Sacha Hubbard wrote:
I thought those with elder trees, or access to them, might like to have this:
ELDERFLOWER CORDIAL


90 heads of Elder flower, picked at mid-day

6 sliced lemons

9lbs. Preserving sugar (Caster will do but Preserving is better)

7.5 oz. Citric or Tartaric acid


Put all the ingredients into a large bowl or clean plastic bucket. Add 7..5
pints boiling water.

Stir night and day for 5 days. Strain, squeezing the lemons. Put into
plastic bottles and deep freeze. Take out only when wanted, and refrigerate
as it won¹t keep out of the freezer for more than 5 to 7 days. Dilute with
water to taste. This makes a very refreshing drink in hot weather. Undiluted,
it¹s also good on gooseberries or over fruit salad.

Yum! And the best dessert wine I ever made was elderflower. Start a
gallon of sweetish strong white wine, rack when the first
fermentation's done; then add a pint of elderflowers (removed from
stalks: stalks taste horrible) in the sterilised foot of half a pair of
tights weighed down with a fistful of sterilised marbles or a
sterilised small bottle full of water. Remove flowers after 3 days, and
rack into a demijohn. Proceed as normal. Best left for a year after
bottling.

I'd suggest using half-bottles, as this is a wine to savour, not to
glug in quantity.

For reasons I don't entirely understand, it will taste foul, not
delightful, if the flowers are left in more than three days. I've also
found that elderflowers make the place stink of cat if left around and
not used immediately.

--
Mike.