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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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!!
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!
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
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?
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 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!
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?
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.
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!
Just made cordial, great taste fab, got citric acid powder from brewers shop, hope to make another batch before they go over.