In autumn, the heavily hanging umbels of the elder invite you to process the berries. The easiest method of juicing elderberries is to use a steam juicer, which saves you some time-consuming steps.

Elderberry juice can be made sweetened or unsweetened

Juicing in the steam juicer step by step

  1. Rinse the berries under running water and let them dry on a kitchen towel.
  2. Remove unripe berries from the elderberry umbels. The green and red elderberries contain a high concentration of the poison sambunigrin and must therefore be disposed of.
  3. Cut off the thick stalks of the elderberry umbels. The fine stalks on which the berries sit can go in the steam juicer.
  4. Put the prepared elderberries in the fruit basket of the steam juicer. To sweeten the juice, you can sprinkle the berries with sugar.
  5. Now place the three elements of the juicer on top of each other: At the bottom is the pot filled with a little water, on top of that the juice collection container and above that the filled fruit basket.
  6. Put the lid on and place the steam juicer on the stove.
  7. After an hour at the latest, the elderberries are completely juiced - the juice is in the collection container. You can now remove the clamp on the spout hose and fill the finished elderberry juice into prepared bottles.

Benefits of using a steam juicer

If you use a steam juicer to juice elderberries, you save several steps:
Since the thinner green stalks can remain on the berries, you don't have to laboriously pluck them off. As a result, the berries do not lose any juice prematurely and you do not have to clean your kitchen and clothes that are soiled with the heavily staining elderberry juice.
If you would like to refine your elderberry juice with other fruits or sugar, you can do this directly in the steam juicer: for example, add pieces of apple to the elderberries or sprinkle some sugar over them. A dash of apple juice, which you pour over the berries, will later give the elderberry juice a fine taste.
The elderberry juice is heated by the steam when it is extracted in the steam juicer. It can therefore be used directly and does not have to be boiled again to render the poisonous sambunigrin harmless. If you use sterile bottles, the hot-filled juice can be kept for several months without further preserving.

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Vegetable garden