Why is this even happening?!
As y’all know, I live in the Houston metroplex, so you probably also know it’s been as hot as the sun, even relative to normal Houston Hell-Summers, basically the whole summer. The whole summer has been August, except for a few days in actual August. Because I am routinely concerned about both Ross and Child Tester’s hydration levels, I have been more so these last few months. I decided the easiest way to fix this was to start making shrubs and agua fresca pretty much constantly.
I shot myself in the foot, y’all. Ross is hooked. Hooked in ways that make it very difficult to keep fruit in the house for not-shrub. He likes the agua fresca, but not like the shrubs. CT and I prefer the agua fresca but like the shrubs.
At this point I am putting up an average of one jar per day to ferment, so it seemed reasonable for me to just go on ahead and write it up for y’all.
What is a shrub?
A shrub is a fruit (sometimes with vegetables like rhubarb used instead of fruit, and also sometimes with herbs added in) that’s been macerated in an equal volume of sugar (often mashed together) and left to sit overnight. After straining the juice, you then add vinegar in the same amount as you have juice. These are mixed together and served diluted with water as an electrolyte drink so pre-modern peoples could survive hot summers more easily. And also because they taste good.
In basically every instance, historically, the vinegar being used was going to be raw, which also makes this a probiotic/fermented drink.
Better instructions on how to make this the traditional way
(but not with measurements)
Get out whatever fruit you like. If it’s a big fruit, bigger than a blackberry, go on ahead and cut your fruit up. I find that dicing the fruit makes better shrub than chopping, even if you muddle the fruit, because the smaller pieces speed the process along and with more flavor. Once that’s been done, you can measure out how much you’ve got, or you can eyeball it like I do. Put it in some kind of container - I generally just use a bowl if I’m making it the traditional way. Then add the same or roughly same amount of sugar to it. I personally like to muddle this a bit, because it helps the fruit release its juices. If it’s been a rough day, I muddle rather a lot. You do you.
Let that sit out overnight, covered, or until you get to it the next day. The amount of sugar in there means you’re not going to have problems with mold growth, and certainly not during such a short period, because it’s legitimately a crazy amount of sugar. Then, strain and filter (if needed/desired) the fruit. I like to use cloth or a strainer bag for this so I can squeeze the dickens out of it to get all the juice out. Once you’ve done that, measure (or not) your juice and add that much apple cider vinegar to it. Distilled can also be used (no probiotics), and it leaves the shrub with an acidic and sugary version of what the fruit actually tastes like. ACV obviously has a flavor, so the shrub tastes like that plus sugary fruit.
I recommend starting with around a tablespoon added to a glass of water. If it’s too weak, add more. This is all done to taste, so you do what makes your mouth happiest.
My method (largely in narrative)
My method is borne of laziness as well as a desire to not have to constantly make ACV. I really prefer to just make vinegar 1-2 times per year, and this would not have worked in a way that would allow Ross to maintain his devotion to shrubs without creating what I consider to be an excessive workload for me. So I decided to ferment the sugar and the fruit so there are probiotics and more electrolytes otherwise not available without the vinegar. At first, I really thought I’d at least add some vinegar, but that changed after the first batch was done.
We planted honeydew this year, and they grew to be about the size of two grocery store honeydews each. As I harvested them (more are on the way omg), the way these got used not-so-gradually started to skew toward agua fresca making, because I’d already dehydrated plenty, frozen plenty, eaten plenty, was tired of the plenty, and so we drank the melons. Some of this also went to normal method shrub, but it increasingly felt like a never-ending cycle of work, so the first fermented batch was of honeydew.
I cut up the equivalent of a grocery store-sized one and blended it with some water (like I do with agua fresca), and then I poured that in and added roughly an equal volume of sugar. I’m using less sugar for the most part, now, and generally it’s 2-3 parts fruit to 1 part sugar now. Anyway, I sealed it up and just left it there for somewhere in the 3-7 day range. I’m honestly not sure, because as y’all know, I often forget I have these little experiments going. When I opened the container, though? No. No vinegar needed. This clearly smelled of active and strong fermentation, which provides the needed “funk” the vinegar otherwise would be supplying. I didn’t even add a drop. Instead, I strained out the fruit per above, jarred it, and let Ross get at it. Store these in the fridge, because like all ferments, refrigeration slows, rather than stopping, fermentation
He vastly prefers these at this point. So much so that he generally mixes a gallon at a time, per the photo. I no longer ever am concerned about his hydration.
Regular batches
Okay, so here’s the deal. If y’all like these after you try them, know that you need to plan ahead if you want to have a regular supply. I recommend having 2+ batches fermenting at a time. As you can see, he goes through them at a rapid enough rate that I’ve upped my game.
Take advantage of weekly sales to plan which fruits you’ll use from week-to-week. Watermelon is dirt cheap? Yay watermelon shrubs! Peaches? Go nuts! Cherries? Oooo! Oranges? Yep them too! Cucumbers on sale? Go full salon-style with your shrubs (these are good with mint, by the way, and mint is also good with watermelon).
This can become prohibitively expensive if you don’t take advantage of weekly sales and manager special discounts.
If you forage and/or garden? Foraged and home grown fruits ferments just the same as grocery store fruits do. You also get a more interesting set of options than just the fruits that sell well in your area. The prickly pear shrub in the pitcher and little jar was from wild-foraged fruits. In the spring, there will be lots of loquat, dewberry and mulberry shrubs, because those are readily available for foraging. Winter may see rosehip shrubs. I don’t really know what’s gonna happen, but if there’s fruit growing where you can access it safely and legally, may as well pick and shrub it!
Happy shrubbing!
