Raspberry Shrub

In the 1830 edition of The Frugal Housewife (Boston), there is a recipe for a drink concentrate called Raspberry Shrub.  It is mentioned as a good way to use the abundance of raspberries, although in other cookery books, recipes for shrub are often found using citrus fruits. 
 


As raspberry season is just starting, I thought it was a good time to try this recipe.   I used frozen berries though because of ease and they were on sale.   I used plain white vinegar but I think cider vinegar would have been nice as well.  It is sweeter and fruitier than regular white vinegar.   I've seen modern recipes using white wine and champagne vinegars as well.

I put the raspberries in a pot.  I poured vinegar over them until they were just covered and hadn't really started to float yet.   I heated them slightly, until barely lukewarm, so that the berries would start to thaw and meld with the vinegar.   After a few hours, I strained the now mushy berries through a jelly bag.   I squished it thoroughly, knowing that it might make the juice a bit cloudy.   I didn't want to waste any of the raspberry flavour and I was impatient to finish up this project.  When I had gotten as much juice out of the pulp as possible, I measured out the raspberry /vinegar mixture and added the same amount of sugar.   There was about 5 cups of vinegar so, I added 5 cups of sugar.    I heated it until the sugar was completely dissolved.   I poured it into sterilized mason jars and set it into the fridge to keep.

Raspberry Shrub - so pretty and tasty

When it was fresh, the vinegar was still a bit acrid.  The next day though, the vinegar was taking a backseat to the sweet raspberry flavour.  A week and a half later, the vinegar is hardly noticeable, but the raspberry flavour is outstanding.   Only 2 tablespoons are needed to flavour 500 mls of water.  It has a noticeable raspberry flavour, but not overtly strong or cloyingly sweet.   The vinegar is only tasted when you use way too much of the syrup.

I had some extra cherries so I tried a modern shrub recipe.   It uses equal parts of fruit, sugar and vinegar.   I pitted and chopped 2 cups of cherries and stirred in 2 cups of sugar.   I set them in a covered container in the fridge for 2 days before I strained out the cherry pulp.  I heated the cherry sugar mixture to dissolve the sugar and added 2 cups of vinegar.   It is a tasty combination as well.