Content
- Homemade treat: elderberry juices
- Are elderberries poisonous?
- Two ways to juice elderberries
- Elderberry juice from the steam extractor
- Elderberry juice from the saucepan
Elderberry juice is rich in vitamin C and iron
Homemade treat: elderberry juices
Elderberry juice is rarely found on the supermarket shelf. If you need fresh elderberry juice as the basis for lemonade, jelly or baking, you can grab the pruning shears yourself and start juicing.
Are elderberries poisonous?
Elderberry is an old medicinal plant from which both the flowers and the berries are processed. But beware: the raw berries are poisonous! The leaves, kernels and unripe berries contain sambunigrin, which releases hydrocyanic acid. It is sensitive to heat and decomposes at a temperature of just under 80 ° C. Thus, you can safely enjoy heated elderberry juice or other hot processed elderberry products. However, it is important that you only use the ripe berries. Before processing, pluck green and red elderberries from the umbels and dispose of them. You should also make sure that you carefully filter the kernels of the berries out of the juice.
Two ways to juice elderberries
Since elderberry needs to be heated before consumption, cold aging is not a sensible option for elderberry juice extraction. The simplest method is the use of a steam separator. If you do not own one and do not want to buy another kitchen utensil, you can also juicer the elderberry in a saucepan.
Elderberry juice from the steam extractor
A steam extractor is a three-level pot system with a lid, which is usually used on the stove (there are also more expensive electrical variants). When juicing elderberries with the steam extractor, proceed as follows:
- Wash the intact umbels and dry them with a kitchen towel. Cut off the thick stem. The thinner green stalks may remain on the berries when steaming. Put the prepared elderberries in the fruit basket of the steam degreaser. If you want, you can sprinkle the berries with sugar. Put some water in the bottom pot, place the juice collector on top of it and place the filled fruit basket over it. The steam extractor is closed with a lid and now comes to the stove. Once the spout tube fills with elderflower juice, you can open it and pour the finished juice into prepared bottles.
The big advantage of steaming is that you can add the elderberry with a stalk and thus avoid the most time-consuming step in preparing the elderberry juice.
Elderberry juice from the saucepan
Without utensils specially purchased for juicing, you can juice the elderberries in the saucepan as follows:
- Wash the intact umbels and dry them with a kitchen towel. Strip the berries off the stems with a fork or a coarse-toothed comb. Put the elderberries in a saucepan with a little water and cook for a quarter of an hour. Optionally you can add sugar. Squeeze the boiled berries through a sieve that you have laid out with a cheesecloth. Now the juice is ready and can be bottled or processed.