Shrubs are making a comeback and deservedly so. Not the shrubs you plant. It's the shrumbs you drink. With delight.
Actually, the term "shrub" covers both the ultimate beverage and the “drinking vinegar” that is its flavor base. A vinegared syrup is mixed with spirits, water, or carbonated water and enjoyed as a most refreshing and striking beverage. Shrubs were very popular in 19th century but then faded in the 20th as refrigeration gave us other “options.”
I personally love the shrub revival and posted about a raspberry shrub and beverage in 2012:
https://cookingbythebook.com//dedicated-drinkers-diary/raspberry-shrub-syrup-beverage/
Shrubs are made by creating a syrup of fruit, sugar and vinegar. The techniques vary — macerating the fruit in the vinegar and then adding the sugar, or muddling the fruit with sugar and adding the vinegar the next day — but the end result is a very liquid syrup, not a viscous one like maple syrup, that readily combines with other liquids.
This recipe for a grapefruit shrub takes three days from start to end. And it is worth every second. Every one. There’s really little work in total. One Day 1, you do peel the grapefruit and muddle with sugar. That takes some time, and you see the muddled result in the picture above.
By Day 3, you end up with a very colorful liquid that can be stored and enjoyed for months. The flavor here is sweet, from the sugar and the grapefruit, and sour, for I found that I wanted the full ¾ cup of apple cider vinegar. I had purchased a bottle of commercially made grapefruit shrub, so I could compare my homemade version with something “official.” The “official” was good, interesting. Homemade was spectacular with a brighter and obviously fresher flavor.
Certainly, you could experiment with other kinds of vinegar to achieve, I’m sure, some pretty dramatic differences.
How am I using this shrub? Not with carbonated water! Look for tomorrow’s post. In the meantime, you’ll want buy some grapefruits and some tequila.
Grapefruit Shrub
Yield: about a quart
Ingredients:
- 2 ruby red grapefruits for peeling plus 2 more for the juice [~ 1 ¾ cups needed]
- 1 ¾ cups cane sugar
- ¾ cup apple cider vinegar
- ½ ounce red peppercorns, crushed
Preparation:
Peel two, avoiding as much of the bitter white pith as possible, and transfer them to a glass mixing bowl. Add the sugar and muddle, then cover and let sit overnight at room temperature.
Juice the two remaining grapefruit, striving for around 1 ¾ cups of juice. Add the grapefruit juice, taste, and adjust the seasoning, adding more sugar if necessary. Add the vinegar, about ¼ cup at a time, until the taste is to your liking.
Finely strain the mixture and pour into a glass container, then add the peppercorns and refrigerate overnight.
The following day, strain the liquid through a cheesecloth and discard the peppercorns. Stored covered in the refrigerator, this will keep for up to 4 months.
Source: A Modern Guide to Sherry by Talia Baiocchi [Ten Speed Press, 2014]
Photo Informatio : Canon T2i, EFS 60 mm Macro Lens, F/3.5 for 1/30th second at ISO‑1000