Please tell me Elderflowers don't taste...

[Imanairsign]

I braved the near gale force winds this morning and picked my first ever batch of Elderflowers, a carrier bag full, which I really enjoyed doing. Got them home, and picked off enough flowers from the stalks to make two gallons of wine, which I did. I've put the rest on trays to dry in the shaded greenhouse. I had intended to make cordial, syrup and turkish delight, but the smell of the flowers has put me off a bit! I mean, they stink! How can anything smelling like that taste good? Is it just me? I keep reading how delicious all these concoctions are, so I'm hoping they don't taste the same as the flowers smell! Does anyone else think they smell rank?

[battybird]

They smell like cats pee! But rest assured they taste great as elderflower fritters, or in cordial, champagne form...dont be put off! I was always told that they are best picked in the midday sunshine, where was it today??

[Millymollymandy]

Don't worry, we have discussed this several times on the forum. Do a forum search for elderflowers and cat pee as the key words.

I think you have to process the flowers straight away otherwise they do turn from sweet smelling to peepee smell very quickly - and also when you are out and about picking, you can smell a couple and they smell divine then all of a sudden something happens in your nose and the rest smell vile!

[Millymollymandy]

Oh goodness there are more discussions that I'd thought as I've only looked at the cordial threads not the wine threads!

I'll let you trawl through the various threads but here's a summary of what came up in the search:

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... mit=Search

[Imanairsign]

Thanks Milly, I see I'm not alone!
I dried what I had left on trays in the greenhouse (shaded from the sun), and they smell rather nice once dry., but does anyone know what proportion to fresh I should use?

[Millymollymandy]

I don't know - I've never dried any, only used fresh.

[MKG]

1 pint of fresh elderflowers equals 1 oz (28 grams) dried.

Although I couldn't absolutely swear to that

Mike

[wabbit955]

need to use striaght away or you do get that cat pee smell

but can dry them very quickly preserve the best flavour in a mirowave just spread thinly on plate and zap for 10 second at a time until dry
this work with all herbs to

[butternut]

Is it to late to pick elderflower now? Read somewhere that end of May and start of june are best times