Elderberry juice is rarely found on supermarket shelves. If you need fresh elderberry juice as a basis for lemonade, jelly or for baking, it is best to grab the secateurs yourself and start juicing.

Elderberry juice is rich in vitamin C and iron

Are elderberries poisonous?

The elder is an old medicinal plant from which both the flowers and the berries are processed. But be careful: the raw berries are poisonous! The leaves, seeds and unripe berries contain sambunigrin, which releases hydrocyanic acid. It is sensitive to heat and decomposes at a temperature of almost 80 °C. This means 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 cones and dispose of them. You should also make sure that you carefully filter out the seeds of the berries from the juice.

Two methods of juicing elderberries

Since elderberries must be heated before consumption, cold juicing is not a viable option for extracting juice from elderberries. The easiest method is to use a steam juicer. If you don't have one and don't want to buy another kitchen utensil, you can also juice the elderberry in a saucepan.

Elderberry juice from the steam juicer

A steam extractor is a three-tier pot system with a lid, typically used on the stovetop (more expensive electric versions also exist). When juicing elderberries with the steam juicer, follow these steps:

  1. Wash the intact cones and dry them with a kitchen towel.
  2. Cut off the thick stem. The thinner green stalks may remain attached to the berries during steam juicing.
  3. Place the prepared elderberries in the fruit basket of the steam juicer. If you wish, you can sprinkle the berries with sugar.
  4. Fill the bottom pot with some water, place the juice container on top and the filled fruit basket on top. The steam juicer is closed with a lid and is now placed on the stove.
  5. Once the spout tube fills with elderberry juice, you can open it and pour the finished juice into prepared bottles.

The big advantage of steam juicing is that you can add the elderberry with the stem and thus save yourself the most time-consuming step in the preparation of the elderberry juice.

Elderberry juice from the saucepan

You can juice the elderberries in the saucepan as follows without having to buy any utensils for juicing:

  1. Wash the intact cones and dry them with a kitchen towel.
  2. Strip the berries from the stalks with a fork or wide-toothed comb.
  3. Put the elderberries in a saucepan with a little water and cook for a quarter of an hour. Optionally, you can add sugar.
  4. Squeeze the cooked berries through a sieve lined with cheesecloth.
  5. Now the juice is ready and can be bottled or processed.

The garden journal freshness ABC

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