Is des Holler?

I hope after todays posting you don’t say about it: “Des is Holler!”
“Holler” is “Hollunder” in Hochdeutsch and “elder” or “elderberry” in English; the scientific name for the plant is “Sambucus nigra”  - Now, please don’t tell anybody, that I am not specific! :)

And here you have a pretty picture of an elderberry flower, once again powered by Wikipedia.


I have fond childhood memories collecting the flowers with my mummy and producing the syrup together afterwards. I like elderberry flower juice; and as I am not the only one liking it, there is commercial supply for the syrup these days as well:



In case the flowers are not cut off, the plant can build a fruit, which then looks like this:


The elderberry plant is a strong plant, it is close to impossible to kill it once it grows and it grows close to everywhere. Therefore, there are a lot of recipes. However, I have to admit, I don’t like a single dish produced with the finished fruit.

The most common one is the Hollerröster, where you simply put the berries with some wine, sugar, cinnamon and a apple or pear into a pot and let it boil for an hour or two. When I grew up it was made with little sugar and no wine or cinnamon. High in Vitamins and healthy but not tasty. Actually it looks quite similar to Powidl.

So the Austrian saying “Des is Holler” simply means “This is stupid” - I guess because most people simply consider the dish stupid…


Homework:  Think of the dishes you ate when growing up and enjoyed. Extra points for posting information about these dishes in the area below.
Location: Austria

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