Elderflower soft drink

by | May 15, 2015 | Vegetable dishes

Hungary is in elderflower season right now and it’s the perfect time to make a refreshing drink from the heavily scented blossoms of Sambucus nigra. Don’t buy expensive elderflower drink, it’s quick and easy to make your own at home, just get outdoors and pick some heads before the season is over.

Black elder (sambucus nigra) beside camomile is the most popular herb in Hungary. Black elderflower and elderberry have been used in folk medicine for hundreds of years, their presence can be traced back to Roman times. There are several varieties of elder, but sambucus nigra is the one most often used for health benefits as it is the only variety considered to be non-toxic even when not cooked, but it is still recommended to cook the berries at least a little to enhance their taste and digestibility. Black elder has an effect in treating the flu, alleviating allergies, and boosting the immune system. Furthermore, its tea relieves caugh, has a diuretic and diaphoretic effect.

Black elderflower
Black elderflower – photo: zserbo.com

The elderflower season is short, it lasts from mid-May to mid-June in Hungary. This undemanding plant is not fussy about soil type and it grows anywhere where it gets enough light. Try to choose those trees that are far from busy roads and not polluted with car exhaust fumes. Pick the flower heads, preferably early in the morning before the insects occupy the blossoms and rob all the pollen.

Even if this elderflower drink is too sweet to drink without dilution, it’s rather a soft drink than a cordial because it’s not as thick and concentrated as a syrup.  Making a cordial needs at least 20-30 flower heads and almost 1 kilo (~5 1/4 cups) of sugar, which are dissolved in 1,5 liters (~6 1/3 cups) of water, whereas 2,5 liters (~10 1/2 cups) of soft drink contains only 400 grams (~2 cups) of sugar and the essence of 4 elderflowers. As it isn’t preserved, you have to store in the fridge after straining, where it can keep for a few days, or you can freeze it in plastic bottles, so you may enjoy this luscious refreshing drink several weeks or months later.

Elderflower drink
Elderflower soft drink – photo: zserbo.com
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1 Comment

Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Wish list

If you are looking for a Hungarian recipe that hasn't been published on this website yet, let me know, and I'll do my best to post it.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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