Fruit vinegar drinks

[helenjp]

These started out as a home-made summer drink in Japan, and have recently become incredibly popular in the shops too. However, they are based on 19th century drinks, and as far as I can tell, they have probably survived longest in southern US cooking, where berry versions are still found.

Does anybody still make and drink these things? Anybody care to rediscover them? In the heat of summer here, the addition of vinegar is incredibly refreshing! It's a great drink to freeze and take along on hikes.

Old recipe books have more sophisticated versions, but the basics are:

equal weights of sugar, a mild vinegar and fruit. You don't need equal weight of low-volume aromatics such as herbs, of course, just add to taste. Cider vinegar is a good choice, though any vinegar can be used. Sugar can be reduced by up to half (or as desired), and is either dissolved over heat in the vinegar, or simply added to the other ingredients.

Layer sugar and fruit/herbs in a jar, pour over vinegar, or pour cooled, dissolved sugar/vinegar mix over other ingredients. Leave to steep for 1-2 weeks, then strain and bottle, and drink diluted with 4-5 parts water per part of vinegar syrup.

[KatieLoeb]

I believe the colonists called these fruit/vinegar/sugar based drinks a "shrub'. I've seen commercially packaged raspberry and blueberry shrub and they are incredibly refreshing, particularly if made with ice cold sparkling or mineral water.

A quick Google search reveals a myriad recipes for either Raspberry Shrub or Blueberry or Grapefruit Shrub

[helenjp]

I'm interested that you immediately identified it as a shrub! I didn't want to use that word, in case people associated it more with alcoholic shrubs. I didn't know there were commercial shrubs available.

I've just finished making a lemon version for rapidly approaching school vacation.

[Ktepi]

I've been soaking Bing cherries in cider vinegar for the last two weeks or so, to make cherry shrub -- I've never made it before but it's been in the back of my mind to try, so we'll see. Maybe this weekend is a good time to stop the soaking. I'm not at all sure what to expect it to taste like.

[andiesenji]

Yet again another topic that takes me back to my childhood (in the 40s).

The cellar in my grandfather's house was partially cut into limestone bedrock and contained a very large cistern which held water from a spring that bubbled up through the stone, with a pipe about 18 inches below the top edge to carry away the water when it reached that level.

Just below the level of the water there was a ledge, all around the inner cistern wall that held stoneware crocks in which were stored things that needed to be kept cooled.

Considering that the house, and the cistern, was built in 1830, back then that was their only "refrigeration" for food storage.

Several fruit vinegars were always "working" in some of the crocks, peach, pear, raspberry, elderberry, ground cherries, cherry, plum, gooseberry and dandelion. The latter not a fruit but made from the dandelion blossoms, first into a wine, then converted to vinegar. I remember this quite well because picking dandelion flowers was one of my first "chores" when I was very young. One of the first color photographs my grandpa took with a new camera was of me, with my face, hands, arms and clothes all colored butter yellow from the flowers.

I still make a drink my great grandmother called lemon "shandy" - not the traditional ale mixed with lemonade, but rather a very lightly fermented and only slightly alcoholic lemon drink. All it requires is lemons, scrubbed well (I give them a bath in lightly chlorinated water to kill any mold spores on the surface) and rinsed and some sugar.

Slice lemons in 1/2 inch thick slices and in a large jar put a 1-inch layer in the bottom, add a 1/4 cup of sugar, another layer of lemon slices, another layer of sugar and so on until the jar is full, occasionally mashing the top layer of sliced down, using a scalded potato masher or whatever will fit in the jar opening.

Cover the top with one or two layers of muslin and tie or use a rubber band to hold it in place, leave at room temperature for about 3 days, longer if the weather is cool. You should by now begin to see bubbles and it should have a very pleasant aroma.

If you have a jar with a spigot at the bottom, you can draw off some of the liquid this way, or you can use a scalded ladle and press it down from the top until it fills with liquid.

Mix the liquid half and half with seltzer or club soda and pour over crushed ice.

You can keep adding more sliced lemons and sugar to the top and keep pressing it down. There is no need to mix, the stuff percolates up through the fruit and mixes on its own.

Edited July 16, 2006 by andiesenji (log)

[helenjp]

That lemon shandy sounds WONDERFUL!

I'm curious, did your family use the fruit vinegars as drinks, in dressings etc., or to make other preserves?

[rlibkind]

The Tait Farm Foods website offers shrubs. I buy mine at the Pennsylvania General Store at the Reading Terminal Market and have enjoyed both the traditional raspberry at the ginger. Haven't tried the others . . . yet. A couple of weeks ago the weekend Wall Street Journal featured an article on shrubs featuring the Tait product. The example of a boozy shrub they gave mixed it with rum, which would have been traditional in colonial and early federal times given that it was among the most plentiful of spirits. They also make a good starting point for a salad dressing; I top a beet salad with the raspberry shrub straight.

[KatieLoeb]

Thanks Bob! Those are the very ones I was thinking of when I mentioned seeing commercially packaged shrubs. I just couldn't remember the name!

I've tried the Tait Farms shrubs and they are indeed delicious.

I bet the ginger would be awesome in rum or tequila based cocktails. I wonder if I can dig up a recipe to make my own ginger shrub....

[andiesenji]

That lemon shandy sounds WONDERFUL!

I'm curious, did your family use the fruit vinegars as drinks, in dressings etc., or to make other preserves?

←

Mostly in drinks, mixed with seltzer water. The family used a lot of seltzer there were several siphons around. In fact, all of us kids got in trouble one time or another spraying each other - like the Marx Brothers did in their movies.

The vinegars were like thin syrups and were used in fruit salad and poured over ice cream.

(our cook also made peach, cherry and apple "brandy" in a jar in the pantry, she dosed fruit cakes with the various flavored spirits). She also made an orange wine that was a favorite of my great grandmother.

[Ktepi]

I strained the cherry shrub, and it tastes pretty great -- mixed with club soda, the first thing that came to mind was a tarter, cherrier Cherry 7-Up, and I bet it would be good with gin. But it still smells -- even when diluted -- distinctly of store-brand cider vinegar. I don't know if that's something that'll mellow with age, or if the gin would be even more welcome for covering it up.

I've got a jar of that lemon shandy going now, since I had happily just bought and scrubbed a bag of lemons originally intended for roasted lemonade.

[helenjp]

I think that the vinegar will mellow with age - after 1 or 2 yeras, I couldn't immediately tell my Japanese plum wine from the vinegar version! And after I'd sampled both a few times my powers of judgment were even less reliable. .

However, the better the vinegar, the better the finished product will be. I'm sort of tempted to make a rose petal version, if I ever find myself alone with a large number of highly scented, organically-grown roses!

[Ktepi]

I think that the vinegar will mellow with age - after 1 or 2 yeras, I couldn't immediately tell my Japanese plum wine from the vinegar version! And after I'd sampled both a few times my powers of judgment were even less reliable. .

However, the better the vinegar, the better the finished product will be. I'm sort of tempted to make a rose petal version, if I ever find myself alone with a large number of  highly scented, organically-grown roses!

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It's tasty enough that I wouldn't mind using a good vinegar -- this first time, I had no idea what to expect, so I didn't want to do any special shopping for it. But there was a vanilla vinegar I had a few years ago that would be a great combination here, I think -- champagne vinegar would be good too, I'm sure. Rose sounds great!

[Ktepi]

Hm.

Jalapeno shrub?

Tomato shrub?

Molasses, honey, or maple replacing some/all of the sugar?

[helenjp]

Certainly honey works fine.

Maple? The only maple sugar I've seen in Japan was very hard to dissolve - but I don't know if that's generally true of maple sugar or not. I don't like to heat the vinegar, but I know that some people do heat the vinegar and sugar together.

[Hest88]

Oh, I had no idea they had such a long history. My DH and I discovered the Taiwan-produced vinegar drinks when we were in Hong Kong and have been tearing around the Bay Area stocking up on them. They're soooo good.

[donbert]

Talk about coincidence. I just picked up a vintage cocktail book and saw an interesting recipe for Raspberry Vinegar, then happened to pass a farmers market on my way home that had really ripe raspberries. I made two batches (or rather split one batch into two versions) one with sugar mixed in and one without sugar. Figured I could use the sweet one for cocktails and the other for salads or if I wanted to use less sugar in a drink. I used demerara sugar in mine but otherwise I followed this recipe:

Charles H. Baker, Jr. "The Gentleman's Companion Vol II, Being an Exotic Drinking Book or, Around the World with Jigger Beaker and Flask", 1936

RASPBERRY VINEGAR, Made from the Fresh Fruit Itself; from a Very, Very Old English Recipt We Found in St. Albans, Hertfordshire, in the summer of 1932

    One of our realiest and most delightful memories during the summer vacations from school was our spring visits every other year to the home of our favorite Aunt Josephine Leaming, either in Philadelphia, or at her country place ou on the Main Line in Wayne Pennsylvania.

    Not only was she one of the most beautiful ladies ever born in America or Europe, but one of the most elegant, the most up-to-date even in her seventies; one of the most understanding of cryptic small boy likes and dislikes; one of the most considerate of all those about her court-for that, acutall was what it really was. . .[sic] And so amid a swarm of Lemings, and Heckschers, and Carsons and Storks, she would entertainin her lovely garden-and for the youngsters would be ginger beer, or more unusual still, great tumblesr of thinnest crystal, filled to the brim of pale rose raspberry vinegar, with a boquet of mint raising its fragrant emerald head in the center . . . . [sic] Raspberry vinegar!-How far we drifted apart during the hectic days of the Late Attempted Drouth! . . . [sic] How we missed you. How glad we are now and then to go sensible once more, and sip one of you, instead of a Tom Collins or similar grownup acceptances . . . . [sic] Of course good rapberry vinegar may be bought in any fine delicasy shop, but try making your own. It's losts more fun, and ssaves purse strain.

   

    Raspberries, dead ripe, 1 lb

    Raspberries, 1 lb (again)

    Raspberries, 1 lb (again)

    White wine Vinegar 1 qt(Or failing this, diluted wine vinegar)

    Sugar Just over 1 lb per pint of resultant juice

   

    Put the 1st lb of raspberries in a bowl, and bruise well. Pour white wine vinegar over them-wine vinegar has a much more delicate flavour than either cider or malt vinegars, and can be bought from Italian shops, or made by exposing any good sweet domestic wine to the air by simply pulling the cork, adding 1 tbs. of vinegar, and litting it stand for a short time in that state.

    Next day strain liquor through a cloth into another pound of well crushed raspberries. Stand overnight, strain, and pour into the third batch of crushed berries . . . . [sic] Do not squeeze the fruit over much as this will cause it to ferment, which is not desired. . . . [sic] Wet a Canvas bag with a little of the raspberry vinegar, and strain the whole business into a stoneware or glass container onto one pound of white sugar-lump sugar is recomended-per each pint of juice. Stir until dissolved. Put jar into pot of water, bring latter to a simmer. Skim now and again until it grows clear and no further scum rises. Let it cool and bottle. . . .[sic] When colid it will have a consistency like heavy syrup, and a teaspoon or so diluted in water with cracked ice makes one of the mist delicately flavooured summer thirst quenchers in the world. Fine for children, invalids; non-alcoholic, and one fo the few non-alcoholic drinks worth touching besides water, milk, tea and coffee.

The smell is distinctly vinegar but once diluted with soda water it is really tart and refreshing. A big sprig of mint as Baker suggest would help mask the smell for those who might be turned off by the scent.

[Sarabeth]

I'm so glad I found this thread! In France this summer I bought some apricot vinegar after having it as part of an excellent vinaigrette the night before. I hadn't even thought about using it in a drink.

[andiesenji]

I've got a jar of that lemon shandy going now, since I had happily just bought and scrubbed a bag of lemons originally intended for roasted lemonade.

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How is your jar of shandy doing? I started a jar the following day and it is bubbling merrily. It has been extremely hot here but the temp in my pantry hasn't gotten over 85 degrees. I have yet to turn on my A/C as I also have 2 evaporative coolers (AKA "swamp" coolers) on the roof that use very little energy compared to refrigerated A/C.)

While listening to Melinda Lee today, she mentioned several ways of using summer fruits and has the recipes up on her website:

Melinda Lee recipes

She is on KNX1070 from 8 a.m. to 12 noon every Saturday and Sunday and if you are interested, you can listen online. She does a great job answering questions from callers as well as her prepared segments.

Food News?

[Ktepi]

How is your jar of shandy doing?  I started a jar the following day and it is bubbling merrily.  It has been extremely hot here but the temp in my pantry hasn't gotten over 85 degrees.  I have yet to turn on my A/C as I also have 2 evaporative coolers (AKA "swamp" coolers) on the roof that use very little energy compared to refrigerated A/C.)

While listening to Melinda Lee today, she mentioned several ways of using summer fruits and has the recipes up on her website:

Melinda Lee recipes

She is on KNX1070 from 8 a.m. to 12 noon every Saturday and Sunday and if you are interested, you can listen online.  She does a great job answering questions from callers as well as her prepared segments.

Food News?

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Ooh, I'm going to check that out.

Funny you should ask about the shandy, I don't think it's started bubbling yet -- or may have done so today, because I mashed it down and listened closely and thought I could hear something.

It's been very hot here, but my AC's been on as a result, and has maybe kept things too cool. Maybe I should put it over by the stove?

[andiesenji]

I find it "works" best at about 80 to 85 F.

You can always taste it, diluted with a little water, the difference can be from subtle to very pronounced. I don't know how to explain it, the flavor just seems more intense than lemonade with a hint of wine. I think it is because the flavor of the zest is so intense and lemony.

My grandpa liked to have lemon peel or zest mashed with sugar and heated over an alcohol lamp with a tiny bit of water. A measure of bourbon was added to this and it was then strained into a glass. Mostly grandpa drank this with a little seltzer - no ice. However, by the time I was about five, he had begun using ice, at least in the summer.

Many of the friends and neighbors thought we were peculiar, because many of us drank hot tea even in the summer, (in particular my great grandmother) and worse, put milk in our tea. I can remember one of my great uncles exclaiming that he could never put ice in his whiskey - not only would it dilute the spirits, it might cause a "chill on his liver." That always broke me up, I thought it was such a funny remark.

[helenjp]

Haven't tried andiesenji's lemon shandy yet, but the batch of lemon vinegar drink I made 2 weeks ago and left at room temperature to mature is now ready

THIS is the version I'll be making from now on to replace my mother's old favorite, which used citric acid and tartaric acid with boiling water poured over lemon peel and juice. This has more fragrance, and also lacks the harshness of the added acids.

Lemon Shrub

up to 1 lb or 500g sugar

1 pint or 500ml of mild vinegar (good cider vinegar is nice)

1 lb or 500g lemons (peel thinly and reserve. Peel white pith off thickly and discard. Slice peeled fruit, and remove any obvious pips.)

Place peel and fruit with sugar in a clean jar. Pour over vinegar. Close (use a layer of plastic film if the lid is metal) and keep at room temperature for at least 2 weeks (preferably 1-3 months), shaking or stirring regularly to dissolve sugar. Strain out peel and fruit, bottle in clean containers (will keep without refrigeration in my experience) and dilute with 3-5 parts water to drink.

Tomato shrub sounds pretty good too...thanks for the idea!

[Ktepi]

The shandy's coming along! I just had to move it to a warmer part of the kitchen.

Is there a limit to how long I can let it go?

Right now it's very tasty and mild, definitely with that "full lemon" flavor you get from having the oil involved and not just the juice.

[andiesenji]

The shandy's coming along!  I just had to move it to a warmer part of the kitchen.

Is there a limit to how long I can let it go?

Right now it's very tasty and mild, definitely with that "full lemon" flavor you get from having the oil involved and not just the juice.

←

I have been offline for a couple of days - power out and thunderstorms - I don't like to run the computer with generator power.

I just keep adding more lemons and sugar, perhaps some boiling water, 1/2 to one cup and mashing the solids down with a scalded potato masher or ladle. Between the acid and the sugar, and even with the low level of alcohol, it isn't easy for harmful organisms to get a toehold.

Once I start a batch, I usually keep it going for a couple of months. I use a 2-gallon jar.

Edited July 29, 2006 by andiesenji (log)

[helenjp]

Gosh, I have a strong desire to make andiesenji's lemon shrub with Japanese sudachi.

I thought this topic needed a revival, prompted by the vinegar topic elsewhere, and by a nice cool drink of a very mellow and refreshing lemon/ginger/green shiso vinegar drink I made in 2008.

There's a promising recipe on the Mitsukan vinegar site for orange/tea sour...200 ml cider vinegar, 100g peeled orange, in slices,1 tea bag (let's say 1 tsp tea leaves) and 200g rock/candy sugar, left to sit in a jar, and inverted occasionally. Add about 5 parts water to 1 part drink base when serving.

I haven't made the matured version, but it works out OK (though less mellow) in an unsweetened quick-mix version too.

[tangaloor]

I've been making a slightly sour, spritzy summer drink with Tibicos (also known as "water kefir"). These little active culture grains transform sugar-water (with whatever fruits you enjoy) into a lovely carbonated, shrubbish beverage. Strawberries are lovely in summer, ginger makes a great winter drink.

You can find them commercially online, or you may be able to score some for free locally. They act in the same way as kefir grains, but in sugar water rather than milk. The longer you leave them in, the more sour & less sweet the end result. In an airtight container you'll get a carbonated drink, but watch the pressure.