hedgerow food

When I picked the elderflowers yesterday the first thing I made was a vinegar scented with elderflower. I used white wine vinegar, which has quite a strong vinegar taste to it. Now that it’s infused when you take a big sniff you get the vinegar first with a delicious waft of the sweet, intoxicating scent of elderflower at the end. It is really good in salad dressings. We had some last night on our bagged salad and I have just sprinkled some on my lunch of melon, strawberries and goat’s cheese with a glug of olive oil. It is delicious and delicate and well worth making. It is very easy to make. The hardest bit is sterilising the bottle (and that’s hardly hard) and if you use the bottle that the vinegar came in you don’t even need to do that.

350 ml – 500ml white wine vinegar
5- 6 elderflower heads, carefully picked and checked for insects

Method
Pour the vinegar into a non-reactive pan (stainless steel) and place the elderflower heads in the vinegar.  Heat gently until just hot. Do not allow it to boil. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. When cool remove the elderflower heads and sieve the vinegar through some muslin to make sure that any stray insects are removed. Pour into a sterilised bottle or back into the bottle the vinegar came out of.