Cooking For Engineers

[Gareth]

It is now one of my favourite times of year; Elderflower time.


Elderflower Champagne.


Ingredients:

Per 1 Gallon/ 5 litres

1 & 1/2 Lbs (680 grams) of white granulated sugar.

1 whole lemon

30 ml white wine vinegar

Loads of boiling water.

10 Elderflower, flower heads

Clean and sterilse a suitably sized bucket. Dissolve the sugar in boiling water, stir extremly well, then allow to stand and cool to less than 40 degrees centigrade, or about body temperature.

Pick your Elderflowers; which is best done before noon, and in bright sunshine when the flowers are in full bloom. If you pick the Elderflowers in the afternoon, or early evening they may well be past their best. You are looking for bright off white flowers, with plenty of fragrance, and loose a little pollen as you pick them.

Zest the Lemon, and then juice it, add the juice and the zest to the dissolved sugar solution, add 30 mls of white wine vinegar, stir well, and add the Elderflower heads.

Cover the bucket with muslin and allow to stand for 4 to 5 days, so that the naturally occuring yeasts found on the flower heads can begin fermenting the brew.

After 4- 5 days bottle into cleaned and sterllised plastic screw top fizzy pop bottles. After a further 4-5 days you may started to drink your homemade Elderflower champagne. The Alcohol content will be negligible, at around 0.5 - 0.75% and so it is a drink suitable for the younger members of the family.

Be warned: A build up of carbon dioxide will occur in the bottle, and that is what makes the wonderful bubbly fizz in Elderflower Champagne ........ some of the bottles just may spray the contents about when opened, so this is definitly a drink for the outdoors; BBQ's, picnics, al-fresco meals, etc. :wine:

Note; you may choose to rinse the Elderflowers in clean water before steeping them to remove the bugs and other little nasties, etc. I have chosen not to, and will rely upon filtering when bottling to remove such things.

I have made a 2 gallon/10 litre batch, so that it why you will see extra ingredients in the photos.

A perfect Elderflower still on the tree:

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Lois picking the Elderflowers:

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Gareth getting into the thick of it for the perfect Elderflower;

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The picked Elderflowers in the bucket:

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The rest of the Ingredients ready to go:

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The bucket containing the cooled sugar solution. Note; Our Eldeflower Champagne is being made in the yellow bucket on the left, the darker liquid in the other bucket is a batch of dissolved Honey and water for Elderflower Mead.

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The Lemon being Zested:

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The Lemon being juiced:

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Adding the Lemon juice to the sugar solution;

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Add the Lemon zest:

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Measuring out the White Wine Vinegar:

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Adding the White Wine Vinegar:

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Adding the Elderflowers:

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The Elderflowers in the bucket:

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Giving it a bit of a stir:

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And finally covered in a piece of muslin to stop the flies and bugs getting in:

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This will now be left for 4-5 days so that the natural yeasts may multiply and begin fermenting the brew, then we will filter and bottle it off, racking the bottles for another 5-7 days before drinking.


Com'on folks, the Elderflowers are now in their prime, and this one is so easy to do. Bubbly, fizzy Elderflower Champagne is so refreshingly tasty, and it is the perfect accompliment to any out door; picnic, BBQ or al fresco meal.

[danicamoore]

What if you will extend the fermentation process into few more days or weeks does it occurs changes? Odors, taste, etc..

[Gareth]

After approximately 90 days of fermenting in the bottles, the Elderflower Champagne takes on the charateristics of a rather good Brut.

Over the last couple of weeks I have also been experimenting; making an Elderflower Chapagne from dried Elderflowers:

10 days ago, I began a little experiment in my kitchen to see if I could make a palateable Elderflower Champagne from dried Elderflower purchased from the Herbs & Spices man on Norwich market. Last night Lois and & I tried a bottle and it was a resounding success.

Ingredients:

30 grams dried Elderflower.

750 grams white granulated Sugar

5 litres of water.

30 ml of White wine vinegar

The juice and Zest from 1 Lemon


Method:

Dissolve all of the sugar in 4 litres of boiled water in a large plastic mixing type bowl.

Place 1 litre of water into a saucepan and add 25 grams of the dried Eldeflowers to the water. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Turn off the heat, strain and stir into the previously prepared 4 litres of sugar water solution. Cover with a muslin cloth and allow to cool to below 40* centigrade or about body temperature. Add the Juice and Zest from 1 Lemon and 30ml of white wine vinegar, stir in well and leave to stand for 1 hour.

Lightly sprinkle the remaining 5 grams of Dried Elderflower on to the surface of the Solution, taking care not to sink too much. Cover with the Muslin cloth and allow it to stand undisturbed for 2-4 days. When frothy bubbles show on the surface, bottle into clean and sterlised screw top plastic pop bottles, and allow it to stand for at least 3-4 more days before drinking.

It worked! and is a tasty conclusion to my little "out of Season" experiment: now I can enjoy Elderflower Champagne throughout the year.

[mattpendle]

If done with more sugear and with an addition of champaign yeast you can achieve a much higher ABV. The brew i've currently got is apparently upwards of 16%. Drink on.