Though Jeannie and I don't claim to be experts on the elderberry and its uses, we have enjoyed the fruit for many years. Over the past several weeks there have been many email requests for recipes as people have discovered the ripening berries. Well this list is far from exhaustive, but it's a start. Hope you find something you can use.
6 quarts or 3 lbs elderberries
2 lemons
Remove stems and crush. Place in saucepan. Bring to boil slowly until juice starts to flow. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 minutes. Place 3 layers of damp cheesecloth or jelly bag in large bowl. Pour prepared fruit into cheesecloth. Tie cheesecloth closed, hang and let drip into bowl until dripping stops. Press gently. Measure juice. If necessary, add up to 1/2 cup water for exact measure. Ingredients are now:
3 C juice
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
4 1/2 C sugar
Stir Sure-Jell into juice and add lemon juice. Bring mixture to full rolling boil. Add sugar quickly. Return to full boil and boil exactly one minute, stirring constantly. Immediately fill jars and seal.
Elderberry Jam from the Ball Blue Book
2 quarts crushed elderberries
6 C sugar
1/4 C vinegar
Combine berries, sugar and vinegar. Bring slowly to boiling, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves. Cook rapidly until thick. As mixture thickens, stir frequently to prevent sticking. Pour, boiling hot, into sterilized jars. Adjust caps. Yield: about 3 pints.
1 recipe Plain Pastry or frozen pie crust
2 1/2 C stemmed elderberries
1/2 C sugar
1/8 t salt
2 T flour
3 T lemon juice
Line a piepan with pastry. Fill with elderberries. Mix sugar, salt and flour; sprinkle over berries. Add lemon juice. Cover with top crust. Bake in very hot oven (450 degrees) 10 minutes, reduce temperature to moderate (350 degrees) and bake 30 minutes longer. This recipe is from the 1950 Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook.
This recipe was sent in by Marianne Gleckler of Metamora, Ohio. It's her husband's grandmother's recipe, and "it's very good."
3 C elderberries
3/4 C white sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 T vinegar
1/4 t salt
4 T corn starch or tapioca pudding mix (I use pudding mix)
Pat with butter
Makes a 9 inch 2 crust pie
This wine is very much like a cream sherry. These are the ingredients for 1 gal wine.
3 1/2 lbs. elderberries
3 lbs. sugar
7 pints water
Sherry or all-purpose wine yeast
Nutrient
Crush the fruit in a plastic pail and add one quart of boiled water that has cooled. Mix well.
Crush one Campden tablet and dissolve the powder in about 1/2 C warm water and mix with fruit pulp. Leave the mixture in a cool place for 24 hours, stirring twice during that time. Strain through fine muslin or other similar material and squeeze gently but not too hard. Discard fruit pulp. Boil 1 lb of sugar in 2 quarts water for 1 minute and allow to cool. Mix this with the juice and return the lot to the plastic pail. Add yeast and ferment for 10 days.
Pour off the top wine into a gallon jar, leaving as much of the deposit behind as possible. Boil another 1 lb of sugar in 1 C water for 1 minute and when cool add to rest. Plug the neck of the jar with cotton or install a fermentation lock and ferment in a warm place for 14 days.
After this, boil the last 1 lb of sugar in the remaining cup of water for one minute; cool, add to rest. Refit lock or cotton and leave in warm place until all fermentation has ceased.
Rack into sterilized wine bottles and cork. Try to wait at least six months to drink.
Elderberry Ice Cream from John Kennett (100657.2473@compuserv.com)
"First pick your elderberries. The easiest way is to snip off whole bunches, and then strip the individual berries off using the prongs of a fork at your leisure. I picked about half a carrier bag of bunches, which came out to a big saucepan of berries.
Put the berries into a saucepan with a little water, a sprinkling of sugar and the juice of half a lemon. Go steady on the sugar, you can always add more later if you need to.
With a lid on the saucepan, gently simmer for about 45 minutes, or until the berries have gone very soft. Leave to cool, and then push the berries through a sieve, discarding the pips that remain. This will leave a rich elderberry syrup. Taste it, and add more sugar if required. As a guide I had about a pint of syrup at the end.
Whip half a pint of double cream until it stands in peaks, and in a separate bowl whisk two eggwhites until they are stiff enough to tip the bowl upside down. This can be quite a feat with a hand whisk!
Fold the cream, eggwhites and elderberry syrup together gently, until the whole mixture is a uniform lurid purple. Pour into a suitable freezer container - I used a pyrex glass bowl. Then stick it into your freezer."
Elderberry Ice Cream from Natalie with a quick method for freezing. (nat88keys@yahoo.com)
1 small bath towel
1 gallon-sized zipper seal bag
2 sandwich-sized zipper seal bags
1 1/2 cups rock salt
25-30 ice cubes
Desired amount of milk, half and half, or cream
Desired amount of sugar
Elderberry syrup (from recipe above)
"Mix milk, half and half, or cream with desired amount of sugar and syrup. (I find that the best ice cream comes from half and half topped with a LITTLE BIT of whole milk. Skim milk turns out runny with small ice chunks, and both light and heavy whipping cream don't freeze well, and become more of a 'mush') A tall cup or medium bowl and a spoon works well.
Once well-blended, pour into sanswich-sized bag, and seal. Place this bag inside the other sandwich-sized bag, and seal.
Place ice cubes and rock salt into gallon-sized bag. The ice cubes should occupy about 1/3 of the bag. Place sandwich bags inside bag containing rock salt and ice, and seal. Wrap in towel and shake vigorously for 4-5 minutes. (You may want to take turns with a friend. My arms sometimes get tired from all the shakin'.)
When ice cream has thickened, remove sandwich bags, and scoop (or pour) into bowls. Double bagging the ice cream keeps rock salt from falling into the bag and getting the ice cream salty. Yuck!" Natalie goes on to say you can try other flavors with this method. Thanks Natalie.