Text 13156, 97 rader
Skriven 2011-07-08 21:50:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
Ärende: Shrubs 1
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A short series on an old fashioned idea...

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     Title: How To Make Shrub Syrups
Categories: Preserving, Fruit, Beverages, Info
  Servings: 1 info file

           fruit
           sugar
           vinegar

What's a Shrub?

In beverage history, the word shrub has carried several meanings.
For our purposes, it's enough to say that a shrub is an acidulated
beverage made of fruit juice, sugar, and other ingredients. Where
things get complicated is that the acid varies by recipe; it can be
either fruit juice or vinegar. Additionally, some shrub recipes are
prepared using alcohol that steeps with the fruit, acid, and sugar.
Finally, hardcore shrubbers make their own vinegar, using fruit
juice, sugar, and wild yeasts from the air.

In any case, the sugar, acid, and optional alcohol preserve the
fruit juice, and in fact that was one original purpose of the shrub.
Prior to the invention of refrigeration, a shrub syrup was a means
of preserving fruit long past its picking. Shrubs were popular in
Colonial America, mixed with cool water to provide a pick-me-up on
hot summer days.

A proper shrub has a flavor that's both tart and sweet, so it
stimulates the appetite while quenching thirst. The advent of
industrially processed foods and home refrigeration combined to
nearly eliminate the shrub from American foodways. Only family
traditions, Colonial-themed establishments (such as City Tavern in
Philadelphia), and a few holdout farms (Tait Farms, for one) have
helped the shrub survive.

Happily, they're very easy to make at home, and for beverage lovers
(of the boozy or non-boozy variety), they're also quite versatile.
And, if you're up for a summer (and fall) of shrub-making, you can
start with strawberries when they come into season, and move
straight through all of the summer's berries and fruits.


  From: Serious Eats                    
 
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     Title: Shrubbing Ingredients
Categories: Preserving, Fruit, Beverages, Info
  Servings: 1

           fruit
           sugar
           vinegar

You have three essential ingredients to play around with: 

Fruit: berries, peaches, plums, rhubarb, apricots. Go crazy. Start
with the most perfect and pristine specimens you can find, utterly
without blemish or flaw. Wait, scratch that. Do the exact opposite
of what I just said. You're making a syrup here, not presenting a
fruit basket to a movie star. Ask around at your farmer's market,
and see whether any vendor will sell you their seconds—the fruit
that might ordinarily wind up back at the farm in a compost pile.
This is perfect for syrup-making and should save you some money.

Sugar: I always use basic refined cane sugar. Why? Only because I've
never gotten around to trying turbinado or other fancy brown sugars.
They're on my list of future variations to test out, so if you've
tried them, let me know your results. But start with cane sugar to
master the technique, and then branch out later if you wish.

Vinegar:I usually use either red wine vinegar or apple cider
vinegar. I find they're less bland than white vinegar but don't add
too much funkiness to the final product. Some shrubbers have used
balsamic to great success. Here's an example of a Black Cherry
Balsamic Shrub that sounds fabulous, especially with the addition of
peppercorn and cinnamon.


  From: Serious Eats                    
 
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Cheers

YK Jim


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