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Cough Syrup Recipe
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5 from 1 vote

Cough Syrup Recipe

Author: Ann Timm

Ingredients

  • 1 cup freshly chopped onion
  • About 1/2 cup raw honey*

Plus any of the following (optional):

  • 1 tsp. Cloves whole or powdered- specifically good for pain relief
  • 1-2 Tbsp. Slippery Elm dried or powdered- Slippery Elm has more of a reputation for soothing and coating the throat
  • 1-2 Tbsp. fresh chopped Ginger root OR 1 tsp. Ginger powder- Ginger increases warmth circulation (important for healing) and the overall effectiveness of the syrup
  • 1-2 Tbsp. dried Mullein and/or Marshmallow Root. Marshmallow is very helpful for soothing throat irritations and calming coughs and Mullein is an expectorant, good at clearing up hacking coughs and congestion.

**You can include all of these optional herbs, but at a maximum of 2 Tbsp. extra herbs total

    Instructions

    • Put chopped onions and any herbs of choice into a small stainless steel or glass pot (not alumnimum). Add enough honey to cover the onions ( for me, this seemed to be about 1/2 a cup, though I didn't measure exactly).
    • Turn the pot on low heat and slowly simmer. The honey will soften and become liquidy, and you want to keep the temperature very low while allowing the herbs to steep in the honey. It's best to keep a lid on to help keep all of the medicinal properties of the herbs in the syrup, and just take the lid off to give it a quick stir every few minutes to ensure it doesn't burn at all (though the temp. should be low enough to prevent this).
    • Give it 20 minutes of simmering, then remove it from the heat. Strain the onions and herbs out and store the remaining honey (which might have flecks of herb in it and this is fine) in a small glass jar with a lid and keep it in the fridge.

    Notes

    The syrup can be used as often as needed, up to every half hour. Here are the dosages: 1 tsp. for a younger child, 1 Tbsp. for anyone 10 years and older.
    *Do not feed honey to children under 1 year old.