I grabbed a load of elder berries and blackberries from the old orchard at the back of the garden, and a few apples aswell. Apples and blackberries have gone into a crumble for tonight, I decided to make a drinking syrup with the rest of the stuff.
I looked at a cook on the wild side cook book and decided to adapt the recipe to what I had in the kitchen. So, I had a load of elderberries in a pan with some water, boiled then simmered, squashed with the back of a spoon and then sieved and strained to get the seeds and casings and bits of twig that went in out!
HFW says to put a whisked egg white into the syrup whilst boiling and to whisk occasionally and remove the scum that is produced. I think the egg white acts as a floc and gets all the little bits to coagulate and aids removal. I did this with the first one, but I had scrambled eggs for lunch before starting the blackberry version so I'd ran out of eggs!
Once the syrup had boiled and simmered and the scum removed, I loaded a slack handful or two of sugar into the liquid and added a few spoons of honey. Back on the boil and then check for thickness. It is quite thick, thicker than normal juice that you dilute with water.
I had to try it, so I diluted to taste and it was very nice. The honey is just coming through as an after taste, it is really nice. I decanted the remainder into an old stags breath bottle, and made a start on the blackberry version. Exactly the same apart from I didn't have an egg white to coagulate the bits. I poured the liquid through kitchen paper, I wanted to use coffee filters but don't have any and in hind sight I doubt it would have gone through! Very thick stuff.
The blackberry syrup is cooling down now, so I need to create another empty bottle! I reckon I need to find my Stags breath drinking glass to finish the bottle off!
I looked at a cook on the wild side cook book and decided to adapt the recipe to what I had in the kitchen. So, I had a load of elderberries in a pan with some water, boiled then simmered, squashed with the back of a spoon and then sieved and strained to get the seeds and casings and bits of twig that went in out!
HFW says to put a whisked egg white into the syrup whilst boiling and to whisk occasionally and remove the scum that is produced. I think the egg white acts as a floc and gets all the little bits to coagulate and aids removal. I did this with the first one, but I had scrambled eggs for lunch before starting the blackberry version so I'd ran out of eggs!
Once the syrup had boiled and simmered and the scum removed, I loaded a slack handful or two of sugar into the liquid and added a few spoons of honey. Back on the boil and then check for thickness. It is quite thick, thicker than normal juice that you dilute with water.
I had to try it, so I diluted to taste and it was very nice. The honey is just coming through as an after taste, it is really nice. I decanted the remainder into an old stags breath bottle, and made a start on the blackberry version. Exactly the same apart from I didn't have an egg white to coagulate the bits. I poured the liquid through kitchen paper, I wanted to use coffee filters but don't have any and in hind sight I doubt it would have gone through! Very thick stuff.
The blackberry syrup is cooling down now, so I need to create another empty bottle! I reckon I need to find my Stags breath drinking glass to finish the bottle off!
