Elder syrup

I haven’t been put on a country walk recently, so I don’t know the state of the elderberries in our local countryside. They are most famous for making elderberry wine, but I can’t remember having any – although i do remember various country wines, homemade, which were not that good!

In the old handwritten recipes I’ve been given in a little old account book from Wheat, Brettle and Baxter (of whom I can find no trace at the moment) I have found the instruction to make a syrup:

Elder syrup

Stew the fruit and strain

• To one gallon of syrup allow 1 oz of cloves
• 1 oz of ginger crushed on cinnamon
• 4½ lbs of sugar

1. Let the syrup boil
2. then add sugar, ginger, cloves and boil for 20 minutes
3. then strain and bottle

There is no indication of what quantities of elderberries and water should make the syrup, nor what the syrup should be used for, I’m guessing colds, and flu etc. The facing page is for Yorkshire puddings (no instructions but 4 tbspoons flour, 1 egg, pinch salt, pinch sugar, milk. so I’m guessing they are beaten together, poured into a pan of hot fat and cooked until risen and golden!

I seem to have no image of elderberries, so share a photo of some random wild red berries which appear around here in the autumn.