Elderberry Jelly Recipe | Love and Olive Oil (2024)

In case you were wondering, I know why they are called elderberries.

Because they take so long to prepare that you’ll be elder by the time you’re finished.

Seriously. These tiny berries are tedious, every step of the way. It might just be the most tedious fruit I’ve ever preserved, surpassing marmalade by an astounding margin.

That said, it’s also one of the tastiest preserves I’ve made, combining deep purple elderberry juice with lightly floral elderflower syrup and a splash of St. Germain elderflower liqueur (because why not?) for a multi-faceted jelly that’s anything but average.

According to various sources, the raw seeds and stems of the sambucus plant are toxic, so you want to remove as many of the stems as you possibly can. Although I couldn’t seem to find a definitive answer as to just HOW toxic they are. Multiple members of my family and I all ate some raw berries before learning this, seeds and all, and we’re all still here. So while I don’t recommend going out and eating a bunch of raw berries, a few probably won’t kill you. And while cooked seeds are usually fine, they are small and very hard, so ultimately I decided to make a jelly vs a jam, despite the extra work involved.

To make elderberry juice, simmer the de-stemmed berries until soft and juicy, then run them through a food mill to remove the seeds and skins. I found the food mill to be the most efficient here (though I’ve seen references to devices called steam juicers that are apparently the best tool for making a large quantity of juice. This is not the same as a regular juicer that you’d use for carrots, kale, etc.)

Once juiced, strain the resulting liquid through a fine mesh sieve to be sure no stray solids made it through. You could even go one step further and strain it through a muslin jelly bag if you prefer a super-clear, sediment-free jelly.

To keep yourself from going insane, I’d recommend splitting this time-intensive process into 3 days:

Day 1: Pick and de-stem your berries. Wash them well, then toss them with a bit of sugar and lemon juice and let them macerate overnight.

Day 2: Make the juice. Strain, then cover and refrigerate overnight in an airtight container.

Day 3. Make the jelly, pour into jars, and process in a boiling water bath.

Elderberries grow wild in many areas of the US, including Tennessee (though I’ve never personally come across any myself – if anyone has any secret spots, do share!) Only the blue and black varieties are edible, and then only ripe berries (unripe berries as well as stems, leaves, seeds, etc are all toxic if consumed).

These berries in particular came from Truckee, California, where we discovered a large bush bursting with sprays of ripe berries outside my uncle’s rented cabin. Needless to say, I got pretty excited at the sight of them, and managed to convince several family members to help me pick the berries, then enlisted even more to help me de-stem the little buggers. We packed them into plastic containers and I carried them home with me on the airplane (this isn’t the first time I’ve traveled with fruit… it’s starting to become a pattern). The bush also had a few sprays of flowers as well, which are delicious when stepped into a fragrant syrup, so I took those home with me as well.

It took 5 of us a little over an hour to de-stem 4 pounds of berries, and we weren’t even being that meticulous about it. The berries still had lots of little bits of stems still attached. I figured they’d get strained out anyway when I ran the berries through the food mill.

This particular jelly could be called triple-elder jelly, since it contains elderflowers and berries in 3 different ways: the berries, the flowers steeped into a syrup (recipe coming soon!), and elderflower liquer (such as St. Germain). I found the result to be a unique and intensely flavored jelly, with a deep berry flavor and delicate floral undertones from the syrup.

That said, you can also make plain elderberry jelly without the syrup, just add a bit more sugar and some water to compensate for the volume. I’d still recommend adding the elderflower liqueur (it really makes the jelly sing), although you can certainly leave it out if you like.

Bonus Printable Labels

What good is a jelly recipe if you don’t have a pretty label to go with it?

I designed these rectangle labels for these 4oz hex jars, but they’d also work on smooth-sided mason jars or lids as well. Each label has space to fill in the made/opened dates as well as batch number and net weight.

The downloadable PDF file contains 30 labels per page.

To use, simply download the printable file by completing the form below. Print your labels onto full-sheet sticker paper (I used this brown Kraft label paper), cut out shapes, and apply directly to the (canned and cooled) jars.