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Elderberries Dried
Sun-dry the berries as for strawberries. (In some parts of Europe peasants use these in soups through the winter.)
Two lines of text that assume a great deal: a cross-reference to another entry, an unspecified drying method, and a fruit that is not safe to eat raw. Taken together they cannot be followed as printed.
- Raw elderberry is not an edible fruitRaw elderberry should not be eaten as a fresh fruit -- Elderberries contain cyanogenic glycosides, concentrated in the seeds, stems and any unripe fruit; eating them raw, especially in quantity, can bring on nausea, vomiting and cramping. Air- or sun-drying lowers moisture but is not a reliable way to destroy these compounds, so the dried berry produced here should not be treated as a ready-to-eat pantry item.
- The recipe never cooks anythingThe only mention of heat is the parenthetical note that peasants put the berries in winter soups. That cooking step is what has historically made elderberries safe, and it is outside the instructions rather than part of them. A recipe whose safety depends on something it does not tell you to do is not one to follow.
- Species and stem matter, and are not addressedEuropean elder (Sambucus nigra) and American elder (S. canadensis) are the ones with a broad food history; red-fruited elders such as S. racemosa are generally treated as unsafe raw and are best left alone by anyone not sure of them. The text says nothing about identification, nor about stripping the berries from the green stems, which carry a heavier load of the glycosides than the ripe pulp.
- Open-air sun-drying of a juicy berryElderberries are thin-skinned and high in moisture. Left in the open for the days this method requires, they attract insects and are prone to surface mould before they reach a shelf-stable dryness. Nothing here specifies weather, covering or attention.
- "As for strawberries"The method lives in a different entry of the book, which the reader may not have in front of them. There is no stated thickness of layer, no turning schedule, no test for doneness and no storage instruction, so there is no way to judge whether a batch has actually dried or merely wilted.
- If you want dried elderberriesUse a current, tested source that specifies heat treatment, species identification and storage. Dried elder is sold commercially for exactly this reason.
Elder grew as a hedgerow and farmyard plant across most of Europe, which is why it turns up in books of this kind as a free harvest rather than a market fruit. The parenthetical about peasant soups points at a real dish: Fliederbeersuppe in northern Germany and Denmark, a thickened elderberry soup sweetened and often served with dumplings or apple, made through the winter from berries or juice put by in autumn. Elder's other household uses were medicinal and cosmetic as much as culinary, and the flowers are often said to have been valued as highly as the fruit. The entry hands over a mildly toxic raw fruit with no cooking instruction, leaving the cook to supply the knowledge in between.