I was fascinated with the idea of something as exotic as a drinking vinegar that used to be a Southern staple. I filed it away in my head for later, talked up the possibility of dabbling in it with friends and family, etc. . . . but then we took Josephine on her first trip to Atlanta in early June, and while we were there, we ate at Holeman and Finch ; sure enough, the bartender, who has received some accolades in his own right (e.g. Food and Wine), was serving up Shrub.
One more sidenote: the guy from the aforementioned article references Pok Pok, a modern Thai restaurant in Portland -- we went there a year ago, and both the restaurant and lots of other establishments in the city do an amazing job of crafting interesting homemade beverages -- many of the non-alcoholic sort. I hesitate to use the term "artisan" again b/c I think it's a vague to most people -- but it normally would be considered a good word to describe these drinks . . . homemade ginger ales and other non-traditional sodas, really creative fruit juices, etc. It's no secret -- you can find great stuff to drink in Portland.
So, when plenty of fruit started showing up at the farmer's market in June, along with some of my own watermelons nearing maturity in the backyard, I was convinced to start playing with my own versions of Shrub. It's very straightforward, so I've detailed a step by step oversimplification below. . .
I mashed them up in a small pot, the same pot in which I would eventually boil them.
I put them up there while I was gone to Atlanta one week and I wrapped a rubber band around them b/c I had an almost-superstitious concern that this concoction might somehow explode while I was away. At the very least, I knew there was the risk that an unsuspecting wife might smell a foul odor coming from my office and wonder in there to inspect. I thought the rubber band might help contain the smell, and as an extra precaution, I left the recipe on top to let her know this was no accident -- something intentional was brewing. (Mind you, simply notifying her of this plan ahead of time would have led to unnecessary deliberations.)
Here you see the finished product . . . after adding a little shrub to the sparkling water, I stored some of it in small jars in the fridge. Although I didn't get a whole lot of shrub out of the one batch of blackberries, the potent, syrupy sweetness and sour acidity meant a little went a long way. (It only took 1-2 tablespoons to make this glass, but it wasn't quite as sweet as it needed to be, so maybe a pinch of extra sugar would've helped during boiling).
Cross-referencing Portland for a moment -- we were eating at the Clyde Common (the restaurant in the bottom of the Ace Hotel there), and I ordered their house Gin & Tonic, which is made with their homemade tonic water. I asked the waiter where they get quinine to make the tonic, and apparently, they get raw quinine bark and make it from that. It was really strong stuff, but if I ever get my hands on some raw quinine bark, I'm going to make my own tonic water too.
These peaches were amazing -- at first they were too dry and unripe, but after a week while I was in Atlanta, they moistened up, the sweetness got concentrated, and streams of juice squirted out as a separated the flesh from the stone.
As you can imagine, even though all the fruit I use is locally-sourced, these recipes require me to go through quite a bit of cider vinegar. Jenny brought this beautiful, industrial size Bragg's bottle back from the store earlier this summer. I'm not sure why, but I think it's important that it's "With the mother." (On a tangent, I tend to categorize Mother Bragg's marketing strategy into a category with Dr. Bronner's Magic soaps. I don't really know who composes this market segment they're targeting with their labeling, but with a bizarre combination of hippy environmentalism, snake-oil consumerism, and God-fearing piety, it seems to be that sought-after demographic of pot-smoking Amish housewives who sit around watching Jimmy Swaggert and infomercials about natural foods all day.
In exchange for the vinegar jug, I paid $15 to check an extra bag full of Duke's mayonnaise on a trip home from Atlanta. (It turns out, the TSA counts mayo as fitting into the category of gels, liquids, and aerosols, and these clearly aren't in 5oz. containers.) That's a hefty tax for importing mayo, but Jenny insists on Duke's.
The summer was a good time for trying new drinks of all sorts. . . in addition to all my shrub experimentation, I made a few jars of aguas frescas (or I suppose it's more specific in this case: agua de sandia) . . . by mixing a little honey with fresh watermelon. You then dilute the base with water to get what's no more than flavored water; for us, I flavored sparkling water from our carbonator instead of water straight from the tap.
I also tried "making" michelada this summer, which was curious . . . and I think it could grow on me. By the sounds of it, the recipes/ingredients for michelada vary, but it's basically beer, lime juice, and hot sauce over ice -- sometimes Worcestershire sauce and tomato juice is involved. I didn't take any pictures, though, b/c there aren't really any unique ingredients that go into its creation.
In case you didn't click the link for the NYT article on drinking vinegars above, here's the recipe for shrub I promised . . . please try some yourself:
Recipe for Shrub
(Makes about 1 1/2 to 2 quarts, depending on fruit used; these measurements can be played with quite liberally, as some fruits contain more natural sugars.)
2 quarts fruit, use any fruit, pears, figs, raspberries, cherries
1 liter apple-cider vinegar (preferably Bragg) or other vinegar
1/2 to 1 cup raw sugar Soda water Ice
1. Rinse the fruit and discard any rot. Place in a large non-reactive or ceramic pot and mash for several minutes with your hands or a wooden spoon to break up. Pour in enough vinegar to cover and top with a lid. Let macerate at room temperature for a week, stirring once a day. (Do not be alarmed by the smell or the sludge on top.)
2. After a week, stir in 1/2 cup of the sugar and gently boil for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly, then strain. (The smell created from boiling is a bit offensive, so open the doors and windows.)
3. Make a test shrub: cool 3 to 4 tablespoons of the fruit mixture. Fill a 20-ounce glass with ice. Add water or soda water to almost the rim, then add the chilled fruit mixture. Taste to determine sweetness. If it is too tart, add sugar to the fruit mixture, little by little, while still hot. Cool fully and funnel into bottles. Will keep indefinitely in refrigerator.
MAY I JUST SAY: this is hands-down horrible stuff. If you get a hankering for grossness in the vein of what he does shurb-style, try this: Boil a quart of apple cider vinegar, without a lid, on your stove for an hour. Enjoy the wretched odor for the rest of the day and try to fall asleep. The next morning, ruin your entire day by drinking some for breakfast: pour said boiled vinegar into a glass, add ONE squirt of your favorite fruit, and drink. Now YOU tell ME how fun that is.
ReplyDeleteWhy couldn't he just decide to brew beer like normal husbands????? That I wouldn't mind so much!
Please pity me,
Jenny The Wife