Black Cherry Balsamic Shrub

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Wash and remove the stems from the cherries.
  2. Put the cherries into the wide mouthed glass jar
  3. Put the sugar into the jar.
  4. Use muddler to crush up the cherries, releasing juice, mixing things up with the sugar. Be sure that every cherry has been broken open.
  5. Stir the cherry-sugar mixture together until all of the sugar has been moistened by the cherry juice.
  6. Seal the jar and let sit in a cool place to macerate for at least 24 and up to 48 hours. Monitor the mixture during for signs of fermentation. If it looks like it’s starting to ferment add up to 125 grams (one half) of the cider vinegar to arrest this process.
  7. After maceration is complete, add the cider vinegar (or what remains of it), the balsamic vinegar, the cinnamon quills and the cracked black peppercorns to the jar, seal and shake well. Store in a cool place for at least 7 and as long as 10 days. Over the next day or so you should aim to get all the remaining sugar crystals dissolved by shaking a few times a day. This also helps you to form a bond with your new shrub.
  8. Strain the contents of the jar into a sufficiently large non-reactive bowl. Press as much liquid as possible from what remains of he cherries.
  9. Set up your funnel with a couple of layers of cheesecloth and pour (or ladle) the shrubb into your bottle (or bottles) for storage.
  10. You are done. Clean up and get ready to make some cocktails.

NOTE: the cheesecloth will still let a lot of very fine fruit particles pass. I think there’s a lot of flavor in them particles so this doesn’t bother me. As the shrub stands, these particles will settle out so I give my shrub a good shake before using it for a cocktail. I suppose it could be decanted – and maybe I’ll try that at some point to see how it affects the flavor. I’ll let you know.

NOTE: some slight froth is normal and does not indicate fermentation. That would be indicated by observing the formation and rise of small bubbles and the build up of CO2 gas in the jar. Also a little fermentation isn’t a bad thing but you don’t want it to get out of control as you are not making wine.

Nutritional Facts

Calories

0 cal

Fat

0 g

Saturated Fat

0 g

Cholesterol

0 mg

Sodium

0 mg

Carbohydrates

0 g

Sugars

0 g

Fiber

0 g

Protein

0 g


CategoryRecipesDrinks

Recipes/BlackCherryBalsamicShrub (last edited 2020-06-30 06:02:53 by MikeCrute)