Elderberry Pie with Vinegar

laceyvail 6A, WV

10 years ago

A friend of mine remembers with great nostalgia an elderberry pie recipe that had vinegar in it. Can anyone help?

Comments (4)

grainlady_ks
10 years ago
Did the elderberry pie filling have vinegar in it or the pastry? If it's the pastry, vinegar (an acid) is a tenderizer. Acids soften gluten and the gluten strands break apart. If it's in the filling, the acid (lemon juice or vinegar are commonly used in the pie filling recipes) help to preserve the flavor. Recipes are a dime a dozen if you do a search.

-Grainlady
annie1992
10 years ago
lacey, my old Farm Journal's "Complete Pie Cookbook" has one called Pioneer Elderberry Pie, with vinegar in the filling:

Pioneer Elderberry Pie

3 1/2 cups washed and stemmed* elderberries
1 tbls vinegar or lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup flour
1 tbls butter

Spread elderberries in pastry lined 9 inch pie pan. Sprinkle with vinegar.

Combine sugar, salt and flour, sprinkle over berries. Dot with butter.

Adjust top crust and flute edges, cut vents. Bake in hot oven (400F) 35 to 45 minutes or until juices show in vents and crust is golden brown.

*Note: A farm kitchen trick - use a wide tooth comb to strip elderberries from their stems.

This book has a copyright date of 1965, so not that old, but hopefully it's similar. Farm Journal seldom lets me down, LOL.

Annie
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"Is it difficult to tell the poisonous ones from the safe? " No since they are all poisonous. The roots are very bad. But the leaves and stems are fairly poisonous too, they won't kill you, but you could be hospitalized. The berries also have poison, but in low doses. Easily removed if cooked. This goes for all elderberries. The red ones are said to be worse, but they are not. From Wiki: The ripe, cooked berries (pulp and skin) of most species of Sambucus are edible.[13][14] However, most uncooked berries and other parts of plants from this genus are poisonous. Sambucus nigra is the only variety considered to be non-toxic, but it is still recommended that its berries be cooked slightly for culinary purposes.[13] The leaves, twigs, branches, seeds and roots of Sambucus plants can contain a cyanide-inducing glycoside (a glycoside which gives rise to cyanide as the metabolism processes it). Ingesting a sufficient quantity of cyanide-inducing glycosides can cause a toxic build up of cyanide in the body. In 1984, a group of twenty-five people were sickened, apparently by elderberry juice pressed from fresh, uncooked Sambucus mexicana berries, leaves and stems. However, all twenty-five recovered quickly, including one individual who was hospitalized after drinking five glasses.[15] Such reported incidents are rare This post was edited by Drew51 on Sun, Mar 30, 14 at 23:13
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I would caution you about caerula to try to keep it in check. Mine grew very tall and the wood is very weak, so when the big snowstorm hit in 2008 many tall branches broke off in a circle all around. The berries got too far up to pick, too. It does attract the magnificent Pileated Woodpecker, though- Woody Woodpecker. York has been very slow growing and has nice berries but not very many. The ones developed for leaves apparently need coddling and have not been good for berries either, if not given a lot of water and fertilizer.
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Comments (11)
Pick the entire head of berries, then pick out any which are green or partially green. They are toxic. (Though the odd one seems to end up in anything I make with elderberries!) I do it the hard way. Sit in front of the TV with a large bowl of berries on the head, and another small bowl to the side. Then I pick them off one by one, putting the stems into the larger bowl, and the berries into the smaller bowl. Sometimes the other way around, when I'm concentrating more on the TV. It's fiddly and time-consuming, but it's actually a very soothing occupation, like knitting. I'm told the wire screen works well, but wear gloves to rub them - the fruit can be used as a dye. What do you intend to do with the berries? I freeze mine while I think about it, but usually make jam or individual pies. If you boil some up with brown sugar, it's called Elderberry Rob, and if taken 1 tablespoon at a time before bed is a wonderful remedy for the symptoms of colds and flu. Pick some of the fresh flowerheads, too. They are edible and delicious, but only when really fresh. When old, they taste and smell like cat's urine. They can be frozen.
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Melly Thanks for the recipe. I have all but the juniper berries. I'll try without them and let you know what I think of it.
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craftyrn
10 years ago
I love, love elderberry pie-- hard to come by anymore since so many farmers have taken out the hedgerows to enlarge the fields for the huge equipment they use now-- even the local farmers markets don't have much.

I can still find them down around camp in Allegany co but not here at home.

Diane
annie1992
10 years ago
Diane, I've never made elderberry pie, only jelly. They are such a pain to pick and clean but now, with the tip about the comb, I might have to try again.

Mine grow right at the swampy back edge of the hayfield where it's too soft and muddy to take the big tractors, so the elderberries just happily grow undisturbed by anyone or anything except me and the birds. I've offered them to all the neighbors and my elderly aunts, but no one wants them. (shrug) Fine with me, I take all I want and leave the rest for the birds.

Annie

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Elderberry Pie with Vinegar

Comments (4)

grainlady_ks

annie1992

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craftyrn

annie1992

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