Ingredients
- 1 kg of fresh, ripe elderberries (dried elderberries can also be used, but in general the syrup tastes better with fresh ones).
- 1 liter of water.
- 1 kg of sugar (some recipes replace sugar with honey).
- 30 g of citric acid (available at compounding pharmacies, its function is to preserve the syrup better).
- (possibly 2 lemons cut in half or sliced).
- (possibly some cloves, for a better flavor).
- (possibly about 20 g fresh grated ginger rhizome, for a better flavor).
Note: If you don't have 1 kg elderberries, you can also decrease the quantities of the other ingredients proportionally.
For example: with 500 g of berries, use 500 ml water, 500 g sugar, and 15 g citric acid (and, if you like, 1 lemon, some cloves, and 10 g grated ginger).
Preparation
- Put the water on the heat until it boils.
- Add the sugar and citric acid to the water, bring this mixture to a boil, and keep at boiling temperature for 10 minutes.
- Add the elderberries (with the stems) and, if desired, the lemons, cloves, and ginger; boil for 4 minutes.
- Remove from heat, cover, and wait at least 2 hours before sifting (i.e. filtering).
- Boil the syrup again and then, with it very hot, pour it into a bottle.
Dosage
Drink 15 ml or 1 tablespoon of this syrup 4 times a day in case of cough, flu or cold.
A good tip for taking this syrup is to add this 15 ml to a herbal tea and drink it as hot as possible.
Storage
Keep this syrup preferably in the refrigerator.
With citric acid added to this syrup, it can be preserved for 6 months (or longer).
Without citric acid, it should be consumed within 3 months.