Staring me in the face - Elderflower Cordial

After failing miserably in finding Elderflowers, and harvesting a load of Hawthorn flowers instead, I realised that there was a bush in the back garden of my work!  After harvesting a load of flowers, pulling a few oranges and lemons our of my fruit bowl, and cadging some citric acid from my boss, I set to work making Elderflower Cordial.


Needing a quick recipe, I went to the BBC food website and found a very simple to make cordial by Lotte Duncan.

Ingredients (to make 2 litres)
Around 30 Elderflower heads
1.7 litres boiling water
900g Caster Sugar (I used granulated)
50g citric acid
2 Oranges
3 Lemons

The Theory
Rinse the elderflowers, picking out any bugs, leaves or bits of twig

Put sugar and boiling water in a bowl, stir until the sugar is dissolved and then leave to cool.

Add the citric acid, citrus fruit and flowers

Stir and leave in a cool place for 24 hours, stirring occasionally

Strain and transfer to sterilised bottles

The Practice
It pretty much went as planned.  Knowing that I was going to have to freeze this to last until Christmas (kept in the fridge, it lasts about a month or so), I filled it into empty 500ml plastic Coke bottles.  Sure, it isn't going to look good, but I can always defrost it and put it into a nice jug.  I filtered it through a fine sieve, but the resultant cordial still had the odd flower in, but not to worry - it looks a bit more authentic!

I expected the cordial to be a bit thicker, like you get from commercial cordial, but it wasn't.  With a consistency akin to orange squash, it is very refreshing when diluted with a bit of water.  I've picked some more elderflowers from the abundant tree so will be playing around with the recipe to try and make a slightly thicker cordial - a bit more sugar (1kg) and a bit less water (1.4litres).

WARNING
The roots, seeds, leaves, twigs and branches of the elder contain a cyanide-inducing glycoside, which means that if you eat too much of these parts, it can cause a build up of cyanide in your body when digested.  Infusions of the flowers and the ripe berries are safe to eat.

An accidental harvest - Hawthorn Flowers

So all of a sudden flowers are blooming in the hedgerows and at the beginning of June it is cordial making time.  I had hoped to pick elderflowers but lacking any bushes in the immediate area, I decided to pick hawthorns.  Actually, that is a total lie.  I went out and started stripping a bush of its flowers and thought 'hold on a minute, these don't smell very elderflowery' - got out my iPhone and Googled 'elderflower'.  Hmmm, what the hell was I picking?  These flowers were not elderflowers.  Not wanting to tip two carrier bags full of flowers into a ditch, I took them home and hunted out what I had collected, and it turned out to be hawthorn flowers. 

So what could I do with these?  I noticed that when the flowers are a little bit yellow they can smell a bit fishy, which isn't that nice, so I've avoided using these as I didn't fancy anything that smelled like fish.  I looked online and found a Hawthorn tea recipe.  Simply put a load of flowers into a teapot and pour over boiling water.  Apparently good for high blood pressure, this tea has a slightly numbing floral scent to it and a bit like a hot summer day hedgerow.  It is pleasant enough when sweetened with a little honey or maple syrup, but I'm not a fan of herbal teas so won't be going down this path again soon.

I reckoned that the simple, summery floral aroma would also be able to be made into a cordial - slightly lighter than Elderflower, but hopefully just as nice.  I typed into Google 'Hawthorn Cordial' and came up with several recipes, but one stood out.  From www.vintagerecipes.net, I found a very simple cordial recipe involving the flowers and brandy. 

Now obviously brandy is expensive and I wouldn't be able to go out and buy some, but I did have half a bottle sitting in my kitchen and thought i might as well make use of this and add it to the menu.  At least I now have something alcoholic for the end of the meal!

Hawthorn Boozy Cordial

Ingredients

Hawthorn Flowers minus any leaves or stalks

Brandy (make it something half decent)

A tablespoon of sugar

Simply, I put a lot of flowers (minus any stalks or leaves) into a glass bottle and a tablespoons of sugar.  Then poured in the brandy over the top and there I will leave it for the next three months.  In September, I'll drain off the flowers and pour it back into another bottle (having a taste in the process) and see if I've wasted some perfectly good brandy or not.