Elderberry Syrup Recipe – How To Forage and Make
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Today let me show you how to make elderberry syrup, with this very favourite recipe of mine that I turn to year after year.
The Elder is my favourite tree. In the summer the Elder blooms with the most delicious flowers. These flowers can be used in a whole manner of ways, such as this boozy elderflower cordial recipe. And then, in Autumn, the Elder offers up another tasty bounty when they positively drip with elderberries.
Elderberries can be cooked in a ton of different ways, but my absolute favourite is this tasty elderberry syrup. It tastes so sweet and warming and may have some great health benefits too.
Table Of Contents
- What Makes Elderberry Syrup Good For You?
- When Are Elderberries in Season?
- How To Identify Elderberries
- A Very Important Word of Warning
- How To Remove Elderberries From Their Stalks
- How To Make Elderberry Syrup
- How To Store
- Other Serving Suggestions
What Makes Elderberry Syrup Good For You?
Elderberries may be diminutive in size, but they pack a mighty punch. Elderberries are rich in vitamins A and B and are richer in Vitamin C than oranges. This can make them a great natural cold and flu remedy.
Last winter I was plagued with the cold and flu. This year I thought I’d make elderberry syrup to help ward off any pesky bugs over this coming winter. I added some extra vitamin C in the form of oranges and lemons just for good measure.
When Are Elderberries in Season?
Elderberries are in season from, depending on where you are, roughly mid-September to mid-October. If you’re further south than where I am in Edinburgh, you might find them popping up as early as late August, so keep your eyes peeled!
How To Identify Elderberries
Elderberries grow on the elder tree (Sambucus nigra). It tends to grow as a bushy shrub and is commonly found growing in woodlands, hedgerows, waste ground and in graveyards.
Its leaves are light green and are long and pointed with serrated edges. Meanwhile, its stems are smooth, not spiky. In the summer, it drips with tiny fragrant white flowers that smell just like Sambuca. And as we head towards autumn you’ll find small dark purple berries all over them.
If you’re unsure in any way then do ask a local expert or consult a book on foraging.
A Very Important Word of Warning
First, a very important word of warning before making elderberry syrup. Elderberries, their stems, and their leaves are toxic when raw. This is because elderberries contain cyanide. As such the raw berries can cause sickness, so do not be tempted to eat any whilst you pick.
Thankfully when you cook the berries they lose their toxicity. You are doubly safe with this recipe as it calls for the berries and their juice to be cooked twice!
How To Remove Elderberries From Their Stalks
Picking the berries for your elderberry syrup recipe is the easy part. Once you’ve picked your berries you’ll need to remove them from their stalks.
The best way to do this is to comb through the stalks with a fork into a bowl. When you’ve removed all the berries from the stalks you’ll find that quite a few berries still have little stalks on them. Unfortunately, these have to be removed too, along with any unripe berries.
This is quite a long and tedious job. It took me the best part of an hour to go through all the berries with a fine-tooth comb. However, do persevere as the elderberry syrup is well worth this initial toil.
How To Make Elderberry Syrup
Delicious Spiced Elderberry Syrup
Ingredients
- Fresh elderberries as many as you can pick – I filled one carrier bag
- A lemon
- An orange
- Brown sugar muscovado or demerara
- Cloves
- Cinnamon sticks
- Sterilised glass bottles and tops.
Instructions
- Give your berries a good wash, and cover yourself up with an apron or wear old clothes as the berries can stain.
- Next place your berries in a stainless steel pan with half of their volume of water, and simmer for 20 minutes. Don’t allow to boil or you’ll remove some of the goodness from the berries. While they are simmering it’s good to give them a mash with a stainless steel potato masher or the back of a metal spoon to help release the berry juices. Don’t use wooden utensils unless you want them to be stained purple forever more!
- Pass the mixture through a fine stainless steel sieve into a bowl, and allow to sit for 15 minutes or so to allow all of the liquid to drip out. Use a metal spoon to push down on the berries to ensure as much water and juice is pressed out of the berries.
- Measure your elderberry liquid – for every 500ml of liquid you have add 250g of sugar, a few slices of lemon, a few slices of orange, a few cloves and one cinnamon stick to a stainless steel pan, and then add your liquid.
- Stir and then let simmer for 20 minutes (my kitchen smelled like Christmas at this point, it was amazing!) and then pass it through the sieve to remove the fruit, cinnamon and cloves.
- Place in a sterilised glass bottle (I filled a 500ml bottle) and enjoy whenever you feel a cold coming on or just when you fancy it. I would serve diluted with hot water as a tasty winter warmer. It has a lovely earthy flavour, and the spice and citrus give it that extra sweet edge:
How To Store
Your elderberry syrup should be stored in the fridge, where it should last for up to two to three months.
If you’d like to store it for longer, you can freeze the syrup for up to six months. I recommend freezing it in ice-cube trays to make it easy to portion out.
As always, if it looks or smells off before that time then it should be discarded.
Other Serving Suggestions
This winter I also plan on enjoying the elderberry syrup as a hot toddy with a shot of whisky and hot water! I’m looking forward to that on a cold evening, let me tell you! Alternatively, you could drizzle over plain yoghurt or porridge, or even over ice cream or pancakes. The possibilities of the syrup are endless!
I’m going to make at least double the amount of elderberry syrup next year as we polished ours off pretty quickly!
Will you be elderberry picking this weekend?
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Thank you for your amazing recipes they are much appreciated and will be a saving grace in winter.
Thanks so much for your lovely comment Di, enjoy your elderberry syrup!
Hi Wendy how long will the syrup keep for?
I love your emails, keep them coming :-)
Hi Jax, it should last up to two to three months in the fridge. Or you can freeze it for up to six months – I’d freeze in ice-cube trays to make it easy to portion out. As always, if it looks or smells off before that time then it should be discarded. And thank you so much for your kind words, very much appreciated!
Great recipe, used my steam juicer to get the juice out, much quicker and far less messy: https://amzn.to/2RUSKqz
I made some elderberry syrup yesterday and used this recipe. It is truly delicious! I added a teaspoon to a glass of fizz and it was amazing.
As no-one in our family likes cloves, we adapted some of the spices for: 3 orange slices, 3 lemon slices, 1 large cinnamon stick, three slices of fresh ginger, a decent amount of grated nutmeg, and 6-8 juniper berries – it was lovely, recommend trying it
I was planning on collecting wild berries to make this, I wonder if it’s too late now…
Any updates on storage? Fridge or cupboard?
Fridge… It’s best to put portions in an ice cube tray or other container and keep this freezer. In the fridge it will last only about 2 weeks.
I’ve made elderflower cordial for many years and have just made elderberry cordial. The recipe I’ve used came from the book – Wild Foods by Rodger Phillips. It uses 450g sugar to 1 pint of juice and 10 cloves. it didn’t say how long it would keep, but the recipe from Eatweeds says that the syrup will keep for 2 years.
You must thoroughly wash and rinse your bottles, then place in the oven at 60 degrees to sterilise them.
When I’d opened a bottle of my elderflower cordial I kept it in the fridge and it was fine for many weeks. Elderflower cordial does have a higher sugar ratio. (BBC Good food recipe. )
Sugar is a preservative. The Elderflower also includes citric acid another which inhibits bacteria.
The link below is helpful.
https://www.eatweeds.co.uk/elderberry-cordial-syrup
Thanks for this recipe – the best I’ve found. I’ve a tree in my garden that is laden with berries – well the bottom branches anyway as the birds have stripped those higher up. I’d better gather them while I can! :-)
This is great! I have recently got an allotment plot which has two elderberry bushes at the end. I can’t wait to try this! One question though- is it best to keep this in the fridge or in a cupboard?
Hi Sal, I keep mine in the cupboard and haven’t had any problems with it. We always polish it off quite quickly though (within 6 weeks) so if storing for longer then refrigeration might be a good idea.
This receive worked wonderfully for me. An improvement and a saving in time found out by accident is wash the stripped berries in a large container/bucket. Cover the berries by about 50mm and the un ripe berries and most of the loose stalks float to the top of the water and you can just scoop them off. Saved me at least 20 minutes.
I have fresh frozen elderberry about four cups how much ingredient i will need
Freezing them is probably a good idea since it lets the juice out better when making a liqueur, which is a similar process. There should be no difference in the volume of frozen berries to fresh berries, but measure them frozen as they may squish down when they defrost.
(To make liqueur, you soak them cold in vodka for several weeks then strain and add suger syrup.)
Is it not important to cook the berries though? To destroy the toxins?
Yes I’m picking elderberry and looking forward to use your recipe
Sorry just to correct, I used sugar to sweeten it not water!!
Hi there,
I made elderberry syrup 2 weeks ago and have been storing it in the fridge. I used water to sweeten it. When I opened it yesterday morning to give my son some of it, it smelt of alcoholic. Does this mean it has gone off and can’t be used now? Have been googling an answer to no avail and thought you might know!
thanks
Ev