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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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!!
Can someone PLEASE answer my citric acid question posted on June 16th, 2011 above?
Thank you so much!
~PMD in North Carolina
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?
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
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, 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 😉
Have used your receipe for make elderflower cordial, but found it fermenting in the bottle and tasting awful. What is the solution.
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.
I made this receipe last year and it turned out great. I’ll definitely be making it again this 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.