Elder Balsamic

Elder Balsamic

ELDER BALSAMIC

This balsamic works equally well with red meats and salads and is so easy to make.

INGREDIENTS

500grms ripe elderberries.

750ml cider vinegar.

Around 1 kg of raw cane sugar (you can use refined but raw is better for you, you could also use honey if you wish).

Sterile glass bottle with tops, either screw or cork

 METHOD

1.      Remove all the berries from the umbels, a fork is a good way to pop them off. Remove any non ripe ones and give them a quick wash. Leave to drain for a bit.

2.      Put the berries in a suitable container (bowl, glass jug etc) and pour over the vinegar. Cover the container and leave it soak for 5 days or so (can do longer if you wish).

3.      When your soaking time is up, strain the liquid through a sieve into a jug*

4.      Measure out around 340grms of sugar for each 250ml of liquid (you should have around 750ml ish). You can vary the amount of sugar depending how sharp or sweet you want your balsamic. We find a just a bit of extra sweetness works so well with red meats such as pigeon and venison and really thickens well on a flash fry to coat the meat.

5.      Put the liquid & sugar in a pan and warm, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Let simmer for a few mins but not to violently as this will destroy much of the goodness from the berries.

6.      Pour into sterilised bottles and leave to cool.

7.      Enjoy 😊

NOTES

* The infused berries are still packed with juice and vitamins so can be reused. They will obviously have a vinegary flavour so if sing them for Elder Syrup a bit more sugar wont go amiss.