Shrub

A shrub is a fruity vinegar used in drinks. The basic recipe is one part fruit, one part sugar, one part vinegar. You can add herbs and other good stuff. Mix, let sit at room temperature for a week, refrigerate, and enjoy.

History

Wild Strawberry Shrub (May 2020)

May 31, 2020

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Eun-Joung, Jessica, and I were hiking on Eun-Joung's usual trail on May 31, 2020, when we found oodles and oodles and oodles of wild strawberries. We picked as many as we could, using a plastic glove as storage. The glove was full, but it didn't amount to much, so I decided to convert them into a shrub.

We washed them, put them in a jar, covered them with sugar (maybe a 2:1 ratio of fruit to sugar), gave it a stir, and covered the jar with a paper towel.

June 1-4, 2020

Gave the jar a stir once a day, tasting the spoon each day. It tastes like fresh strawberry preserves. It's hard to say whether or not it's psychological, but I detect a strong perfume / fragrance that I don't normally get with farm-grown strawberries. Jessica confirmed this. These would taste excellent on toast or pancakes right now. Crossing my fingers that I don't eff this up.

June 5, 2020

My strawberry mixture smelled yeasty for the first time, meaning that fermentation is starting! I mixed in equal parts raw apple cider vinegar, and moved it into a larger, sterilized jar. Planning on leaving it out at least three days, maybe longer, to let the fermentation get going even more, then will move it into the fridge.

Tasted the spoon. It already tastes good! It's also sharply acidic. Maybe I should have cut back on the vinegar? Hoping that in a few weeks, the flavor will mellow.

See Also

• "DIY Shrubs." Sunset Magazine, February 2014.
• "Cocktail 101: How to make shrub syrups." Serious Eats, June 23, 2011.
• Healing Shrubs, Fermented Herbal Mocktails
• Strawberry Shrub Drinking Vinegar. Uses a secondary ferment.