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Elderflower Cordial Recipe
Posted on 
May 28th, 2008 by 
julian
Normally we would not advise planting Elder (Sambucus nigra) in any form of hedging. It is a bit of a thug. But a couple of bushes – Elderberry Trees – planted in hedging or elsewhere will produce enough flowers to keep even a gluttonous family like ours in elderflower cordial all year (by the way, the gluttony includes giving bottles to our friends and family).
This is our family recipe, and we think it makes the best elder flower cordial we have ever tasted.
You will need:
- 35 fresh elder flower heads – always pick the sweet smelling ones (which tend to be a bit buttery in colour and which do not drop petals when shaken)
- 2 oranges, rough sliced
- 2 lemons, also rough sliced
- 2oz tartaric or citric acid – we prefer citric which makes for a more lemony taste, but some of our friends like tartaric. You can buy either from a shop that sells winemaking stuff and you can get citric acid from your local chemist.
- 3 pints boiling water
- 3lb granulated sugar, (if you are worried about your sugar intake, you can use the equivalent of granulated Splenda (it is very light so follow the instructions which substitute volume for weight….)
- 1 Camden tablet per gallon of cordial (these come from “winemaking stuff” shops and are brilliant – they kill the natural yeasts that arrive with the elder flowers and allow you to store the cordial for years without it going fizzy). If you do not use them, then you can deep freeze the cordial you want to keep for Christmas….
- One or two large containers (the size depends on how much you make at once)
- Glass or food grade plastic bottles with airtight caps
- a Siphon tube
- J-cloths or wine filtering fabric
- A large sieve
Instructions:
- Boil the water and dissolve the sugar in it. Allow it to cool properly.
- Add the orange and lemon slices to the cool sugar water
- Stir in and make sure the tartaric or citric acid is dissolved
- Add the elder flower heads.
- Cover the ghastly mess with a lid or cloth (or use a 5 gallon (25 litre) home winemaking plastic barrel like us) and leave it to for 48-72 hours.
- Strain the mixture (the fruit makes fantastic marmalade by the way) and leave for another 48 hours.
- We then siphon it all to another container, leaving the sediment behind and then we add 1 crushed Camden tablet per gallon of cordial
- Shake well, and then leave for 3-4 hours to settle
- Bottle
- If you don’t want to use two large containers, then you will need to add a crushed Camden tablet at the rate of 1 per gallon (1/2 a tablet to a 4 pint milk container for example) and carefully siphon directly into that. Shake the bottle well after you have filled it and do the top up tightly. Shake it again an hour or two later to make sure the tablet has dissolved. It will then keep for ages – as in years.
Always, always use sterilised bottles. If they fit in the microwave – 15 seconds will kill anything. Otherwise put glass bottles in your oven (load them in when it is cold, and then run it up to about 140C, leave it there for 10-15 minutes and let it cool. The final solution is to use Milton or plain old very hot water (we have loads of olive oil bottles with screw caps and we put them all in the dishwasher on the hottest wash without washing powder.
If the citric or tartaric acid and Camden tablets are left out you can keep elder flower cordial in the fridge for several weeks. For longer than that store (in plastic not glass) in the deep freeze. With the acid it will keep for 3-4 months and with the pills elderflower cordial keeps almost indefinitely.
Dilute to taste (about 1:5) and Enjoy
Elderflower Cordial Recipe by
Frances Bosdari is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at
http://blog.ashridgetrees.co.uk.
17 Responses to “Elderflower Cordial Recipe”
June 7th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I always used a friends recipe but thought it was a bit sweet and sickly. I found this elderflower cordial recipe and made a small batch last week. I only have two things to say:
1. This is absolutely the best elderflower cordial I have ever tasted, and
2. I have just come back from Morissons with most of the stuff I need to make a load more.
Awesome
Thanks
John
June 18th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
[...] you have enough Elderflower Cordial (you can get to our favourite recipe here) you might like to think about Elderflower Champagne. By the way it is a good excuse to plant a few [...]
June 24th, 2008 at 12:11 am
Hi, I have made the cordial, I havent had a chance to taste it yet. I was just wondering if you had a recipe for the marmalade to make with the left over fruit.
Thanks,
Howard
May 25th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Hi Julian
Approx how much cordial is made from using the recepie above as it doesnt state or I missed it?
Kind regards
Dee
May 27th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
A little over 3 Pints.
June 9th, 2009 at 9:24 am
I have just made the recipe and it is still standing and looks good. Please can I have the marmalade recipe if poss so I can use the sludge as it smells and tastes really good at present!!
Thanks Marcia
June 12th, 2009 at 10:40 am
What incredible Elderflower Cordial! The instructions are so easy.
I’d love the marmalade recipe aswell.. the left overs will be too good to waste.
Many thanks,
Alice
June 13th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Wow, I’ve been meaning to make this for ages (well, since I discovered I owned an elderflower tree and that I could make cordial from it – last year! :/ )…
I just thought I might post a suggestion:
I haven’t got any acid or Camden tablets so what I plan to do is pour the cordial into an ice cube tray and freeze it. Then I’ll unmould it and transfer the frozen cubes into a zip-loc bag. That way I’ll just unfeeze the desirable amount when needed!
Just thought this might be helpful to others!
~Milise
June 15th, 2009 at 8:17 am
Me too!!
Great recipe but don’t want to waste the fruit!! Please could I have the marmalade recipe as well
Many thanks
Kind regards
Jayne
June 15th, 2009 at 6:46 pm
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Is it possible to have the recipe for the Elderflower marmalade. My Email address is jbla…@hotmail.co.uk would be hugely appreciated if this were possible
June 16th, 2009 at 10:23 am
For those after the marmalade recipe I’ve just found this -
http://www.soupmaker.co.uk/2009/06/07/lemon-and-elderflower-marmalade
June 17th, 2009 at 11:58 am
I have made both the cordial and the marmalade. Both very tasty, thankyou.
For those wanting a recipe for the marmalade I found this website helpfull.
http://www.allotment.org.uk/allotment_foods/jams-preserve/making-marmalade.php
June 21st, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I don’t quite understand this recipe or am I daft. 3 pints is hardly any – am I supposed to add more water at some stage or is a cordial meant to be diluted at the drinking stage.
Cheers
John
June 25th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Well John, that is down to your tastebuds – try it and see! You can dilute it as much or as little as you like. This recipe makes a potent brew and only requires 35 flower heads – a mature Elderflower bush will boast a few hundred…
July 4th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
It did not say what ‘rough cut’ for the oranges and lemons meant. I scrubbed the oranges and lemons using washing up liquid and a brush. This was in an attempt to remove any insecticide or wax. Afterwords I Rinse them thoroughly to remove the detergent, cut the ends off the oranges/lemons and chopped them up. I assume that was correct, but you don’t want pith in your marmalade, so I assume that you need to process the fruit before making it and are the elder flowers included in the marmalade I wonder?
July 19th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I was wondering if I was using dried elderflowers how much would I use instead. I am nearly out of cordial as most of my family have taken some home with them. dried elderflower can be bought at most home brew shops.
July 25th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Just an update on the keeping qualities of this elderflower cordial recipe – we have just found and opened a forgotten bottle of the 2007 vintage and it tasted as good as ever. I always add campden tablets to the mix, which may help, but it is good to know that the stuff lasts.
It would be interesting to know if other people have the same experience we do – we make more every year (and unless we lose a bottle of 2007) we finish the lot earlier every year.
In 2009, we made 80 litres and, two months later, we only have 40 left – I think it is like having a swimming pool or tennis court – you suddenly discover friends you never knew you had….