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Kinda following on from the 'screwtop bottles' thread....

I'm going to make loads of elderflower cordial this year - the local area is absolutely choked with elderflowers come the Spring.

I've been keeping back wine bottles and the screw tops to put the cordial in - as I understand it, the bottles need to be sterilised, is that right? What's the best way of doing that? In the oven, like I do my jam and chutney jars?
Will these bottles be OK? Or, rather, will the screw caps be OK to keep the cordial for any great length of time, or will they have lost their seal?

If no good, what else can I use (that I don't have to go out and buy?)

Many thanks in advance! xxx

Hi Twiggy
We use recycled screw top bottles or those with the tops like kilner jars (can't remember the name sorry). These are still in my cupboard from this spring and they are fine.
I just clean the bottle after use, then before using it for cordial pour boiling water into them. I have been doing this for a couple of years now, without problem.
Enjoy

Fab, thank you!

I made elderflower cordial last summer for the first time (can't remember how I sterilised the bottles - chemicals, I think) and found it didn't last very long. This is probably because I didn't put any citric acid in, only lemon juice, and presumably not enough of that. This year I plan to bottle it in small plastic bottles and keep them in the freezer (the big chest freezer that I don't yet own) so I'll use up a bottle full before it has time to go off.

I did try freezing it in the ice cube tray, but because of the high sugar content it didn't freeze solid and was a pain to get out of the tray.

I made 10 liters of elderflower cordial with a friend. However, when finished we realized we had no bottles, so we stored it in our winebucket.

Started bubbling like crazy overnight, we left it for a week and it turned into a crazy strong wine :P.

Now THAT sounds good!!