemaking, instead of citric acids and it works well.
Hi all
I read somewhere that a little bit of crushed up campden tablet in each cordial bottle will help keep it keep and then will not need to go into the fridge. Not sure if this is correct but I’m gonna try it out on some cordial which has been sitting for three days now – recipe from ‘Food for free’ says leave for five which is hard to do!
Hi there, I made 3 litres of cordial last week and after enjoying one bottle for 3 days it went mouldy on top (and slightly fizzy) and the remaining 3 bottles that haven’t been opened since bottling now also have a film and mould spots on top. I am so disappointed and don’t want to remake in case the same problem occurs only time is running out….. can anyone tell me what I may have done wrong? Thanks.
Please I have two questions?
Would adding a small amount of alcoholic spirit to the Elderflower cordial act as a preservative, and STOP fermentation?
Also why will the cordial one buys in the shops keep, if that that which is made at home will not?
I have managed to buy some citric acid powder from the local chemists but there are no insstructions for diluting lt – what ratio of powder to water. Would it be safer to use more lemons?
Hi Rita
Use the ratio in our recipe 55g of powder to 1.5 litres of water.
Hi Sharron
Campden tablets are used in winemaking to avert the possible contamination of fruit flies. They may work in cordial but personally I wouldn’t risk it.
Hi Lindy
It’s difficult to say what went wrong without knowing what recipe you used. I’ve found that our recipe above is pretty foolproof.
Hi Heather
Haven’t heard of that one! If you added a little cordial to a lot of alcohol it would definitely keep!
The shop cordial should be refrigerated after opening. It keeps better as it is bottled hot into sterilised bottles. There are instructions for this in the comments above (see Andrea’s comment).
Just made cordial, great taste fab, got citric acid powder from brewers shop, hope to make another batch before they go over.
Hi Anne
I was looking at our large elder this evening. We’ll have lots of berries for wine in the autumn. Just a few more days for cordial in East Anglia!
Hello again, re. campden tablet in cordial – could you explain what the risk to my cordial would be by adding a little bit of campden tablet. I strained it yesterday and bottled it (whilst making a very sticky mess of my kitchen) and it’s delicious so don’t want to spoil it but do want to make more and keep it. I know it can be frozen but my freezer is usually full to the brim with bargains my other half keeps bringing home! Am going to try the BBC recipe which is only 1kg sugar to 6pts water next, the one I just tried has 1kg sugar to 1.5pts water so it means drinking it with a toothbrush on standy.
Hello,
We’ve recently moved to France and have a lot of Elderflowers – so we thought of a cordial. But they are beginning to turn red. Does that mean we’re too late?
Any thoughts?
Hi Sharron
The campden tablets might give your cordial a funny taste but they might not. As I haven’t tried using them I can’t say.
Personally I’d try Andrea’s method and bottle the cordial hot in sterilised bottles (see her comment above).
Hi Ken
Once the elderflowers start to turn colour you are too late for cordial. The brownish petals make the cordial taste vile.
However you will have berries in the Autumn and these make a wonderful wine!
Just been out picking a great crop on Midsummer’s day at 2pm (Not nooon and definitly not sunny!)
I have made elderflower cordial for a few years and kept it in the fridge for many months, but I tend to boil the flowerheads for 15-20 minutes , strain, then add the sugar, rather like making fruit jellies. I’ve not had any ferment or go off yet.
Cheers.
Hi all – I have just put together my first batch of elderflower champagne! I went picking today with my fiancee around the windsor park area and we now have two vats of it bubbling away! I have read lots of comments about bottling – and I am now searching a definitive answer – will plastic bottles be ok?
Plastic drinks bottles are perfect – if they held fizzy pop originally they will be strong enough to take the pressure (hopefully) and are food quality so if well rinsed or rinsed out with sterilising powder from the wine making counter in the chemist and then rinsed out carefully, will not taint the champagne.
Word of warning though dont overfill them and open the first one outside or with a cloth over the top – better still get the fiancee to open the first one – you’ll know what to expect with the others!! Rgds
Hello Leone
I think that you have the answer!
Hi Natasha
Thanks for reminding me that it is midsummer’s day. Hope that your ederflwer cordial turns out well.
Hi Andy
Thanks so much for this response. I use glass bottles so didn’t know if plastic ones were OK.
I admire your fianc̩e Рjust the sort of grit that makes for a happy marriage!
Hi all,
First time on this site and enjoying everyones comments. Made cordial for the first time this week, tasty but seems far too sweet, made second batch with less sugar – more successful but thinking I may mix the two together and add more lemon juice. Waiting for the sun to shine today before picking and getting my third batch on the go later. Really like the idea of champagne will think about that one!!
Hi All,
Have just made cordial and 2 batches of champagne – one of which was with pink elderflowers. They dont seem as aromatic as the white flowers – does anyone know if I should use more heads? Have plenty of time – living in Yorkshire we still have many heads yet to flower and the pink elderflower will probably go on for another 2 weeks!
Hi Rosie
Thanks for dropping by and apologies for the belated response. I’m up to my eyes at the moment.
Great that you have made cordial. It’s so much better than the stuff from the shops! Hope that the mix turned out well.
Hi Claire
I’m not sure whether you should use more heads with the pink elderflowers. My gut reaction is to say yes as it’s the essence that you are capturing. White flowers rely on their smell to attract insects, coloured flowers depend more on their colour.
I am no expert but I definitely would use more of the pink heads, you need your nose to guide you. When it smalls right, you probably have the right amount. If you can make white champagne alongside the pink it would be easier to get the ratio right.
I’d love to hear how you get on!
Hi,
I made my first batch of cordial the other day and put half of it in the freezer in plastic bottles for later in the year. It hasn’t frozen solid but has stayed soft and squidgy – is that normal?
Enjoying the rest of it – fantastic!!
Thanks for this great recipe. Here are a few things i found usefull to know.
1) the high sugar content will prevent fermentation as long as you put enough in. If it ferments you probably didnt have enough sugar.
2) the citric acid is to prevent it going mouldy, most chemists have to order it in as it is used by junkies for something horrible. You dont need it if you are meticuously sterile in your preperation and bottling.
3) We all found it very sweet so used loads more heads so we could dilute it more and still get the flavour.
Another tip is to buy cheap bottled water, you can use this to make your liquer and as the bottles are already sterile you can just bottle it straight back into the empties. If you fill them to the very top they should not mould and you can check to see if they are fermenting by looking for gas in the top of the sealed bottles, if there is, freeze the suckers.
Oh , and a slice of root ginger in the bottle is awesome too!
Hi Ruth
The bottles staying squidgy dowsn’t sound right to me. I have never frozen cordial in bottles so wouldn’t know what to expect. It might be worth investigating further.
Hi Laurie
Thanks so much for sharing your experience and tips about making elderflower cordial. Excellent – really useful stuff.
Thanks for all the tips on this page – I’ve made cordial (I have a recipe that includes some root ginger and limes as well as lemon and it’s gorgeous) and some champagne this year, but found the cordial very quickly started to get fizzy when left out on the windowsill. Freezing in ice cube trays sounds like a great solution.
As for champagne – I’ve always had a lot of success using plastic bottles. One useful tip – if you squeeze the plastic bottles as you fill them with the champagne, so the bottles are slightly deformed, the gases in the champagne will have more room to spread out. The bottle expands back to its normal shape as the champagne gets fizzy, and it’s less likely to explode!
(Having said that I always wrap mine up in old plastic bags or newspapers when I store them, just in case…)
Hi Mich
Thanks for dropping by and leaving these brilliant tips!
Another thank you. I have masses of elderflowers in my Devon garden and used your recipe to make cordial (and made good use of the tips other people have posted). Had a first tasting tonight and it was fantastic. Am particularly grateful for the info re plastic bottles and elderflower champagne (I’d made a bucket of that too!) I’d ordered some Grolsch type beer bottles but they haven’t arrived so will now be using a stack of water bottles instead.
Hi Dianne
Great that our recipe worked out well for you! Thanks for leaving a comment.
[...] I think I might have got away with it. The flowers were out the week before we went on our fortnight hol. I was convinced there wouldn’t be any left when we got back but sadly didn’t have time to make any cordial before we left. Was amazed to see a few flowerheads still on the go when we got back but it’s taken me a few days to get the citric acid together and even then I forgot to buy the lemons – double doh! So I dragged R out before tea today on a “flower hunt†and managed to find just about the last dozen elderheads in the whole county I reckon. Boiled up the water and dissolved the sugar before tea and now R is settled, toys semi tidied away and the washing sorted, I can get to zesting those lemons. That is, if Mr. P hadn’t decided to be a model husband and do the washing up and in the process chuck my nicely cooling cordial base down the sink. Is someone somewhere trying to tell me this cordial was not meant to be? Of course that only makes me more determined to make the stuff! [...]
Ginger beer makers – a word of warning! Having made 5 bottles of non-alcoholic ginger beer – I asked a friend if she would mind putting them in her cool garage for 2 weeks as we have no space in our tiny cottage. For reasons only known to her, she and her husband decided to store them in their kitchen larder instead. These were new plastic bottles, not glass, with new screw-tight tops and what do you know? Two exploded 6 days later, totally destroying the plastic bin they were next to and distributing the contents throughout her newly decorated kitchen. Oops. The scary thing was that her 7 year old son had just walked past the open larder a minute before they went up and could have been hurt as shards of plastic went everywhere. Yes, they had noticed the bottles swelling, but no, they had not released the gas. Ho hum. Guess there goes my lashings of ginger beer days!
Hi
Where can you buy citric acid? It is getting more and more difficult to find it these days.
Great website, by the way. Do you run courses?
Thanks
Hi Marie-Noelle
Citric acid can be bought easily on line – I use our wine and beer suppliers http://www.art-of-brewing.co.uk/
No we don’t run courses! This site is a sideline as I work full time ATM.
Anyone making things from naturally occuring items (elderflowers) needs to be aware that they probably contain a naturally occuring yeast, often specific to the particular plant. Any yeast in the presence of sugar will ferment to produce carbon dioxide and alcohol. Yeast is killed by excess heat and the use of boiling water in the recipe is obviously intended to do this. The growth of yeast is also inhibited by high concentrations of sugar, carbon dioxide or alcohol. It is also stopped by extream cold but once room temperature is regained it will re-awake and do what comes naturally to it i.e make carbon dioxide and alcohol from sugar in order to grow and re-produce itself.Thus the use of high quantities of sugar called for in the recipe might inhibit fermentation but some of the naturally occuring yeasts do have a high degree of tollerance to heat, sugar, carbon dioxide and alcohol. If a live yeast is present in the mixture there is always a danger that fermentation will occur and since yeast itself is a plant it will grow and reproduce itself until it has used up all of the available sugar or the growth is stopped by intollerable levels of alcohol or carbon dioxide. Reducing the amount of sugar suggested by the recipe will almost certainly produce fermentation if there is any live yeast present. Yeasts of various kinds exist in the air all around us and need to be excluded from the mixture if unwelcome developments are to be avoided, hence the need for a clean and sterile environment. A firmentation produces prodigeous amounts of carbon dioxide that is capable creating enormous pressure in a sealed container with potentially explosive consequences. An open fermentation where the carbon dioxide is allowed to escape given time can produce equally prodigeous amounts of alcohol, often in excess of 15% by volume depending on the type of yeast and the available sugar present. Anyone using the recipe needs to be aware of the above basic facts and modify their actions accordingly.Anyone making a cordial with the intention of generating some alcoholic content should raise the temperature in order to kill the yeast befor bottling it.
Hello Brian
Thanks so much for your tips and advice on how to stop the cordial not becoming alcoholic. Great stuff!
Hi!
I’d like to make elderflower cordial using Ascorbic acid, vitamin C, instead of the usual citric acid.
The trouble is I have no idea how much vitamin C powder to use in my usual recipe based on two and a half pints of water, three pounds of sugar, one lemon, about twenty elderflower heads and two teaspoonsful of citric acid.
Can anyone out there help?
Wendy.
Just about to go and pick my elderflowers, we have a great homebrew shop down here in sunny devon, based in the indoor market in Newton Abbot! or they also have a website http://www.milltop.co.uk
Wendy
we make apple juice on a local farm, we add asorbic acid to help preserve, we add 10g per 5 gallon, it doesnt sound much but its enough for our needs. Not sure if it would be the same for a cordial though!
To help further preserve the cordial, you can pasturize, let the bottled, sealed cordial sit at a temperature of 70 degrees for 20 minutes. The cordial should then be fine out of the fridge for up to 6 months. I only use very small bottles to avoid any wastage!
adding one campden tablet to each gallon of cordial will not affect the taste and will kill the yeast off, you will have no fizzy cordial and the campden also acts as a preservative and the cordial cant be kept for a very long time!
Now that the Elderflower is in full bloom (in most places in the U.K) it may be appropriate to add a few further comments to those that I made previously. It has been long established that Elder has some very beneficial medicinal properties and this applies to the flowers, berries and even the bark.As a remedy for colds and flu Elderflower Tea made from dried Elderflowers (or even fresh flowers when available) mixed with lemon and honey taken before retiring will bring on the fever and usually leaves you feeling much better the following day. The cordial that contains the same basic ingredients should have the same beneficial effects.
Those who make home-made wine will be familiar with the processes that involve fermentation and its consequences that have already been mentioned and some of the correspondants have practical experience of this. Some may desire to produce an alcoholic cordial and this can be best achieved by introducing a general purpose wine yeast available in tablet form from stores that specialise in supplies for home-made beer and wine and some chemists. Success is more likely if the sugar concentration in the initial liquid is lowered and the fermentation allowed to exhaust all of the available sugar. The yeast must then be killed and raising the temperature will normally achieve this. Heating the liquid in a microwave should have a dual effect since the microwaves should have a detrimental effect on the live yeast although I cannot swear to this. Do not raise the temperature above 70 C. as this will evaporate the alcohol. Campden tablets added at this stage will further stabalise the liquid without affecting the flavour. The rest of the sugar can then be added and the cordial bottled. Providing strict conditions of sterility have been observed the resultant cordial should be stable and like a good wine even improve with keeping. After bottling periodic checks should be made to ensure that fermentation does not re-start as this can have explosive consequences. I would recommend that you avoid the temptation to make a cordial that has too high a concentration of alcohol. Once opened the cordial can become contaminated but keeping the bottle sealed except to pour the cordial should avoid this.
Try sterilising bottles or jars in the microwave:
Wash bottles/jars put a little water (50 ml) into them and place in the microwave. Microwave on the top setting until water boils, but no so long that it all boils away. By that time the microwaves will have killes all the nasty germs etc.
Simply pour the water out and use straight away.
Be sure to use microwave safe jars/bottles (i.e. glass) and remove all metal before placing in the microwave oven. If using metal lids you will have to sterilise them in a different way.
I found this method works even better than the oven one and it is much quicker (i.e. 2 or 3 minutes)
[...] recipes I’ve been keeping a beady eye open for this year’s first frothy flowers. They make great cordial, wine and champagne. But they are also the key ingredient in early summer jellies. Jellies are [...]
A good way to preserve stuff is to use real ale bottles ( the chunky brown ones not the thin lager ones) and buy a crown-capper and some crown caps. Sterilise the bottles by heating them in the oven (pour boiling water over the caps) and then seal them using the crown-capper. Keeps stuff for years. I bought my crown-capper from a homebrew shop:
West Wilts Homebrew Wine Making & Brewing Supplies. Tel: 01225 753286| 68, Frome Rd, Southwick, Trowbridge, Wiltshire BA14 9QQ ..
They might do mail order?
Thus is all very useful.Thank you. Can anyone offer advise for making elder flower cordial in bulk? We have a Summer School fair coming up and a group of mums are going up to school on polling day for a mass picking of flowers to make school cordial to sell. The problem is it’s a month to go to the fair and I’m worried we’re either going to kill everyone if we get it wrong, or it will be a summer fair to remember with everyone getting sloshed? Help
Oh and I’d heard that the elder flower tree branches can make magical musical flutes because they’re hollow. Is this true and has anyone ever tried?
Hi Wendy
I couldn’t answer your question but luckily Rach (below) has the answer!
Hi Rach
Thanks so much for your advice. I rather like fizzy cordial but pasteurising is necessary if you are going to give it to children or people on the wagon so thanks for your tips!
Hello Brian
This is fascinating stuff.
Thank you so much for your tips. Can’t wait to try your method for tipsy elderflower cordial.
Hi Linda
This is great advice. Thank you.
Hello Alexandra
Great idea. Little bottles are best as the cordial doesn’t last long once opened. Thank you.
Hi Kate
Our recipe is pretty foolproof and a month away is too short a time for the cordial to ferment after it’s made. Look at Brian’s comments above. If you heat the cordial to above 70 degrees you kill the alcohol.
Never tried making or playing a flute fashioned from an elderflower branch. Would love to hear how you get on if you give it a go
hi there
made this cordial last week with elderflowers here in the sunny south of france;
I took it to a party with french friends and it went down a storm!!!
Thank you so much!
Hello Shelley
Thanks for dropping by.
Homemade cordials are far better than commercially produced ones, I reckon.
We only publish tried and trusted recipes on this site.
Elderflowers are just coming out in this neck of the woods (N Lincolnshire), bought the lemons, sugar etc and now on the prowl for the sun! Thank you everyone for all your comments, cant wait to make.
Re: bottles
IKEA sell 1 litre sealable bottles – like Grolsch tops on them – about £1.50 each. Can you use them year after year.
Great year for elderflowers – mine are currently steeping in buckets.
As for how long the cordial lasts – last drop just gone from a friend of mine’s fridge after a whole year.
Sarah
looked up recipe so thought i would read all comments. wow, really helpful and interesting. Am making first batch today bearing in mind all comments- will add little ginger, steralise bottles in microwave- it’s my niece’s wedding in summer and this will be a brilliant addition (my sister is on the ginger beer case !!)
thanks to everyone
Just been out picking to brew up my first batch of elderflower cordial. Left it steepin in the kitchen an it smells lovely. With regards to the fermenting, apparently the flowers have a yeast that grows on them that is capable of breaking the sugar down into alcohol. The boiling and high sugar methods both kill the yeast and so there is no fermentation, but personally I’m looking forwards to a little tipple.
I have a bucket full of elderflower champagne fermenting (hopefully) in the kitchen right now and am planning to make some cordial as well. Has anybody tried using more lemons rather than the citric acid? If so, how many extra should I add? I’m thinking I may use an extra 2 but I don’t want the lemon to overpower the elderflower.
The other thing is that it was said that heat will kill the yeast but the recipe above suggests waiting for the water to cool before adding the elderflowers, which are the element that contain the yeast. Would it be best to add the flowers to boiling water or does this somehow affect the flavour?
Hello Matt
Don’t know about replacing the citric acid with lempns, Sorry.
The yeast is in the flowers. So let things cool a bit before you add them.
I still use lbs and pints. I reckon 1lb sugar to 1 pint water.then elder flowers 10-20, half a little box of citric acid, this keeps till the next season. I have added quarter camden tablet ,it does not flavour the cordial.With these proportions you will get neither mould nor explosions…………at least I havent.I have made it for about 10 years.
can anybody help me, the bottles I used to put the elderflower cordial were not properly sterilized and now the bacteria is growing in it, there is anyway I can save the cordial I made, thanks
Hi there
Just made a batch of elderflower cordial and wondering how long i should wait before i drink it? Have had a few glasses already!! but should I wait longer???? Does anybody know about adding Vit C to it to make it more nutritional ???
Would appreciate any comments.
Thanks
Maria
Useful tips:
I found citric acid in my local health food store this week after being told at the chemists they no longer stock it. I was so pleased as I only asked the shopkeeper as an afterthought. Perhaps most health shops stock it?
You can get nice little labels at lakeland, the only place I’ve ever seen them.
I keep my cordial in our cool garage but always put it in a lidded cardboard box in case of explosion, which has happened. I even put something heavy on the lid.
Cheers
Ps Another useful tip I forgot to include
If you can’t find or don’t have muslin for straining, use a jay cloth!
Hi Karen
Thanks for your advice. Great that the Campden tablets don’t taint the cordial. Thank you.
Hi Aura
I don’t think that there’s anything that you can do. The bacteria will have probably infiltrated all of the cordial.
Hello Maria
You can drink it immediately. You could add extra vit C but this is just a soft drink rather than a health drink (look at the amount of sugar
)
Hi Trilby
Thanks so much for these great tips.
Much appreciated.
My father used to make fantastic elderflower champagne and he always added a bit of ginger to give it that champagne type bite. Other than that I don’t remember the recipe, I just remember the ladies he brought back from church for a little tipple wobbling up the road after a single glass!
thanks, I do hope I can save some liters of teh cordial, definitely I am sterilizing everything now and good luck to all of us in the making of elderflower cordial
Hi there
I picked my flowers at the weekend, they’ve been steeping for 3.5 days and have just gone to it now to do the next stage- there was a small amount of mould floating on the top.
I’ve poured it all through the muslin but am thinking I might have to bin it all, it’s contaminated, right? If I’m boiling it now for a minute as per the BBC recipe, can I still use it to make cordial or is it ruined? am gutted, it was fine yesterday when I stirred it.
I used double the amount of lemons as didn’t have citric acid, but then you don’t put that in til the end anyway, so I wouldn’t be adding any more lemon or I think it will taste hideous anyway.
what do you think – should I bin it?
Hi Emma J
I’d love to try that recipe!
Very interested in your planned sculpture for Pink Wood and want to be sent some clay!
Hello Aura
I sterilise everything from the word go. It’s worth the trouble. Do hope that you can save some cordial!
Hi Catherine
3.5 days sounds quite a long time span for seeping to me. I generally seep for 48 – 60 hours max. You need a very cold space, a fridge or a really cold floor and cool days too.
If the cordial tastes OK I might try bottling it (in sterile bottles) but keep a close eye on it. It will be obvious if/when the mold forms.
If you still have access to pure white, fresh elderflowers it might be worth having another go.
I looked on the BBC website and can’t locate the recipe that you used. Most of their recipes just steep for 24 hours.
Thank you so much for that! I will give it a bash, I’ve found some citric acid now so I’ll try it and see what happens.
If I get a chance to go out this weekend I will see if I can try again and I won’t steep for so long- I suspect it was quite warm even in the coolest place in the house. I might try it in the shed and steep for 48 hours next time.
This was the recipe I followed – admittedly it’s only supposed to steep for 3 days but I didn’t quite get to it before 3.5 days!
http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/570531
I make elderflower cordial every year. I use extra lemon juice as I can’t be bothered with citric acid. I used to add whole slices of lemon but have stopped doing that as I find the pith gives an unpleasant bitter aftertaste to the cordial: now I add the zest and juice only. I tend to use less sugar (1 kg bag to 1.5 litres water with 40 flowerheads, plus zest and juice of 4 lemons). I make a syrup, then add the flowerheads and lemons, simmer for c. 10 minutes and leave to steep overnight, no longer. I then strain through muslin and bottle in 0.5l water bottles (not bothering about sterilisation since it isn’t meant to keep very long anyway) and freeze them. After taking the bottles out of the freezer, they are stored in the fridge. We love elderflower but tend to not use too much of it because of the high sugar content. This way, the flavour is strong and the sugar content not too high: however, as pointed out before, the low sugar content means it won’t last too long at room temp (or even in the fridge).
Hi – I’ve just found your straightforward recipe after using a recipe labelled as such, but it turned out to be for Elderflower Champagne!
Will put a link to this on my blog as a thank you.
Has anyone tried drying elderflowers or making cordial with dried flowers. I have a mushroom and fruit dryer that I’m sure could be put to good use to make up fresh batches later in the year when the weather is cooler. Had I known, I would have prepared mine in the fridge, our house is too warm at this time of year.
I spotted some dried flowers in the wine making shop today when I went in for some campden tablets as the recipe I used said to use them. Don’t know if there was much point as the brew was already beginning to fizz. I’m assuming it will still be drinkable, just alcoholic, although once watered down I can’t imagine it would be very strong.
Really enjoyed reading these comments, lots of great advice – thanks
We now user screw top wine bottles – easy to sterilise and just the right size.
We have been making Elder Flower Champagne for a few years now and have our buckets brewing now – we are in Scotland so still have plenty of flowers. My only piece of advice is never never use plastic bottles – we had a nasty experience with exploding bottles one hot summer – champagne dripping from the ceiling and walls at 3AM – was not funny at the time
Going to make some cordial this weekend thanks to all of your helpful advice and yummy cocktail suggestions
These comments are really brilliant. I got myself prepared and went to pick the elderflowers, there are heaps growing near where I live, but every single one smelt rank, in fact if I leave my bedroom window open the smell blows in and it smells like sweaty underwear! I didn’t really fancy making the cordial after that. However there are loads of linden/lime trees and the linden tree blossoms smell heavenly. Has anyone any experience of making linden/lime tree blossom cordial? If not I am going to try it anyway, using this receipe and substituting.
I was wondering if anyone knows a recipe for using dried flowers as it is now too late for fresh ones. I would love to try it
Hi Judy,
I’ve been making elderflower cordial for years using a very similar recipe (the main difference being that I don’t zest the lemons) – so I thought I’d share something with you..
* Elderflower and Lemon Marmalade *
When I bottle the cordial I usually have a small amount of cordial left over and, of course, there is the lemon/flower mix left in the muslin bag. So, rather than waste anything I separate (as far as possible!) the lemons from the flowers and then chop them (can be done in a food processor).
Put lemons in a pan, together with 2 pints of liquid (I add water to the left over cordial to make 2 pints)
Boil till lemons are cooked (liquid reduced by about half is a good guide) and then add sugar. (The amount of sugar depends on the amount of cordial in the liquid mix – I find that 2 pints of water needs 2lb of sugar whereas 1 pint cordial 1 pint water only needs a pound of sugar.
Then you just boil it, as for any other jam, till the setting point is reached, bottle it and enjoy!
[...] http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/judys-elderflower-cordial-recipe-340 [...]
I make my Elderflower Cordial with sliced lemons, oranges (or satsumas) and limes – it adds an extra fruity tang to it.
Do you dilute this cordial or drink it neat??
Hi Sheddite
You dilute it with water.
What time of year are the elderberries ready to be picked?
Hi George
They are ripe in the autumn.
Brilliant thanks for that.
Do you have to pick them when they are whitey colour or can you wait untill they are purpley/black
I have a very red face today. I made my elderflower cordial and left it to steep yesterday. Today I bought some clip-top bottles from the hardware shop, brought them home and washed them before putting them into the oven at 140 degrees C to dry and sterilise. A phone call distracted me and I eventually returned to discover that the lids were plastic and had melted, making an unholy mess. I had to go shopping for more bottles after lunch, and removed the clip tops this time so the operation was successfully completed. I’m posting this so others can learn from my experience…. and beware!
George, you’ll want to wait for the berries to ripen to that lovely dark purple before ripening. Mmmmm, elderberry wine – lovely to drink and to casserole venison in. However, summer sipping elderflower cordial and gin on ice, first!
Hi Sukre
Our elderflower cordial is quite gassy after a while so I always use corks on the bottles, rather than metal closures. If the cordial starts to ferment the cork blows rather than the bottles. If you use clip top bottles store them out of potentially harms way in a thick cardboard or wooden box that will contain the shards if a bottle blows!
Gin and elderberry cordial sounds yummy. Thanks for the tip.
Hi George
Leave them until they are purpley/black
Pleased to say I finally managed to make elderflower cordial this year – I went with the hot-bottling method, just to make sure everything was sealed properly. Only problem is I didn’t have quite enough white sugar so I thought ‘I’ll just make it up with brown’. Don’t do this! Fortunately it tastes lovely but it is the most awful brown colour. Ho hum, will get it right next year!
Hi Wendy
At least it tastes good.
We use a lot of elderflower cordial in recipes (instead of fruity white wine – it works a treat).
Hi,
Just made some Elderflower Cordial for the first time and it looks and tastes like the hedgerow it came from. I followed a recipe from River Cottage book. Is it because I included brownish flowers and stalks in the steeping? Do you pull off the flower part or leave in the stalks? It tastes ok just not as nice as I would have expected.
Your tips are all great by the way.
Many thanks,
Rosie
Hi, Just to say that i have just made the cordial for thew first time after wanting to for years. I have not done so before thinking it would be hard or fiddly to to do. Thankfully it was simple and the cordial tastes wonderful. I feel very chuffed with myself lol and shall be making more! I would like to do something else with the left over lemons though. Any ideas? could i freeze them?
Thanks
Suzanne
Hi Rosie
I’ve just checked the River Cottage book and she doesn’t mention to discard any browning flowers
It’s essential to only use the freshest, white flowers.
I put in the heads stalks and all and mine tastes good.
Hi Suzanne
I haven’t tried freezing lemons. But if you dry the yellow part the peels and grind them in a coffee grinder you will get a lemon powder for use in cooking.
Hi Rosie, the flowers that have just opened are the ones to go for as they contain the musky flavour.
Hi Suzanne, I saw somewhere else that one lady used some leftover cordial and the lemons to make jam/jelly with. She added some flowers just before pouring into jars to make it look pretty. I will try and find that comment. Or you could make some marmalade with it maybe?
For the berries, cook berries and water to cover. When cooked -berries soft, strain through muslin. Measure equal amounts of liquid to sugar and reheat, add some cloves. Or when bottling add a couple of cloves to help preserve. This is excellent for colds/bronchial and lung conditions when diluted with hot water. Or cold water too.
Elderflower cordial with hot water and lemon juice is also good for colds.
Thanks a million. I will no better next time. Might just get another batch done before the season is out. I feel I should really point out that the River Cottage Preserve book has been great for jams but I think Pam Corbin assumes the reader has experience that maybe not all of us have. It’s websites like this that are fantastic for novices like me. Well done.
Rosie
I have just picked two bags of elderflower and want to know how to preserve them until I have time to do something with them. Can they be frozen or should I put them in the fridge for a couple of days pending processing? Help I don’t want to waste them!
Hi, I’m back making another batch of cordial and champagne this year. Last year I made both, and marmalade with the leftover lemons (which was fantastic, best marmalade I’ve ever tasted and really easy to make) – look further up the page for the recipe, somewhere in 2009 listings.
Some of the cordial and champagne has been stored in my dads garage since last summer and both have a bit of sediment on the bottom which wcould do with decanting. They look like they will be fine, I used campden tablets so they should be OK, the champagne was already alcoholic anyway and storedin plastic bottles so not ideal. I’m looking forward to trying it again next week. Hopefully the new stuff should be ready soon. I’m also interested in uses for dried elderflowers as I have rather a lot in my drier at the moment.
thanks to those of you who have responed to my question. i don’t know i didn’t think of marmalade as i do make my own jams and curds.
i’m enjoying this cordial loads and it’s great with just lemonade. fab stuff.
cheers guys
suzanne
Oh dear … I’ve just bottled 5 bottles of elderflower cordial for the first time – everything looks and tastes great EXCEPT I just put them into rinsed out wine bottles (no sterilising!). Am I in big trouble? Is it now too late to do anything about it?
I don’t really see how anything can live in the amount of sugar in a cordial. The sugar is the preservative, so I don’t think there should be too much problem with not sterilising the bottles. Although I do usually sterilise the bottles I use.
If you’re really worried about it, just keep the bottles in the fridge, and drink fairly quickly. Or decant the cordial, boil it up, and put in sterilised bottles while they’re still hot.
Going back quite a long way, it’s likely that cordial won’t freeze properly in a domestic freezer precisely because it is such a strong sugar solution.
I have a recipe for elderflower cordial but it says use tartaric acid is this the same as citric acid?
anyone help I want to pick elderflowers today.
We made some Elderflower champagne last year and it was very good. Google for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Elderflower Champagne for the recipe.
In fact it was so good that we decided to make some ‘proper’ wine – the first time we’ve ever tried to make wine at home. We opened some the other week (it takes almost a year to be ready to drink) but it’s worth the wait – it’s delicious!
Ours ended up being slightly sparkling, and we’d only put it in recycled wine bottles with screw caps, so a couple leaked. However we’ll enjoy the rest!
We’re making another batch this year – double this time! I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Go here for the recipe we used (and they sell the equipment too): http://www.burfordhopsandvines.co.uk/page.asp?id=71
Hi Bett
Tartaric acid is similar to citric acid and can be used for elderflower cordial.
Hi Kelly
I’m definitely going to try this – now where’s my ladder?
I have followed the recipe using citric acid, I have just bottled it up but noticed it was slightly fizzy as I was pouring it through the strainer! Is that normal for the cordial to have a small amount of fizz or have I left it too long ?? I read lemon juice can be a substitue for citric acid and if so what quantity ? I have put the bottles in the fridge with the lid loose … just in case they pop !
Am now in my umpteenth year of making cordial and have never had any problems until now! It has been bottled for 4 days and has gone fizzy already – as most of this is for my 5 year old nephew I need to make sure it isn’t alcoholic. I have trawled through all the comments above but due to being unwell at the moment my brain can’t make sense of anything. Please could someone clarify what I can do to stop it fermenting – am I right in thinking I should boil the cordial and re-bottle?
Oh and in response to my 2008 comment on pink elderflower champagne I added an extra 50% of elderflower heads and it turned out beautifully!
Hi, I have just found this website and its fantastic! I finished making my first ever lot of elderflower champagne, (I did one lot last night and thought I may as well just make another – wouldnt want to run out!)
I found the recipe in a ‘wild food’ book, and its
4 large elderflower heads
650g ‘loaf’ sugar (I used granulated, will that be okay??)
2 tablespoons of white vinegar
1 gallon cold water.
1 lemon.
dissolve the sugar first, then squeeze in the lemon juice and put in the rind, in with the flower heads, then the vinegar, finally pouring on the remaining cold water.
Let it steep for 4 days.
Does this sound okay to everyone??
Hello, made my first batch of Elderflower cordial and it was beautiful. My husbands a Chef and he has used it in many of his recipies. Ive now made up a second batch and its started to get mold spots on the top!! Is there any way of rescuing it??
If mould appears on top of cordial just strain it off and continue to use the cordial. We live with moulds.
Thanks so much Lindy, I will not pour it down the sink now. :-}
I made elderflower cordial with my husband just over 2 weeks ago bottled it in sterilised glass bottles last thursday tasted great but went away for 5 days went to have some yesterday and doesn’t smell great and has gone fizzy why would that have happened? I used 40 elderflower heads 3 litres water, I think 2 or 3kg of sugar, 4 lemons and 50g citric acid
Thank you, such a fantastic recipe my cordial was a complete success, over winter I have been saving the small glass ketchup bottles which are a great size and easy to store and also a nice ammount to share with lots of friends! Your tips are wonderful made it all sound and come together easily.
HI my mother also had a ginger baby when I was younger, which she used to make ginger beer, And I am going to see if I am able to find the recipe in her old cookbook, failing that I will ask my sister if she ever had a copy. But unable to do this at the moment as I am going away to France for a month.
Julie D
I note from the comments that this year there has been a mixture of success and minor failures, most of them related to the cordial becoming fizzy. Any fizz is almost certainly due to firmentation and my previous comments need to be observed if an alcoholic cordial is to be avoided. The generation of alcohol by firmentation can be beneficial in so far as alcohol is an organic solvent and its presence will aid in the extraction of the active ingredients (both flavour and medicinal properties) from the elderflowers. However, the firmenting mixture should be stained from the flowers after a few days since other less desireable flavours could also be extracted.
If the aim is to make a wine rather than a cordial then I suggest a modification that could facilitate and improve the ultimate product. Wine is the product of the firmentation of fruit juice and the ideal fruit is the grape that tends to contain all of the essetial ingredients in the correct proportions. Wines made from other fruits often need the addition of acid and tannin in order to achieve the ideal redult. Wines made from flowers need other additions in order to provide the necessary sugar since the flowers only contrbute to the flavour and medicinal properties. The firmentation process and the final product can be greatly aided in its initial stages if a litre of commercially available sterile grape juice is added in the initial stages to each gallon of wine in lieu of water. Most suppermarkets sell this at economical prices.
My previous comments regarding avoiding excess alcohol and stabalising the final product apply.
Some contributors have experienced the growth of mould on their efforts. Just like yeasts there are many moulds that exist all around us with perhaps the best known being that discovered by Sir Alexander Flemming to give the world penicillin its first commercial anti-biotic. Not all are so beneficial and there is one family that prospers in the presence of alcohol to create vinigar. Sterile and closed conditions are essential to eliminate this risk.
Citric acid extracted from lemon juice is probably a better addition than that obtained as a pure chemical since it can contribute other subtle additions but care needs to be excercised otherwise some less desirable could be introduced from the unwashed or waxed fruit.
Hello Brian
Thank you for such an informative and really useful comment. Much appreciated.
Hi all I am planning to get married June 2nd 2012 and want to make ELderflower cordial for the event. It looks like we are unlikely to have any flowers out in enough time to make it – has anyone ever tried freezing the flower heads rather then freezing the cordial?
Thanks
I note that Katherine would like to make cordial for her wedding in June. She is probably right to assume that fresh Elderflower will not be available in time to prepared the cordial for the 2nd of June, but she could be lucky if we have a nice hot April & May. The weather of the last few years seems to rule this out. The normal way of preserving Elderflower is to dry it either artifically in a cool oven or naturally in the sun. The dried product can be stored in jars and appears to retain much of the beneficial effects.
It’s obviously too late to do this now but could be useful for the future. The dried Elderflower can be used to make a tea-like drink that is an excellent treatment for colds and flu. Two teaspoons of dried elderflower to a cup of boiling water left to draw for a few minutes then strained before adding a spoonfull of honey and possibly a sachet of lemsip (or similar) appears benefical although I can’t vow for which of the above ingredients has the greatest effect.
So far as cordial is concerned the died product can be substituted for the fresh product at any time providing the possibility of making Eldeflower Cordial throughout the year.I would not claim that the dried product is as good as the fresh one but is a good substitute.
Most stores selling products for home made wine and beer often stock dried elderflower and it can also be obtained in some Health Stores.
Katherine, good news.
there are ways to have the cordial for your wedding.
check out Rach’s comments on the 30th May 2009. There are two ways of preserving the cordial. Camden tablets (home brew supplies)are what they use in the wine to stop fermentation and act as a preservative. Sodium metabisulphate. Used at 0.1% of cordial it will keep. Be careful when crushing it or breathing over it if you have asthma, but added in that small amount to the drink will not hurt – or all the wine drinkers would be in trouble!!!
Also the other way she had of the hot water bath is the organic method, just make sure you dont undercut the time for the hot water bath and the bottle is almost immersed.
For the cordial. I do the method of infusing the flowers for 4 days. You MUST cover this (clingwrap)and have airtight as the flowers will attract the wild yeast that is floating in the air and start fermentation process – told by homebrew shop owner.
Glass is good for the cordial which shouldnt explode if using the camden tablet and the plastic 2litre drink bottles are good for the champagne.
Champagne would be great for the wedding toasts!
Good luck and happy drinking to all.
p.s. for any hayfever sufferers you can dry the flowers and drink with hot water about 3wks before hayfever season hits. The flowers will help reduce hayfever symptoms.
Hi Fiona,
British common elder is Sambucus nigra, there are also popular garden breeds called Aurea and Guincho Purple that, but these are almost the same plant really, just with different coloured leaves. All fine for cordial.
We also use some oranges with the lemons, I think it gives more body to the flavour & gives it a good colour too.
I was doing a quick calculation & I reckon that it costs about 80 per litre to make long-lasting cordial at home, once you have all the buckets etc.
It costs £7-9 per litre in the shops!
I have made elderflower cordial for a number of years and enjoyed it very much. I am interested to know whether i can use the flowers from an ornamental elder tree that i have in my garden as well as the “wild” elderflowers that I have been using?
I don’t see why not. I’d love to hear whether there’s a difference in taste if you do use them.
Am in the process of making this years elderflower cordial. Made a bumper batch last year and we are on the last bottle – it has kept beautifully for a year.
I have made elderflower cordial for a few years now and we always freeze it to keep it. We save up all our old small plastic water bottles and fill them and keep them in the freezer. they are fine and lose none of their taste.
I made this receipe last year and it turned out great. I’ll definitely be making it again this year.
In reply to Sarah, if you use campden tablets, there is no need to take up freezer space when you store your bottles. I’ve fished out 2-3 year old bottles that got lost at the back of a shelf and they tasted great.
Have used your receipe for make elderflower cordial, but found it fermenting in the bottle and tasting awful. What is the solution.
Hi, just opened a bottle of cordial we made last year and found at the back of the garage shelf and its absolutely fine! Still tastes as fresh as a daisy (or elderflower!) I think if you follow the steps and sterilise everything you should be fine to store your cordial, although I must add this was in a plastic pop bottle so wasn’t that sterile when we made it! Just dropped lucky I guess!
Happy hedgerow hunting all
HI.
I HAVE MADE ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL FOR 2 YEARS NOW THIS YEAR I ADDED GINGER9( CRATED AND STEEPED IN BOILING WATER) THEN ADDED TO THE MIX TO STEEP FOR 48 HOURS. VERY GOOD SO FAR WILL LET YOU KNOW MORE LATER IN THE YEAR.
ALSO MADE THE ORANGE AND LEMON CORDIAL AND AFTER MADE THE ORANGE AND LEMONS INTO MARMALADE THAT WAS GREAT
Hi, I have made up a pretty big batch of cordial here in North Carolina. I used MANY lemons but find that I actually prefer the taste of the cordial WITH the citric acid.
Can I decant the bottles and add the citric acid and re-bottle, OR just add a little citric acid to each bottle and shake like heck, OR forget about the whole thing, drink it as it is and wait until next summer to make it anew?
I don’t mind the work, and I just bottled it for refrigeration, so I didn’t SEAL anything.
What does everyone think?
Thank you so much for any ideas.
PMD
i started my elderflower champagne used 15 heads, 2lb of suger, 4 lemons and two tablespoons of white wine vinigar and left it in a dark place covered in a clean tea towl for 4 days, i bottled it in a mixture of glass and plastic bottles, i tasted it after 4 days and it was lovely, now two week later two thirds of my bottles look like the have mould like substance on the top, what did i do wrong? and should i throw away the whole batch?
Can someone PLEASE answer my citric acid question posted on June 16th, 2011 above?
Thank you so much!
~PMD in North Carolina
[...] elderflowers and made an easy and delicious cordial. If you want to see the recipe, take a look at http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/judys-elderflower-cordial-recipe-340. [...]
Help – my elderflower cordial has gone mouldy! I made some lovely elderflower about 5 weeks ago and put it into sterilized bottles and left them – and there’s a rather nasty layer of mould on each bottle! can I put it all through muslin and re-use, or do you think i should re-boil?! Perhaps it’s a bin-job
thank you!!
Hi Patti, it’s probly too late, but I think you’d be better off trying again next year. I think if as you say, you put in LOTS of lemon, adding citric acid won’t fix the taste and right now you seem to have something that’s at least palatable… but don’t feel badly, this is the fun of home made efforts like this… each experiment leads to a better one next time!
what I’m wondering about that I didn’t see anyone address, is what if you pick the flowers on a sunny day, but life gets in the way, are there any methods for “keeping” them for a day or two before making the recipe?