When you think of a delicious thirst quenching beverage you probably don't think
vinegar but
that is exactly what this raspberry shrub from 1911 is.
So thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring this video as we make shrub
this time on Drinking History.
There are many versions of shrub, they can be made with pretty much any berry or fruit,
and they can be either part of a non-alcoholic or an alcoholic beverage.
This recipe from 'Good Things To Eat' as suggested by Rufus
by the first African-American celebrity chef Rufus Estes is made with raspberry and says
"Put one quart of ripe raspberries in a bowl, add two cups of vinegar, mash the berries slightly,
and let stand overnight. In the morning, scald and strain until clear.
Measure, and to each cup of juice add one cup of sugar, boil twenty minutes and seal."
So that is the recipe for shrub which actually isn't the beverage itself but
simply a syrup that is usually mixed with other liquids like
water, or sometimes rum, or other spirits.
And this is one of the new recipes that I've included in the Tasting History cookbook,
an excellent Father's Day gift if you still haven't got one. ;)
And in it I suggest making it with sparkling water but like I said you can make it with pretty much anything
and adding a little gin at the end doesn't hurt at all.
So for this recipe we're what you'll need is: one quart or 700 grams of fresh ripe raspberries,
two cups or 475 milliliters of white wine vinegar.
You could also use apple cider vinegar but I have found that the color at the end is not as pretty.
To that end don't use any kind of dark vinegar like a balsamic vinegar.
That's not going to work, and don't use white distilled vinegar
because the flavor is going to be all off and frankly not very good then.
Then three cups or 600 grams of sugar.
So first put the raspberries in a small saucepan and mash the berries just enough so there are no full berries left.
You don't need to mash it up like into a puree but it does needto be mashed fairly well
so it can release all of its wonderful flavors into the white wine vinegar as you pour that on top.
Then give it a couple more mashes and cover the saucepan and let it sit for at least 12 hours.
You can let it sit for really as long as you want up to a day or a couple days but at least 12 hours
otherwise you're gonna just end up with vinegar.
Now after 12 hours of sitting uncover the saucepan and set it
over a medium heat and bring to a boil.
Let it boil for just one minute and then remove it from the heat,
and pour the mixture through a sieve into a larger saucepan.
You want to gently press as much juice out as you can but you don't want
any pieces of the raspberry to actually go through the sieve so just be gentle.
If something does go through the sieve just pass it through again, you want a nice clear liquid.
Then add the sugar and whisk it until mostly dissolved, and then set the pan over a medium low heat and bring to a simmer,
and simmer for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally. You just want to make sure that all of the sugar is nice and dissolved
and that it turns into a syrup.
And once it's simmered for 20 minutes remove it from the heat and let it cool completely.
And there you have your drinking vinegar,
and while that may sound weird let me assure you vinegar-based beverages have been around for a very long time.
Since wine has existed so too has wine vinegar
but as it turned into vinegar people would still drink it
and it was thought to actually be rather healthy.
Drinks like posca which I've made here on the channel were the go-to thirst quencher for ancient Roman legionaries,
and in ancient Persia and still modern-day Iran they make a drink called sekanjabin
which is made with vinegar and mint and is considered quite refreshing.
And the syrup that that is made with is just one in a whole line
of what are called sharbat coming from the old Arabic word 'šarāb' which means drink.
Now this old word šarāb not only gave the Persians sharbat but the Turkish sherbet,
the French sorbet, and even the English word syrup by way of medieval Latin.
And of course it also gave us the word shrub,
at least when it's referring to the syrup or the drink,
rather than a shrubbery like the one that the Knights Who Say Ni wanted.
"It is a good shrubbery."
Now while the ancient Persian version of the drink was often made with vinegar it wasn't always so.
Sometimes it was made with citrus and the acidic syrup was used
as a way to preserve other fruits for a long period.
And rather than mixing it into a drink sometimes it was poured over snow similar to a modern day snow cone,
and that was probably what ended up coming to Europe in the late Middle Ages and became very popular
in 16th century Italy and France.
From here we get sorbetto, sorbet,
and early versions of gelato and even ice cream
but under the name shrub it was a beverage and that is what ended up becoming popular
in 17th and early 18th century England where
it was often mixed with things like wine, brandy, or even rum.
In fact sometimes the sugar was dispensed with altogether
and it was just a drink of citrus and rum.
In 1747 even though citrus's connection with preventing scurvy was still not accepted by the British Navy
The Gentleman's Magazine nonetheless spoke of the necessity for citrus aboard ships
but "If this is not so feasible, a mixture of lemon juice and rum (shrub as they call it)
may be carried in any quantity, as it will keep a long time,
and would prove infinitely more wholesome than the nasty fiery poisonous spirits,
which are dealt about so largely in the navy and elsewhere".
Now precisely what spirits he's talking about there I'm not entirely sure but
it may have been gin because at that time London was going through the London Gin Craze,
and it was being blamed for all sorts of horrible things like people's deaths and their desire to commit infanticide.
And I did a whole video on that it is a fascinating time in English history,
but it was really strictly limited to gin because rum didn't have the same stigma,
and so rum is actually one of the ingredients in this author's version of shrub.
And drinking alcohol in general seems to have been a good thing as he recommends
"Every sailor should have at least a pint of cider a day, besides beer and water.
And I would advise also a frequent and free use of vinegar in the seamen's diet,
especially when the provisions begin to grow rancid."
So should your meat turn gray and worms infest your hardtack
[clack clack]
a little vinegar will do you good.
He also talks of the ancient Roman soldiers drinking posca or
wine vinegar diluted in water or wine.
And he says that if it's good enough for a Roman soldier
"Why should we not have as much regard to that of a British sailor,
who is altogether as brave and as useful to the commonwealth?"
Though it seems that in the British Navy shrub ended up
kind of losing out to a far more complex way of imbibing citrus and rum and that was punch
which deserves an entire video all of its own.
Now even as its popularity began to decline in England
shrub was all the rage in the 13 colonies,
though we colonists couldn't always afford or get our hands on good citrus like lemons, and limes
and so we replaced it with vinegar.
One recipe from 1695 called for
"a little vinegar or verjuice or limon juice or lime juice, which of them you can get."
Colonial America seems to have really embraced the vinegar-based beverage because there was another drink called switchel
which was again made with vinegar but instead of fruit
the main flavor was usually ginger or other spices,
and that also deserves an entire video of its own.
Now in the mid 19th century with the Temperance movement in full swing
these vinegar shrubs dropped the rum and instead became more like the shrubs of ancient Persia
just flavored vinegar.
And by the mid 20th century shrub had really lost popularity in general
mainly due to the fact that now you could preserve fruits
using like refrigeration and other preservation methods and
you had things like soft drinks Coke and Pepsi and and whatnot
to satisfy that sweet tooth without having to drink vinegar.
But in the last 15 or 20 years shrub has really made a come back and is now
a common thing to see on hipster cocktail menus all over or in the Tasting History cookbook.
So once your shrub has cooled then you can drink it as is
usually over ice but if you prefer, and I prefer, I would add
a little sparkling water and mix it all together
and here we are Rufus Estes' raspberry shrub.
So first off, the color it's so beautiful.
This is about a half cup of the of the syrup
and then I filled it up the rest of the way with sparkling water,
just a gorgeous color. It does take a little stirring to get it to
mix completely because it is like a thick syrup,
the shrub is so they don't necessarily want to want to combine but you can force it.
Also as you're cooking shrub your house will smell like vinegar BUT this drink
it doesn't smell like vinegar at all. Really all that your left with
is that kind of sweet raspberry flavor which is is very nice.
Here we go.
Hm!
The texture is- the mouth feel, is really what I love.
It's not syrupy but it's really smooth,
because there's syrup in it, so it's just this really smooth drink,
and the first thing that hits is that raspberry and it's very sweet and it's like oh wow
a lot of raspberry flavor is there,
and then you get that acidic punch from the vinegar
but not unpleasantly so. You don't get like
that part of vinegar that makes your nose sting, it's just the the acid.
Almost like a- well like a, kind of a sweet and sour cocktail like you might get with a good lemon drop or something like that.
You get that wonderful combination of of the sweet and then the sour but they're almost-
almost separate.
Now this is a wonderful refreshing drink for summer. It's just- it's delightful but
couldn't hurt to have a little gin added in there because it is usually or very often
an alcoholic drink and you could put rum in there, just put a little bit, and then stir it in.
You can put rum in there, or vodka really whatever you want but I like gin.
This is Saint George Botanivor gin, they sent me this. Thank you Saint George.
Absolutely delicious I'll put a link in the description to where you can get that if you want it.
Yeah that's good.
Just adds like another little layer of flavor and now it's alcoholic.
It's good.
So I actually am thinking of of making this shrub and some other shrubs and bottling it,
and selling it because it is kind of a- you know it's
who wants their house to smell like vinegar but I think that these deserve to have a comeback so I am thinking
of bottling it and selling it and I would do that on my new website which is still in the works
that tastinghistory.com website that I am building with some help from Squarespace who is our sponsor today.
And if I do sell products Squarespace makes it easy to sell products online
either physical or digital they have a powerful suite of tools to manage orders inventory and
even bookkeeping and they offer the ability to set up email campaigns so that you can connect
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blogging tools that will allow me to keep all of my recipes there on the tasting history website
I'm really really excited it is still a work in progress but my goal is to have it up by the end of this summer
so if you also want to start a website go to squarespace.com for a free trial
and when you are ready to launch then go to squarespace.com/tastinghistory for 10% off of
your first purchase of a website or domain and I will see you next time on Drinking History.