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gardening-girl

Elderflower Cordial/Champagne.

Does anyone have tried and tested recipes for Elderflower cordial/champagne?
Have found a good stash , nearly ready to go and nowhere near a road!
bingo

The Hugh Fearnley Whittingchair champange recipe works does well it does!
jamanda

Here you are. Very Happy
gardening-girl

Thanks Jamanda,
Jonnyboy

bingo wrote:
The Hugh Fearnley Whittingchair champange recipe works does well it does!


Agree, excellent results. This year I'll be making tonnes.
wildfoodie

Damn! I was up in scotland last week where elderflowers were basking and blooming in fabulous weather. have arrived home to masses of rain and the season here seems pretty much over.... have only made one small batch of cordial this year - how will I survive?
mutti

if you bottle and cork champagne, will they be OK to leave or poss explode? The HFW receipe mentions serving after 8 days......we're off on hols soon Cool so probably won't be able to drink everything that we make.

of course, we'll make cordial too but you know, the boozy stuff is top of the list Wink
gil

mutti wrote:
if you bottle and cork champagne, will they be OK to leave or poss explode? The HFW receipe mentions serving after 8 days......we're off on hols soon Cool so probably won't be able to drink everything that we make.

of course, we'll make cordial too but you know, the boozy stuff is top of the list Wink


Put what you don't drink in the fridge before you go away. That should stop further activity.
mutti

cheers for the tip Smile
themoron

With mine, I half fill 2 litre coke bottles and leave the top loosened a bit. The plastic allows for some expansion so if you put it in the fridge as Gil said it should be fine. I've also put half in demijohns to make some proper wine. I've not done it before so it's a bit of an experiment. It wasn't that sweet as is so I put a bit more sugar in first.
gil

themoron wrote:
I've also put half in demijohns to make some proper wine. I've not done it before so it's a bit of an experiment. It wasn't that sweet as is so I put a bit more sugar in first.


Having tried various versions, I reckon a light, dry elderflower wine is better tastewise than a heavier sweeter one.
If you add more sugar now during fermentation, you'll just end up with a stronger but still dry wine. Which is probably about right for making a proper wine rather than a 'champagne' that is very low in alcohol.
Anyway, you can always 'sugar up' right at the end of the process, as you are about to finally drink it, with a small jug of sugar syrup to hand.

If you're going to make your elderflowers into a wine, I reckon about 1kg sugar per gallon is fine, or 900g sugar + 1 litre white grape juice to give it some body.
mutti

Mr M went foraging last night - looks like we got some just in time. It's not as good as it was a week ago and maybe on its way out but I'll still give it a go.
Dani

our elderflower champers was lovely... except, we forgot about a 2 litre bottle at the back of the shelf.

well, it made its presence known at 4am the other day. I thought Buncefield had gone up again. I have had to wash everything at least 6 times to get the stickiness off. Terrible it was. 2L of liquid sure does go a long long way... Mad
judith

Oh dear. That sounds very sticky.
gil

Ooops. It is amazing how sticky sugary liquids can be.
jp

Quote:
Ooops. It is amazing how sticky sugary liquids can be.


Sticky???!!!! What about the terrible waste of delicious Elderflower champagne Mad
Dani

[color=indigo]tell me about it! It just HAD to be the 2L bottle that went bang. I only have another 2l in smaller bottles. It so annoying[/color]
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