The elder tree - magic and mystery
Justin Tonna writes about the tree that was banned from the wine-producing regions of Portugal 200 years ago, because its berries were used to adulterate port wine.
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon aeld, which means fire. In medieval England it was known by various names, including hyllantree and hyldor, which are related to the German name for the tree, hollunder.The elder tree (Sambucus nigra) grows well in moist or river environments throughout Europe and North America, but it is a particularly evocative part of the English countryside, where it was long imbued with myth and mystery. Because of its legendary status as the tree from which Judas hanged himself, and the belief that the Holy Cross had been fashioned from elder wood, the tree came to be popularly associated with sorrow and grief. The many allusions to the elder in the plays of William Shakespeare attest to this.
Elder trees were planted outside country homes and elder leaves affixed to front doors to ward off the evil spells of witches – but cutting or trimming an elder tree and burning its wood presented something of a problem. The dryad who was supposed to inhabit the tree – a belief that reached England with settlers or invaders from northern Europe – was thought not to look too kindly on anybody chopping away at her habitat, unless they asked nicely first. And so there was an invocation to be made before the elder could be cut down or trimmed back.
There were no similar difficulties with the beautiful white flowers, which are still made into teas and infusions and cooked into pancakes – neither with the bluish-black berries, which are made into jam, jelly, pies, cordial and wine. The syrup made from elderberries has long been used to adulterate red wine, or to turn white wine red. Spurious ‘clarets’ were a fixture of the wine trade in the past, and as one commentator wrote in the early 18th century, “men of nice palates have been imposed on by elder wine for French claret.”
Substandard port was mixed with elderberry syrup to enrich its colour, and the practice was so widespread, giving such a bad name to the Portuguese wine trade, that the Marques de Pombal – who was charged with the reorganisation of the industry on behalf of the king – banned their cultivation. Existing trees were chopped down or ripped out of the ground.
Yet elderberry wine is a drink appreciated for its own good qualities in England, where the berries – unlike those from trees on the continent – are particularly suited to it. There are commercially produced brands of elderberry wine and cordial. The wine isn’t all sweet; some of it is fairly dry and can be drunk with savoury meals. In Hungary, a fiery spirit is made from the berries, using 50kg of fruit to produce one litre of spirit.
Elder flowers and elderberries have long been used in the English countryside for making drinks and preserves, and the recipes are still used today. Elderberry jam recipes require the addition of pectin, or it won’t set. Otherwise, the berries are mixed with apple, which helps set the jam. The apple-elderberry combination is used in pies, too. Elderberry ice cream is especially attractive because the berries produce a brilliant purple colour and release their distinctive taste. The berries are used like blueberries in cakes and fruit loaves, flavoured with cinnamon and nutmeg. They’re never eaten raw as they cause stomach upsets unless cooked.
A rich, sweet sauce of dried elderberries is an old Spanish recipe, which was transferred to the Native American people by settlers from the Iberian peninsula in the 17th century. Clusters of berries are cut from the trees, and then painstakingly removed one by one and left to dry on the ground for weeks. They are stored through the winter and eaten as they are, or softened with liquid over heat.