Cooking elderberry jam: recipes

2024 Author: Caroline Blare | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:39

Elderberries are rich in potassium and vitamin C; the fruits ripen in late summer and early autumn. Since the elderberry grows wild in many places, a constant supply is ensured. However, the fruits should not be eaten raw as eating them uncooked can lead to he alth problems. For this reason, making elderberry jam and jelly is a good idea.

Preparation

In addition to the ingredients for the jam, empty jam jars are required to make jam. A jam funnel and a fine sieve are also very useful. In the first step, the glasses should be prepared accordingly to avoid glass cracking when the hot elderberry mixture is poured in later.

Put the jam jars in hot, but no longer boiling, water for some time
Removing the flowers and stems from elderberries
Elderberries should already be black
Sort out any green specimens
Then wash all ingredients thoroughly

Basic recipe

Maintaining elderberries into jam requires preserving sugar and berries in a ratio of one to one. Depending on the size of the fruit, the proportion of preserving sugar also increases. When cooking, you should be careful so that the mixture does not burn. It is better to work with a low flame and always keep an eye on the mixture. A few minutes of cooking time is usually enough for the berries to become nice and soft. In addition, the preserving sugar should completely dissolve in the mixture. A gelling test is a good way to determine whether the mixture has cooked long enough. To do this, a small portion of the mixture is removed from the pot and cooled on a saucer. As soon as the jam sets, everything has been done correctly. If the mixture remains liquid, it needs to simmer longer.

There are 500 g of preserving sugar for every 500 g of fruit
Add cinnamon and lemon juice with grated peel
Let the mixture steep for about two hours
Put berries and sugar in a pot
Heat the mixture very slowly while stirring constantly
From the boiling point, reduce the flame
Use a ladle to pour the mixture into the prepared jars using the funnel
Then screw the glasses tightly
Then turn it upside down for about 20 minutes to create a vacuum

Tip:

If the elderberry seeds are not desired in the jam, then the mixture should be strained through a fine sieve.

Combinations with other fruits

The elderberries are not edible raw and must therefore be cooked before consumption. Otherwise, they can cause mild poisoning and have a laxative effect. Due to the high content of vitamins C and B, elderberries help with colds and fever. In the past, the black berries were also used to dye hair and leather. There are a large number of recipes with elderberries for your home kitchen that are easy to implement.

Apple elderberry jam

Apples go perfectly with the elderberries and give the jam an interesting flavor.

300 g ripe and black elderberries, plus 700 g apples
1 kg preserving sugar and some mineral water
Carefully wash and cut the elderberries
Peel, quarter and core apples
Crushing fruit in the blender
Add some mineral water
Pass the fruit mixture through a fine sieve
Pour into saucepan and stir in preserving sugar
Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly
Cooking time is 6 to 10 minutes, then carry out a gelling test
Then fill the puree into prepared jars and close immediately

Blackberry elderberry jam

The mixture of these two wild berries produces a dark purple jam that tastes extremely fruity. Since both types of berries produce ripe fruits around the same time, they can be combined very well with each other.

500 g blackberries and 500 g elderberries
Juice from a squeezed lemon
1 kg preserving sugar
Wash all berries and drain well
Mix with lemon juice and approx. 1/3 of the preserving sugar
Let stand covered in a cool place for 3 hours
Bring to the boil once, then strain through a fine sieve
Then bring the puree to the boil in the saucepan with the rest of the preserving sugar
Let it boil for 7 minutes while stirring
Be sure to do a jelly test
Finally, pour into prepared jars and close tightly

Pear elderberry jam

The mixture of pears and elderberries is also very tasty; the pears give the jam a slightly lighter color and a creamy texture.

500 g elderberries and 500 g pears
1 kg preserving sugar
2 bags of Gelfix
A little water
Cook elderberries with a little water
Then pass through a fine sieve
Peel the pears and cut them into pieces, then add them
Then puree the mixture with the hand blender
Stir in the sugar and bring to the boil again
Then stir in the Gelfix
After the successful gelling test, pour into prepared glasses

Jelly

Preserving jelly differs from preparing elderberry jam in certain steps. This significantly increases the preparation time, but the end product is much finer and spreads easier. However, there is no change in the amount of preserving sugar and fruit. As with jam, a gelling test must be carried out with jelly. Only if this is positive can the mixture be poured into the prepared jars. The elderberry jelly is not only very suitable as a spread, but also makes a delicious change as a filling for pastries, cakes and tarts.

First put 1 cm of water in a pot
Then add the berries
Heat the mixture at low temperature
Berries should burst, maybe use a fork to help
Filter the base mixture through a kitchen towel
Alternatively, you can also use a container with extremely fine mesh
Let everything drain well overnight
Then mix the juice with preserving sugar in a ratio of one to one
Additional juice from two squeezed lemons
Let the new mixture boil for 4-5 minutes
Wait until foam forms on the surface
Skim off the foam afterwards
Then fill into sterilized jars

Recipe without preserving sugar

To cook jam without preserving sugar, the cooking time must be extended. While the berries with preserving sugar gel after just a few minutes, the jam must cook without preserving sugar until the pectin contained in the fruit begins to gel. This process can be accelerated using cornstarch. It should also be noted that sugar serves as a natural preservative, so leaving it out will reduce the shelf life of the jam.

500 g elderberries and 500 g agave syrup
Juice of a lemon
In winter you can use Christmas spices such as anise, cardamom and cinnamon
Stir in some cornstarch
Let the mixture work, then cook for at least 30 minutes
Pass through a fine sieve
Make a jelly test and pour into prepared jars

Elderflower jam

A delicious jam can be made not only from elderberries, but also from elderflowers. Our ancestors already used the delicious elderflowers for jam and to make juices. When collecting, make sure that no elderflowers are picked close to the ground, as there is an acute risk of rabies in German forests.