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Lorrainelovesplants

elderflower cordial

I know its a bit early, but..
Ive been looking at recipes and it seems pretty simple to make.

BUT, one recipe says add citric acid. Why would you do this? Is it to preserve?
The reason I ask is that I think Ill pasteurise the bottles of elderflower cordial I make as i want them to last quite a while.
sean

Yep. It's a preservative. I'd guess you could leave it out if you're pasteurizing, you'll need to use it up once opened though so bottle it in smallish volumes.
Lorrainelovesplants

anyone made it? Sean?

Recommend a recipe?
sean

I think we usually use H F-W's recipe here. But with a bit less sugar. If I'm wrong then Jamanda will be along to correct me. We freeze ours to preserve it.
Lorrainelovesplants

thanks!
Nicky cigreen

elderflower cordial

I make it - we freeze it and only have a bottle at a time in the fridge, so dunno about preserving qualities, but it does need some sharpness for flavouring. Once left the citric acid out and it wasn't as nice.

my recipe:
elderflower cordial



20 heads of elderflower (picked on a sunny day)

2 lemons

1.8 kg white sugar

1.2 L water

50g citric acid

Peel the lemons, aiming to get only the yellow zest and not the white pith, and place in a heatproof bowl along with the elderflowers. Squeeze the juice from the lemons and add to the bowl. Heat the sugar and water together, dissolving, and bring to the boil. Pour over the elderflowers and add the citric acid.. Leave overnight. Next day strain through a sieve and bottle.
jamanda

That's about what I do, less sugar though. Whether or not I use citric or ascorbic acid depends on whether I have any in. If not I'd use extra lemon juice.

I freeze it in plastic milk cartons.
Lorrainelovesplants

Thanks these comments are useful to know.
sgt.colon

I think we usually use H F-W's recipe here.


I too have used this one for the last few years. The stuff is very good.
dpack

anyone made it? Sean?

Recommend a recipe?


the cordial went mouldy even though it had been made with boiling water

the infusion in vodka went black(oxidised phenolics at a guess)

i suspect it might not be as easy as follow a recipe Embarassed

ps the commercial stuff seems to keep well,we have a half used bottle of alcohol infusion that is fine and a couple of years old Rolling Eyes i blame the preservatives for making it nice . Laughing
jamanda

Yes, it does go mouldy without the vit C. That's why I do it in small batches and freeze. Lorrainelovesplants

But you could pasteurise it?
Unless adding the citric acid adds to the taste?
Nick

Citric acid will certainly add to the flavour. It's deliciously sour.

It's what makes lemons winky.
James

without citric acid it'd taste very unbalanced with all that sugar. The sugar/ acid balance (when diluted) replicates that found in fruit juice.
I add a dribble of metabisulphide solution to my syrup. In sterile bottles, this keeps for a year.
Falstaff

Why not just bring it to the boil immediately before bottling ? as per jam or the like ? Confused Lorrainelovesplants

Well, Ive started the elderflower cordial, and Ive just made Elderflower champagne. Ill be bottling it into screw top glass wine bottles, so hopefully, this will be successful. Nicky cigreen

I'd never bottle elderflower champagne in glass bottles. Lorrainelovesplants

In case of explosions? Laughing Nicky cigreen

In case of explosions? Laughing
absolutely - it isn't that nice if a plastic bottle goes.. glass is lethal

and you can feel how tight a plastic bottle is and move it to the fridge/ let some pressure off before explosions

seriously, I wouldn't use glass
Lorrainelovesplants

No, I know. Im being flippant. Ive started bottle conditioning my cider in glass bottles. It took a lot of experimentation before we got bombproof! Smile gz

I have just made a batch of Elderflower cordial using Nicky CiG 's recipe this time..for me I found it sweeter than I expected..I must have used a scaled down version of Minamoo's recipe before.
Looking at all the recipes I could see online, the sugar/water proportions vary greatly.
What do others use?
tahir

Still got loads from last year so haven’t made any. I really need to settle on a recipe dpack

re glass and fermenting a chum of mine took out his room at cambridge with several demijohns of beer Rolling Eyes

double first but no sense Laughing
gz

Laughing Mistress Rose

My MIL managed to 'repaint' the inside of a cupboard with bramble wine she had plugged lightly with cotton wool instead of an air lock as she didn't have a spare one. Not as bad, but it went off in the middle of the night, so her and FIL had to spend half the night clearing up. Very Happy Jonnyboy

I have just made a batch of Elderflower cordial using Nicky CiG 's recipe this time..for me I found it sweeter than I expected..I must have used a scaled down version of Minamoo's recipe before.
Looking at all the recipes I could see online, the sugar/water proportions vary greatly.
What do others use?

I find that generally with cordial recipes, Rhubarb is the same and you risk losing the unique flavour and ending up with a generic sweet syrup.

Personally its elderflower champagne all the way for me, the alcohol content is pretty low so I can have it with breakfast, whilst driving, operating machinery, or give it to kids etc.
tahir

Do the kids drive or operate machinery once they've had it? Jonnyboy

Do the kids drive or operate machinery once they've had it?

well, they think they can.
tahir

Excellent, I've always found confidence is key when driving or operating machinery Laughing gz

I have just made a batch of Elderflower cordial using Nicky CiG 's recipe this time..for me I found it sweeter than I expected..I must have used a scaled down version of Minamoo's recipe before.
Looking at all the recipes I could see online, the sugar/water proportions vary greatly.
What do others use?

I find that generally with cordial recipes, Rhubarb is the same and you risk losing the unique flavour and ending up with a generic sweet syrup.

Personally its elderflower champagne all the way for me, the alcohol content is pretty low so I can have it with breakfast, whilst driving, operating machinery, or give it to kids etc.
I have done the maths, compared all the recipes' sugar:water ratios and included the HMSO recipes..I have just started an Elderflower and Rose cordial, with reference to the Minamoo and River Cottage recipes. Hopefully this will retain the flavour over the sweetness
dpack

Excellent, I've always found confidence is key when driving or operating machinery Laughing

crystal meth and wormwood potcheen help as well. Laughing
sgt.colon

I'm making some Elderflower cordial and I have bought some citric acid. I'll have about 300gms left over. Can anyone make use of it? tahir

I've got about 300 grms too Laughing

Mind you I will eventually use it
Nicky cigreen

I also have about 300g leftover Laughing

I will use it up though
sgt.colon

Laughing

If someone has got 100gms free then there is a whole kilo on offer. Very Happy
dpack

Laughing

a duckduck suggested there are a lot of uses for the stuff

iirc we used a spoonful in a horrible cake recipe, so we probably have another 95 g Laughing Laughing

i vaguely remember some sort of nonsense with mixing buffers to test Ph meters that involved accurate wt of analar dry crystals to put in the mix

probably not much help
Mistress Rose

It can be used instead of lemon juice. Not sure how much you would need though. dpack

It can be used instead of lemon juice. Not sure how much you would need though.

why? Laughing

wood sorrel does "lemon and salt"
dont over spice with it, as it also does oxalic

sweet, savoury or used on an emergency sunday to make tequila slammers in a net above gravity and sharp rocks it is splendid Laughing

if citrus was no more , crystals are not my go-to cupboard ingredient

malic is very ok as well, crabs work ace dried and powdered
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