With the very last of our sour cherries, we decided to go for a shrub, otherwise known as a drinking vinegar.
These were quite popular long ago, but had fallen out of favor until the cocktail cognoscenti decided to explore them. They’re tart, refreshing and, well, good for your gut.
We found a good recipe to get us started on the blog Everybody Likes Sandwiches. Greg put it together and we sipped it to welcome in our long July Fourth weekend.
We tried it with both gin and bourbon (2 ounces of booze, one of shrub and one of seltzer) and preferred the bourbon. Try both and let us know!
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:52]
Sour Cherry Shrub
By Everybody Likes Sandwiches
2 1/2 cups sour cherries, pitted
2 cups sugar
Zest of 1 lime
1 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups raw apple cider vinegar
Pinch of kosher salt (optional)
1/2 teaspoons citric acid (optional)
Add the cherries, along with the sugar, lime zest and almond extract into a large 1-litre wide-mouth mason jar. Let sit at room temperature for a day or two or three (I did 3 days), giving the jar a shake and a stir occasionally to help melt the sugar. When the sugar has melted (no grains, ma!), use a fine mesh strainer placed over a bowl to strain the syrup from the cherries. Use a rubber spatula or your favourite implement of choice to press out all the syrup. Reserve the spent cherries for another use (mixed into yogurt is a delicious suggestion). Whisk in the apple cider along with the salt and citric acid into the cherry syrup and return the shrub into a clean, large glass mason jar. Will keep in the fridge for a couple of months, but it probably won’t last that long. While the shrub is ready to drink immediately, its flavour will change over the course of a few days. Makes approximately a half jar of syrup.
To serve, mix 1 part shrub with 3 to 4 parts water or soda. Enjoy!
