The Shrub Formula

How to make any shrub; plus 2 fun recipes

We had our first family camping trip last weekend. We were supposed to leave on Friday, but the skies threatened thunderstorms all afternoon so we decided to wait until Saturday. I dragged all our stuff together in the morning and was about to start loading the car, but then many things happened in quick succession: a dead mouse (Laika’s freshest kill), a rusty nail, Urgent Care, a big poop blowout in the car seat. And more rain throughout. We finally arrived at the campsite around 5pm. We set up the tents and filled the larger one with soft things. Miro climbed in and demanded Kira. I laid her down next to him on a yoga mat and zipped them in together. I opened a beer. For a moment, we sat. There were birds, there were Miro-shrieks and Kira-chuckles from the tent, there was wind in the leaves. Every heavy-heart-making thing was still there but subdued by what was around us.

All of which is to say, it’s finally summer. Stone fruit is coming up from the south and strawberries finally taste like strawberries. I spent a lot of last summer making shrubs but never wrote up a technical post about it, so that’s what I’m sharing this week. You can follow my Shrub Formula for making a shrub out of most anything or (if you’re a paid subscriber) try one of the two recipes below: strawberry pink peppercorn or bell pepper thyme.

A shrub is essentially a fruit (or vegetable) juice mixed with sugar and vinegar and left to sit a little while. It’s not quite fermenting, since you’re adding the vinegar, but a little fermentation occurs. Some shrub-makers try hard to avoid any amount of oxidation that happens through cutting or (shudder) blending the fruit; this is most obvious with fruits like apples that turn brown as they oxidize, but most fruits are oxidizing to some extent. I tried to find a balance, sometimes cutting up produce before I mixed it with sugar (which draws out its liquid) and sometimes using a food processor, especially for tough produce like celery and fennel. You may see some shrub recipes for a “hot method” but I always use a cold, gentler extraction, which I think creates a clearer flavor.

And while shrub purists like to capture only the flavor of a fruit, I found that I liked to make a mix: one fruit/vegetable and some kind of herb or spice to make it more interesting. Some of my creations included grape cinnamon, asian pear shiso, and fennel bay leaf. I wrote up many of these recipes as part of a project that never really got off the ground, so if you like these and want more, please click the ❤️ button and/or let me know!

A rhubarb-sumac shrub I made for my event at CPW next week

The Shrub Formula

• ½ cup (100 grams) white sugar

• 1-2 tablespoons spice/herb/complementary flavoring (see Note)

• 1 - 1.5 lbs fruit (see Note)

• ½ cup (120 grams) vinegar (see Note)

Notes

• Additional flavors I’ve added to shrubs: fresh herbs like basil, rosemary, shiso. Dried spices like sumac, juniper, caraway, cinnamon, cardamom, pink or black peppercorn. Use less of something finely ground (like ground cinnamon) and more of something loosely packed (like fresh basil).

• For water-rich fruit like strawberries, 1 lb should be enough to get plenty of fruit taste (some recipes I’ve seen use half that — I like the fruit to come across quite strongly in mine). For less watery produce, like rhubarb or fennel, I like to go with 1.5 lbs produce and up to ⅓ cup water.

• I’ve experimented widely with different vinegars: While apple cider vinegar is classic (and potentially local, if you’re in my region), I think rice vinegar is more neutral when you don’t want any added fruitiness. Champagne vinegar is fun and and a little more mellow; white and red wine vinegar are good for most applications. For some recipes, I’d also squeeze half a lemon into the measuring cup and then fill up to the ½ cup mark with vinegar.

Method

1. In a mortar and pestle, pound the spices or herbs together with the sugar until broken up and well-distributed.

2. Clean a large (~2 quart) jar or glass bowl.

3. If the produce is soft (berries, stone fruits), add it to the jar whole or in slices. If the produce is harder (like bell pepper or any kind of stalk), remove any stems/seeds and briefly pulse in the food processor, adding up to ⅓ cup water if necessary. Scrape into the jar.

4. Add the sugar and vinegar to the jar/bowl. Either stir it all together or close the jar lid and shake it up.

5. Leave in the fridge for 2-7 days. Shake the jar every now and then or give the mix a stir.

6. Strain out the solids. A food mill works best (though I still run the remaining liquid through a fine sieve), or you can work the mixture through a nut-milk bag or flour-sack kitchen towel, which takes a lot of wringing with strong hands.

7. Pour the liquid into another glass container (a jar, or a swing-top bottle) and store in the fridge. The shrub will be best after a week or so but will store for a long time (after 6 months I think the taste isn’t as great). You can also use hot water canning to preserve the shrubs for longer, though I won’t go into that process here.

Recipes for Strawberry Pink Peppercorn Shrub and Bell Pepper Thyme Shrub below!