Cold-Process Blackberry Shrub
5 cups blackberries, gently rinsed
4 cups sugar
4 cups balsamic vinegar
Combine blackberries and sugar, stirring to produce some juice and coat berries. Cover and chill for 24 hours. Strain out the berries, gently pressing out any remaining juice. whisk in the vinegar, stirring until most of the sugar dissolves. Pour into a clean glass bottle and chill for 4 weeks before using.
Notes:
The original recipe called for red wine vinegar. I checked at the store, and what they had was the same acidity as the balsamic I used, 6%, so the result should be much the same (I'm just not that fond of the whole spoiled grape thing).
In my attempt, most of the sugar settled to the bottom of the berry glop, so at the very least you should probably give the berries a good stir before straining them.
I used my usual pseudo jelly bag technique like I did last year making blackberry juice concentrate, letting it drip all evening.
Next time I think I'll try mixing some of the vinegar into the berries before straining them to see if I can dissolve more of the sugar. My result seems sweet enough (before aging), so possibly some of the sugar is supposed to be filtered out with the berries. More experimentation is definitely called for!
Adapted from Port and Fin
So in a month or so, I'll be ready to try:
Blackberry-rum shrub
4 Tbsp. dark rum
1 Tbsp. blackberry shrub syrup
club soda to taste
Combine ingredients and serve over ice.
Adapted from Saveur
Esperanta traduko: this post is also available in Esperanto, because Dana is a language geek.
