After a great visit to my husbands parents we came home with a bag of newly picked elderflowers. It was compeltely unplanned and unexpected, but since I for many years have wanted to try making elderflower cordial I was delighted!
A bit of searching on the internet gave me a recipe, based on 40-50 bundles of elderflowers, which was just what I had gotten. To this I added 4 sliced lemons, 30g of citric acid and boiling water mixed with a whole lot of sugar (2kg!). The mixture will now rest for a couple of days, after which I can run everything through a filter and get the finished product. I can barely wait! Elderflower cordial is one of my absolute favourite drinks and I really hope that my first batch will be good!
My only concern is how to store the finished product. In several sites I have read that it will only last for a month or so, if kept in the fridge. However, I suspect that as long as the bottle remains sealed it should last longer. If a bit of preservative is added it should keep even longer, right? One of the comments to the recipe mentioned sealed bottles of elderflower cordial made in 1966, which was still good in 2005! This of course was with preservatives added.
I generally don't like adding stuff like preservatives... I prefer a natural product! But at the same time I really want my bottles of cordial to stay in good shape for more than a month. So I got a small vial of preservatives and I think I'm going to add a little, just to be on the safe side. And then I'll keep some of it in the freezer, and some in sealed bottles. And I guess we'll have to see how long it will last!
Any thoughts on this?
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