The pie had its minor issues (too much juice, couple missed stems), but there was still the elderberry syrup to save the day. I used 
the elderberry cordial recipe from Christmas Matters, and it was simple and easy. MUCH easier, in fact, than the pie, since there was no tedious de-stemming needed. I tossed the berries, stems and all, into a pot, covered with water and boiled until soft (in this case, that didn’t take too long since these berries had been sitting in their own juice a while). Then I strained the juice into a separate pan, using — don’t laugh — a mesh 
bag made for washing lingerie. (Hey, not everyone has a straining cloth, and the lingerie laundry bag worked great.)
Not wanting to waste anything, I squeezed out all the juice, leaving nothing but compressed seeds, stems and skins, which I tossed out. (Actually, my son begged to plant a clump of them in the front flowerbed, which I let him do. I’ll let you know in a year or so how that goes.)
Once I had all the juice strained out into a smaller pan, I added the sugar. The amount of sugar called for was a little surprising, 
seeming a bit high, but I went with it. (As a note, there’s a syrup in the recipe section that uses honey instead of sugar, so if you don’t want a LOT of sugar in your syrup, I recommend trying that one. I’ll probably try it myself next time, or maybe split the recipe to use half the sugar, and using half honey instead.)
Next I added the cloves, using ground cloves instead of the whole cloves in the recipe - and in my estimation, I overdid it somewhat (ground cloves are powerful stuff). Then, after simmering for another ten minutes, I poured it into a glass bottle and put it in the fridge. The bottle unfortunately doesn’t seal very well, so sadly I’ll probably have to toss what I don’t use in a week or so, since it won’t keep without being well sealed. But it’s not a major loss, since I really did overdo it on the cloves, and like the pie, my next syrup will be better. (This one’s good mixed with apple cider, though!)
3 responses so far ↓
1 plantfreek // Aug 9, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hi-I can help you make a better pie/jelly etc from elderberries or any other fruit. We grow all our own fruits, gather wild some others and can/preserve jams, jellies, conserves, butters, pie filling etc. Just hollar at me for help. I can help u fix this runny pie!
2 Beverly HaynesLove // Sep 25, 2008 at 9:13 pm
My father of 75 tells a story of when he and a cousin were cooking up elderberries for a pie with the stems included. His mother made him throw it all out, stating that the stems themselves had arsenic or a similar poison. He stated that my grandmother was very picky when it came to elderberries. She was very meticulus with getting all the stems out of the berries before anything was made with them, like pie or jam. So the thought that someone would cook up the berries with stems on them is worrisome to say the least. The stems would add bitterness also. Please be picky and get the stems out of your berries. The taste is so unique when made without stems!!!
3 Sandy Vaughan // Oct 20, 2008 at 4:16 am
Hi - thanks again for linking to our recipe. Here’s the updated link again:
http://christmasmatters.org/elderberrycordial.html
On the poison issue, we’ve added a wee warning to the page. Personally it doesn’t bother us - not least because we mix a lot of it with that poison called gin.
We’ve never had upset tums from it, for what it’s worth.
From reading what little scientific info’s available on the web (see the links on our recipe page), I’m pretty confident that the boiling process and then subsequent dilution deals with any nasties in the thin stalks.
And there’s no discernible bitterness - any sweeter and I’m not sure I’d like the taste so much.
all the best
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