Fiona’s traditional elderflower cordial recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Cordials and Syrups | 181 comments
Photo: Elderflower blossoms in the sun - best picked for cordial
It’s elderflower cordial recipe season once again!
Yesterday afternoon I found myself up a tall ladder with a carrier bag, picking elderflower heads. 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 a similar 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 is a printable recipe card below the post!
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 poured my cordial into warm sterilised bottles and sealed them immediately with corks. They keep well in a cold area of the barn – we often are finishing the last bottle of cordial as the new flowers open on the trees. I also freeze some syrup, just in case.
Other elderflower recipes that my interest you:
Fiona’s Elderflower and Lemon cordial
Judy’s Elderflower and Lime Jellies
Fiona’s Elderflower and Raspberry Jellies
| Fiona’s traditional elderflower cordial recipe |
- 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
- 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.
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Thanks so much Lindy, I will not pour it down the sink now. :-}
If mould appears on top of cordial just strain it off and continue to use the cordial. We live with moulds.
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??
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??
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!
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 !
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 Kelly
I’m definitely going to try this – now where’s my ladder?
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.
Hi Bett
Tartaric acid is similar to citric acid and can be used for elderflower cordial.
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.
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?