Blood Orange Shrub
Are you familiar with shrubs? They have had a resurgence in popularity over the last several years. They are known as “drinking vinegar”, or in our case, sweet, vinegary syrup we make to use in our cocktails. They came about as a way to preserve fruit and berries in the off-season using vinegar. Right now we have A LOT of blood oranges in our lives so we decided to try a new version of a shrub using the fruit from our recent harvest. You have to employ a little patience, though, when making a shrub if you want to make them as they were originally conceived – without heat. The peels, fruit and final shrub benefit from resting over a few days. They are so worth the wait, though!
Oh my goodness, you guys, this shrub worked so well with this bourbon white balsamic vinegar! If you can’t find it, you can use all champagne vinegar or plain white balsamic vinegar. However, we highly recommend trying to get some of the bourbon white balsamic…you won’t be sorry! The beautiful thing about shrubs is that you can make them to fit your preferences. If you like them on the sweeter side, you can up the sugar content. If you like them more vinegary, you can up the vinegar content. Make it your own!
A shrub is meant to be mixed with other ingredients before drinking. If you decide you want to try a shrub at full strength, make sure you post a picture of you doing so in the comments. We bet the face you make will be worth a thousand words! We like to mix ours with sparkling water, sparkling wine and/or a favorite spirit. This blood orange shrub is delicious with sparkling water and a sprig of mint or rosemary. We also like it with a little gin or vodka. As with any cocktail, the ratio can be modified to suit different tastes.
We recommend a 1-1 ratio when using sparkling water. If you’re mixing with a spirit, we recommend using 1 oz. of spirit, 2 oz. shrub and 4 oz. of sparkling water.
Cheers!
We highly recommend using the bourbon white balsamic vinegar!
Juice enough blood oranges to get 1 1/2 cups of juice.
Sugar and peels initially and after 24 hours…
all that lovely oil released from the peels!
Blood Orange Shrub
- 5-6 Medium Blood Oranges
- ¾ cup Organic or Turbinado Sugar
- ½ cup Bourbon White Balsamic Vinegar or plain white balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup Champagne Vinegar
Using a vegetable peeler, peel the blood oranges (colored rind only, avoid the white pith). Place the peels in a non-reactive bowl with the sugar, and muddle together using a muddler or wooden spoon. Cover and leave at room temperature for one day, muddling a little more as necessary to release the oils from the peels and completely coat the sugar.
Juice the blood oranges to get about 1 ½ cups of juice. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Pour the vinegar over the peel sugar mixture and stir well to release all the sugar from the peels. Pour mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the blood orange juice. Discard the peels.
Sterilize a jar and lid in a large pot of boiling water, completely submerged for at least 10 minutes. Remove jar and lid from water and let cool for a few minutes on a clean towel. Fill with shrub mixture and cover tightly. Refrigerate for 3 days, shaking well a couple of times each day to allow the flavors to meld and mellow.
Makes about 3 cups and keeps up to 3 months refrigerated, though ours never last that long 😉