Magical Cooking #140 - 4th June 2025
Elderberry Wine Recipe
When the weather turns colder and you find yourself in front of the fire, it's the perfect time to enjoy a glass of elderberry wine.
Patience is required for this recipe. Like red wine grapes, elderberries are high in tannin and so the wine needs time to mature.
Ingredients
2½ lb elderberries
Campden tablets
2½, 2¾ or 3 lb sugar (use the lowest amount of sugar for a dry wine, next for a medium dry wine and the higher sugar for a medium sweet)
Wine yeast
Yeast nutrient
Water
Gloves - particularly when handling the berries as they can die your skin purple!
Method
Strip the elderberries from the stalks and wash well
Put into a fermenting bin and crush, either using gloved hands or a potato masher
Pour on 4 pints of water
Add 1 Campden tablet, crushed and dissolved in a little warm water to kill off any wild yeasts
Boil half of the sugar in 2 pints of water for 2 or 3 minutes and, when cool, mix into the pulp
Add the yeast (6g) and nutrient and cover and allow to ferment for 5 days, stirring daily
Strain and press and return the liquor to a clean fermenting bin
Boil the rest of the sugar in 1 pint of water for 2 or 3 minutes and when cool, add to the liquor
Cover again and leave for 3 or 4 days
Pour carefully or syphon into a gallon jar. Try and leave as much of the sediment behind as possible
Fill up the jar with cooled boiled water to where the neck begins
Fit a fermentation lock and leave until fermentation has finished
Rack your wine (which means to move your wine into a fresh container) adding a Campden tablet after the first fermentation
Syphon into bottles
Enjoy!