Something excellent! Elderberry is Sambuco

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This is elderberry vinegar. It is probably the prettiest thing I have made so far this year, and I like it, too. It’s about as sweet as balsamic vinegar that you buy in a shop; not the real, expensive twenty-year-old stuff, but the stuff most of us can afford to use. If you add the sugar bit-by-bit, you’ll be able to fine tune it to suit your taste.

I am using it, and plan to experiment further, like I would use any flavor enhancer like Worcestershire Sauce or Heinz A-1 Sauce. I add a few drops, a teaspoonful, a tablespoonful — depending on the dish — taste and then maybe add some more. It seems to perk up the flavors that are already in the dish. I think it will help set apart even more some of the dishes I cook for clients.

Obviously, I am not going to use it in every dish or I would chance them all tasting the same, but so far I have liked it in chicken gravy, stirred into the oil for a sauce after sautéing meat, added to the oil when dressing a cooked vegetable for the table. I don’t like sweetened vinegars on salads, but if you do, obviously that’s a good way to use it. Click the blue for more, more

Elderberries grow wild and are free to the picker. The season is right now. Take a jaunt into the countryside and look for huge bushes with bunches of tiny berries hanging off them that look like purple showerheads.

That photo comes from an interesting site called New Being Nutrition where you can also find out what else there is to say of sambucus nigra. Of course in Italy they famously make Sambuca from Sambuco. I used to have a poster in my US office promoting Sambuca which showed a triumphant Julius Caesar with the legend, “After a hard day at war, Caesar did not return home to a salad.”

Scrounge around for some ripe elderberries and try this sweet and sour, deeply fruity flavored condiment.

Elderberry Vinegar

700 g / 1-1/2 pound cleaned and washed elderberries
600 ml / 2-1/2 cups white vinegar — I used white wine vinegar which is the cheapest you can buy here
450 g / 1 pound sugar

To clean the elderberries you need only give them a little shower, then holding the bunch in your hand, use the fingers of the other hand to gently pull the small berries off, letting them fall into a big pot. Once they are all in there, cover the berries with cold water. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for twenty minutes. Turn off the heat and let them cool naturally.

Do be careful handling the berries and the juice, because they stain and dye very effectively. I stained a bright red dress with a deeper red stain last week.

Strain the juice off. There should be about 300 ml, or ten ounces. Put the juice, the vinegar and most of the sugar into a pot and heat gently, stirring. When it comes to a boil, taste, then add sugar to your taste, then cut to a simmer and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the vinegar become syrupy and clings to a spoon.

Use a funnel to pour it into clean bottles and seal or cork them. It makes about 5 cups and will last a very long time. Actually no one knows how long it will last, because no one has ever had it around long enough. Maybe it is permanent? Maybe I should be putting this on my face?