How to Make Shrubs: Strawberry and Cardamom Shrub Recipe

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With the rise of the craft cocktail movement, we’re seeing more shrubs featured on cocktail menus.

What’s a Shrub?

Shrubs, or drinking vinegars are beverages made from fruit, sugar, and vinegar often with an aromatic such as a herb or spice. They were invented before refrigeration became available as a means of preserving fruit.

The word shrub is derived from the Arabic word sharāb meaning drink or syrup and their use became popular in cocktails in the nineteenth century.

At Burrow Bar in Sydney, shrubs are a regular feature, offered with a choice of spirit topped with soda water or as a refreshing non-alcoholic drink. Shrubs impart tartness as well as fruit, and are one way of having fruit in cocktails without the sweetness. Several methods exist for making shrubs including cold maceration and the heat method. Cold maceration (described below) results in a brighter shrub with more pronounced fruit character and less jammy flavour.

How to Make Shrubs: Strawberry and Cardamom Shrub Recipe

Method and recipe by Chau Tran of Burrow Bar

Ingredients

• 250g strawberries, washed and quartered
• 120g caster sugar
• 4g cardamom pods
• 250ml red wine vinegar

Makes approximately 450 ml

Method

1. In a non-stick pan, toast the cardamom pods then crush them to release the flavour.
2. In a large glass jar, add the washed and quartered strawberries, sugar and cardamon pods.
3. Stir the mixture to ensure everything is equally coated and screw lid on tight. Leave in the fridge for 24 hours to macerate. Liquid will start to form.
4. Take out of fridge and stir to dissolve the sugar that would have settled to the bottom. Add the vinegar. Stir then screw the lid on tight and set in fridge for 48 hours.
5. Take out of fridge and stir once again.
6. Set a cheese cloth and colander over a bowl, pour the shrub mixture to strain the solids.
7. Gently press the fruit to extract more liquid.
8. Rinse the glass jar then put the shrub back in and leave it to age for 7 days.
9. Store the shrub in the fridge until ready to use. It will keep indefinitely.

Pro Tips

1. Herbs add layers of complexity to shrubs and spices work well to complement fruit.
2. Matching fruit and vinegar can be like pairing food with wine by colour. As a simple rule, use apple cider with stone fruit, red wine vinegar for red berry shrubs and champagne vinegar for pineapple shrubs.
3. Burrow Bar ages their shrub for two weeks which results in a more rounded shrub with a mellower flavour and pronounced fruit character.

Next… How to Use Shrubs in Cocktails

Photo by Cocktails & Bars – © Copyright: All rights reserved.

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